Following on from the USB hard drive subject earlier....
I have an IP camera, which when it alarms, stores images to either an external FTP server, or sends emailed images.
Instead of using the FTP server, I would like to have it save the images to the usb hard drive, attached directly to my router and without needing to have any sort of PC running. Is that possible?
If the camera supports connecting to a windows/samba share, or the router has an FTP server built in, yes.
Not if you power-off the drive like you asked in your previous question...
More seriously: it depends on the software in the router; if it implements an FTP server then I would expect so, but if it doesn't then probably not. You need to read the router's manual, and/or google for other people's posts on whether there are issues using FTP to it - if it works or has issues you'd expect to be able to find discussions about that on the internet.
There are routers that support this sort of thing, but they're not generally the cheaper ones. Another method might be to replace the router's firmware with one of the open-source firmware options, eg "Tomato" or "DD-WRT", but if you do that you'll need to be careful you don't brick the router.
Instead of a noddy USB connected NAS get a Raspberry pi or similar small linux setup and connect the USB drive to THAT and then set up an ftp server on it,
Its an ISP supplied router, with no manual other than a brief idiot guide to plugging it in. The only mention I can find of FTP is this-
'The DSL-3780 externally acts as server. It receives the requests of remote users under its public IP address and forwards them automatically to the Virtual Server. So a client in your network behind NAT or firewall can provide services as a Virtual Server. You just have to enable specific ports or port ranges and protocols (UDP/TCP). File sharing or web services for e.g. HTTP, FTP or POP3 are possible. The private IP addresses of the servers in the local network remain safe. If you have a dynamic IP address, you may want to enable DynDNS additionally.'
Which seems to be just to enable and control ports through the router.
So it seems like a - NO!
Yup, that's basically just port forwarding.
It should spin back up on access but lots of spin ups/downs doesn't do drives much good as has already been said. "desktop" class drives seem happy to run nonstop for years in my experiance and these days take naff all power, around 5 W or so.
Doesn't fit the spec of "... without needing to have any sort of PC running." It's the simple way though, assuming the Pi can power the USB drive. Mine can't power a Seagate 250GB "Expansion Portable Drive" that has no seperate power input. Was going to use it as the get_iplayer storage rather than a NAS, as that is a bit slow.
The PSU is a 2.1A one and plugging that direct into the drive is fine but not a lot of use. Tried via a USB hub with the PSU into that, still no joy from the drive with or without the Pi also on the hub. The Pi is always happy.
I absolutely agree, if it was only spun-down in the first place, but he asked last time about powering-down drives, not merely spinning down.
I meant just spinning them down, to avoid wear and tear while unecessary.
Don't discount the _increased_ wear and tear if you set them on too short a fuse (anything less than an hour is too short imo) unless you're certain your usage pattern isn't going to be cycling them up and down every half hour or so throughout each day.
And it might not be just user initiated access, windows is very "chatty"...
Yes, Vista could keep 'rattling' the HDD's cage if you didn't go out of your way to tame this behaviour. A fact I took advantage of when finding a better use of a Seagate special I'd removed from a 500GB Medion enclosure quite a few years back.
No chance whatsover for the fixed 10 minute spin down to time out. A match made in heaven I rather thought (as in 'they deserved each other' - two shites can make a 'good' given the right circumstances that is!). :-)
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