I bought a Buffalo HD some time back to link in with my wireless network. It all works in that all the PC's on the network are seeing the HD, but I need an idiot's tutorial on setting it up so that each user has their own area and then there are General and Transfer areas.
The instructions don't walk one through what I suspect is a simple task and a pointer to a tutorial somewhere would be appreciated.
Thanks Rob
Just put an Iomega on the LAN here the folder management is via the web interface not the network shares as they appear on the client PCs. For starters point your web browser at the drives IP address and explore...
IIRC the firmware varies depending on the model. Which one is it?
Linkstation HS-DHGL . Dave L's comment about the setting up the folders being via the web interface rather than the client m/c is the sort of thing that I reckon I need - thanks Dave. Rob
In general terms, these things usually have a built in web server and possibly a telnet server for a command line interface.
The fact that you can see it from the network would suggest the first hurdle is crossed - in that its on the same TCP/IP subnet. The instructions will probably tell you its default IP address. Once you know its address, slap that into the address bar of your web browser and you should be presented with the management interface for it. After that things diverge in the detail - but the basics should remain the same. You should be able to create folders and set permissions for individual users, and depending on the capabilities of the box quite possibly a wide range of other things like setting it up as a DNLA media server, or a bittorrent client.
Do be aware though that when a network hard drive goes, so does your data.
Ultimately I replaced one of those with a cheap headless Linux box, which does a deal more.
And who hasn't got a low spec PC that can take a pair of big cheap disks, all ready to become a house warming server?
Grow you pot plants in the same room.
:
You're both probably going too fast for me; "DNLA media server" ? "Headless linux box" - I take it that is an old PC running Linux without a monitor ?
I have a feeling that the DNLA thing is something to do with 'transmitting' stored video around the house. Is that specialist hardware or can that be combined with the Linux box?
Thanks for your help guys - I will have a further attack on the Buffalo this evening, but keep the ideas coming as I do have "low spec PC" which might be worth playing with.
Rob
Yup - sorry on two levels - firstly a typo, that should be DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), secondly; I was more trying to prepare you for an interface that may have reams and reams of options, to do lots of stuff, most of which you can quite comfortably ignore if all you want is disk on a network!
Indeed.
Many network hard drives (including yours) can act as a media server. That means that media streamers can then play content from them. The streamers can be bits of software running on a PC, or can be dedicated boxes plugged into TVs/HiFis etc. Some modern TVs with Ethernet ports on them are also capable of being media players in their own right without additional stuff.
As with any hard drive it is possible it will fail. So the usual rules of backup apply. If you are using it as your primary place of storage, then you need to back it up. If your PC(s) are you primary storage, then you may think of the network drive as backup.
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The progress made is to get into the web page (I had already bookmarked that some time ago I found); what I hadn't done was to make a note of username and password - tried all my usual combinations without success and then fell back on Admin + Password. Relief. But I can't at
I've also got the Manual in pdf. It would be so much more user friendly if they explained what their terms mean. A "Shared Folder" I take it is one that all users can see and use. I've added a 'Test' folder as that seemed a safe possibility !!. What doesn't seem clear is how I use the Access Restrictions - I've got Groups and Users options; currently there's only two PC's going to use this, so how do I set this up and how do the Restrictions take place so that my wife and I can have our own folders ?
Thanks for your tolerance !! Rob
...the moment finish my sentences ? ;-)
Possibly... if they are using the normal Windows style of terminology, then shared really means "published or visible" on the network. Depending on the default settings you may for example find that while the box itself appears in my network places as a "computer near you", when you open it up to see what things it is "sharing" - there is nothing! Hence you can create a folder on the box, and say right share this, and call it "Music" for example. Now when you look inside the machine on the network you would see a network drive visible called "Music"
Groups are usually a way of creating a class of users... it might that you create a bunch of folders that you want every user to be able to see and write to. Hence you can create a group called "Everyone" (you may even find this one already exists), and set the permissions on the folders such that members of "Everyone" can read and write. You would then add all the users to the Everyone group and they would then all automatically get the rights allocated to the group. Should you wish to change what the group can see, then you can change the rights to a shared resource like a folder, you could either enable or disable access by everyone, and all the members will automatically inherit the change.
Some groups may be predefined - say Everyone and Administrators... Others you may want to create... For example in a family situation, the Films18Cert folder may only be accessible to members of the "adult" group.
If you and your wife both have user accounts and logins setup on all your computers, then you can create matching users on the buffalo. You could then have a folder called RobsStuff, with rights set such that only user Rob can read or write the folder. Same again for SWMBO. Other folders could be set for shared (i.e. between you) access - either explicitly listing both users as allowed to access them, or by specifying access is allowed for a named group, and then making sure that you both belong to said group.
Needless to say these capabilities are designed to deal with far more complexity than you are likely to need with just two users.
Sort of, a shared folder is one that users may be able to see, as in see that it exists but not be able to access unless they access privalidges are correct for that folder.
A "group" is a collection of "users", any thing marked as being in a given group can be accessed by any user also in that group.
Do you already have seperate "wifie" and "youfie" logins on those PCs? If so the simple way is just to create those users with the same user name/password on the NAS device, create the "wifie" and "youfie" folders and set the restrictions such that only "wifie" can access the "wifie" folder and "youfie" the "youfie" folder. Then when you then look at the NAS device via the network, you'll see the folders and be able to access them without having to enter a user/password as the PC will authenticate you with the NAS device.
If you don't have seperate user accounts on the PCs be aware that once some one has logged into their "private" folder on the NAS device that access will remain open until they log off.
I've got a similar situation with an iomega drive.
I just created 3 folders: common, mydrive & herdrive and mapped them appropriately as network drives.
I have a Z drive which is the mydrive folder and she has a Z drive which is the herdrive folder.
We both have a Y drive which is mapped to the common folder for any files we want to share. We've found that very useful recently for holiday planning as we've both been researching various aspects of it and can both see exactly what is going on and can update info on the common files - no more trying to guess which PC some vital information is on!
Unless either of you have files on the HDD that you don't want the other to see (as the administrator, you would have access to your wife's data, anyway!) I can't see any reason for anything more complex.
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