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What is a two bay NAS device?

I read the Super User 1 Year Anniversary Super Contest post about a contest. And one of the prizes is a two bay NAS device.

I don't think I'll make any awesome question or answer but I'm curious to know what is a two bay NAS device.

How do I connect VLC to a known DLNA server?

I have VLC on my Mac and would like to connect to a DLNA server on my LAN but the server isn't showing up in VLC's UPnP auto-discovery UI. Given the IP address of the server how can I point VLC to it explicitly so it can be 'discovered'?

Permanently map a network drive on Mac OS X Leopard

I want to have a mapped drive in Mac OS X which points to my NAS - however I've found that I have to do it after every single reboot.

I'm a Mac noob, so would like to just have the drive mapped at all times like Windows does, but instead each time I reboot and forget to map the drive, I accidentally open iTunes and find no music as it's all stored on my NAS!

Is there a simple way of doing this? Have I missed something really silly?

Is ZFS and RAID-Z worth using in home made NAS (freeNAS for example)

Features of ZFS and RAID-Z look vary promising. Looks like it is a perfect FS for home NAS solutions, poor man's Drobo things and alike.

Are there any drawbacks I should be aware of?

Is Windows Home Server compelling enough over free NAS OS's?

Has anyone out there run Windows Home Server for a while? I'm building a NAS box and I'm wondering if its features are compelling enough to warrant purchasing rather than the open source alternatives (ie, FreeNAS, OpenFiler)

Also share if you have any issues accessing from non-NTFS sources, Mac, Linux, etc.

Why does my network file copy speed form a wave?

With the upgrade to Windows 10 I've now got this nice graph when copying files.

When I copy a single large file the speed always takes this reasonably consistent wave shape. What causes that?

The connection is

My PC <- cable -> gigabit switch <- cable -> Netgear ReadyNAS

Files are copying via SMB, this graph shows one such copy over about a minute:

There's no problem here, I just want to understand how things work.

How do I build a DIY NAS?

I'm looking for good, detailed instructions on how to build a DIY NAS (Network Access Storage). I'm planning on doing it cheap (old PC config + open source software). But not too cheap either. I'm ok with investing in a RAID card setup if you think that's advisable.

I would like to know:

• What hardware I need to build one
  • What kind of hard-drive setup I should take (like RAID cards)
  • Or any other relevant hardware specific advices (power supply, motherboard, fans etc...)
• What software I should run on it, both what OS and software to manage the contents effectively
  • So the NAS is recognizable and accessible to my network
  • I can make sure my Windows computers will recognize it (when using Linux distro's)
  • I can access my files from outside my network
• What I'm trying to accomplish
  • I'm looking to use this as a share hub at home. That being said, should be robust enough to handle a "big" home ;) say 5-6 desktops.
  • primary goal is essentially to store and access all my home/family's media in one common safe location.Types of files include media/movies/music/videos/documents etc. (Streaming would be a big +).
  • backup is critical. All my data needs to be kept in safe location. Should any of the comps go down or under the formatting knife, I want the media available at all times in a safe location.
  • A good balance between storage/redundancy/speed? Neither a university/corporate setup sized setup nor a 2 pc powered home setup. :)

To sum it up: The ultimate DIY geek built home purpose NAS. If such a thing exists.

I did a fair bit of searching and found these links:

Ubuntu

• Setting up a Home NAS
• DIY NAS Smackdown
• How to Configure an File Server in 45 Minutes

FreeNAS

• Build a NAS Device With an Old PC and Free Software
• Build Your Own NAS Device

While these links are great, they don't have detailed instructions with regards to reasoning and how the build was approached. I'm looking for more instructions and detailed recommendations at each stage, including the software instructions.

SSH with no password (passwordless) on Synology DSM 5 as other (non-root) user

I'm trying to ssh into my Synology disk station without a password (public key authentication), but as non-root.

When I try to ssh as root without password, it works. Following the exact same steps for another user doesn't work. It always asks for password (also, using a password works too).

I have followed every guide out there for this, but I think they're all for DSM 4.x rather than for the new 5.0 version.

SSH debug log

Here's the debug log when I try with -vvv flag:

aether@aether-desktop:~$ ssh -vvv aether@aether-ds.local
OpenSSH_6.2p2 Ubuntu-6ubuntu0.2, OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to aether-ds.local [192.168.2.149] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug3: Incorrect RSA1 identifier
debug3: Could not load "/home/aether/.ssh/id_rsa" as a RSA1 public key
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_rsa type 1
debug1: Checking blacklist file /usr/share/ssh/blacklist.RSA-2048
debug1: Checking blacklist file /etc/ssh/blacklist.RSA-2048
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/aether/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.2p2 Ubuntu-6ubuntu0.2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.8p1-hpn13v11
debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.8p1-hpn13v11 pat OpenSSH_5*
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug3: load_hostkeys: loading entries for host "aether-ds.local" from file "/home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: load_hostkeys: found key type RSA in file /home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com,ssh-rsa
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com,ssh-rsa,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-dss-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-dss-cert-v00@openssh.com,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,ssh-dss
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96-etm@openssh.com,hmac-md5-96-etm@openssh.com,hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96-etm@openssh.com,hmac-md5-96-etm@openssh.com,hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,zlib@openssh.com,zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,zlib@openssh.com,zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: reserved 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-ripemd160@openssh.com,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,zlib@openssh.com
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,zlib@openssh.com
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: reserved 0 
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA f1:57:47:37:47:d4:5c:cd:a7:a4:5a:9c:a3:e8:1d:13
debug3: load_hostkeys: loading entries for host "aether-ds.local" from file "/home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: load_hostkeys: found key type RSA in file /home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys
debug3: load_hostkeys: loading entries for host "192.168.2.149" from file "/home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: load_hostkeys: found key type RSA in file /home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts:2
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys
debug1: Host 'aether-ds.local' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/aether/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug2: kex_derive_keys
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug2: key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_rsa (0x7f4ee2f47200),
debug2: key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_dsa ((nil)),
debug2: key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_ecdsa ((nil)),
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey,password
debug3: preferred gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_lookup publickey
debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_rsa
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Trying private key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_dsa
debug3: no such identity: /home/aether/.ssh/id_dsa: No such file or directory
debug1: Trying private key: /home/aether/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug3: no such identity: /home/aether/.ssh/id_ecdsa: No such file or directory
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup password
debug3: remaining preferred: ,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled password
debug1: Next authentication method: password
aether@aether-ds.local's password: 

Any help appreciated.

Things I've tried so far

• Check /etc/ssh/sshd_config (RSAAuthentication, PubkeyAuthentication, AuthorizedKeysFile).
• Check .ssh/* perms and ownership. Tried several combinations.
• Check HOME var in ~/.profile.
• Restarted sshd via synoservicectl --restart sshd and by restarting whole NAS.

How to read external USB hard drive formatted ext3 from Windows 7?

I had to format a USB hard drive to ext3 to use it with a Linksys nas box. Now I can't read the hd when I unplug it from the nas and plug it directly into my Windows 7 computer. (The computer accesses the nas over a wireless connection, so I like to plug the hd directly into my pc when transferring large files.)

How can I leave the hd formatted with ext3 and yet be able to access it (read/write) when I plug it directly into my pc?

Mini-ITX Case that would take ~6 SATA Hard Drives [closed]

Thinking about maybe building my own NAS. I would go with Raid 5, and would like maybe about 6 SATA drives:

• There a mini atx case that can hold this many drives (Non-Rack ideally)
• What sort of power will I need?
• Any way this won't be pretty loud?

Shrink RAID by removing a disk?

I have a Synology NAS with 12 bays. Initially, we decided to allocate all 12 disks for a single RAID-6 volume, but now we would like to shrink the volume to use only 10 disks and assign two HDDs as spares.

The Volume Manager Wizard can easily expand the volume by adding hard disks, but I have found no way to shrink the volume by removing hard disks. How can I do that without having to reinitialize the whole system?

NAS + Hard Drives + US Customs = World of Pain? [closed]

I'm coming to the US for work in a few weeks, for a year or so and just had an awful thought.

I remember reading a while ago that US customs are searching through peoples laptops and hard drives. Now I have nothing to worry about as I don't have p**n, etc on my computer/hard drives but I will have trouble proving that the movies, programs and music are paid for.

Essentially, I'm an IT geek and because of the amount I move, I have copied all my DVD's (about 350) and music (5000 songs plus - combination of CD's and paid for content) onto my external portable NAS - its like a mini portable media center and file server. Also I'm a software developer and have lots legitimate MSDN ISO's - but to someone who doesn't know any better they could look illigal.

The problem is I think that to an over eager customs officer they will think all the Christmases have come at once if they start looking at my drive. Also because I'm paranoid about loosing data I have multiple drives (ones that backup the others) and I'm worried that this makes me conspicuous (i.e. my little NAS box) and a target if my baggage is xrayed...

Any ideas on what I can do or if I have anything to worry about???? How do you prove that what you have is legitimate - I feel like I'm guilty until proven innocent.... If it makes a difference I'm coming into the US from Australia.

Cheers

EDIT:

Here is another question - has anyone ever done what I am wanting to do and got into trouble or had no issues (i.e. if customs did pull you up they just looked at the music and movies and didn't care)...

Also does anyone think its worth ringing US customs directly and telling them what the deal is and see what they have to say? Or would this just be raising a flag against my profile - I can't believe this is making me this paranoid... :( Anyone would think I was trying to smuggle dr**s into china or something...

NAS - ZFS system versus NTFS or EXT4 system

I was contemplating purchasing a QNAP 459-II for my home storage/streaming needs and a friend advised me that I should look into ZFS rather. I read up a bit on the filing system technology and was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information I found. It honestly was too much for me to take in to base a decision on, which is why I ask here - relying on your feedback and experiences. Here is my desired usage scenario:

• 2TB to 4TB over the next 2 years
• File types: music, video, photos, Office Documents, PDFs, and general files downloaded from the internet
• Would like to stream media files across all devices in home (have an 802.11n router with mostly 802.11n compliant devices)
• Use as a backup point for files from 2 laptops
• Would like to work with documents (eg. MS Word files) off the network - don't know if that's advisable

From what I've read ZFS requires a lot of juice (max Ram + server CPU preferably) to work optimally and requires some hectic shell-type configurations. I'm not deeply technical (but always willing to learn something new), so something like a QNAP for me where I just have to plug in my drives and probably go thru some initial setup wizard is the easiest.

Is sound technical knowledge required to get a ZFS system working right and more importantly, maintain? What are the pro's and cons of either a ZFS or QNAP-like setup?

I would sincerely appreciate any advice you may offer as I feel I'm truly out of my depth here! Thank you

Recursive unrar of several folders

I have several RAR archives spread around multiple directories but all under a particular root folder on my Debian based NAS. Could someone help me write a simple script that would recursively go into each folder, unrar the contents, go back to the parent folder and move onto the next directory? So:

cd Photos/Summer/Italy/
unrar e Italy.rar
wait
cd ../France/
unrar e France.rar
wait
etc...

So just point it to root folder "Photos" and it blitzes through it unraring everything on the way...

Eg, directory structure:

*Photos:
 -Summer
  --Italy
   ---Italy.rar
   ---Italy.r01
   ---Italy.r02
  --France
   ---France.rar
   ---France.r01
   ---France.r02
 -Winter
  --Siberia
   ---Siberia.rar
   ---Siberia.r01
   ---Siberia.r02
  --Canada
   ---Snow.rar
   ---Snow.r01
   ---Snow.r02

How to build a NAS?

I have quite a bit of photos I'd like to organize and get away from sparse DVDs and move to a NAS solution. Ideally, this would let me have some level of redundancy and more easily find what I'm looking for.

That being said, hard drives are relatively cheap. My next question is, I would like to run ZFS on the drives with the ability to add / remove drives for additional redundancy, or change the configuration of the drives possibly. Is there a NAS box that lets you run your OS of choice (FreeNAS) so all I'd need to do is get the hard drives, the NAS box, and modify the firmware / OS with FreeNAS?

Walter