Avi

I'm looking to purchase 2 laptops, ideally with 17" screens. A Wireless Cable Router (Virgin) , and a NAS of at least 250gb for a small business to backup their documents to over the mini network.

Anyone any suggestions. Max budget is £1000.

Cheers

Avi

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

Use a redundant PC or server and use FREE NAS or Openfiler, I prefer Free NAS. Open filer will do your job, but I think it only supports SAS, SATA and SCSI disks.

You wont get a decent NAS for under £1000.

Free NAS will support software RAID 0, 1, 5 or can run as JBOD.

Avi

I'm trying to keep ongoing support to a minimum. When i say NAS, i don;t mean a "proper" RAID NAS.

Something like this maybe ?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/870834...at:Hard+Drives

Coffin Dodger

QNAP for the NAS, some good solutions for a reasonable price

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I am not totally clear on your aim - is the data stored on a file server and this is purely a device to back up the live data to??? Are they only working with files / no database storage requriements, mail server to back up etc?

Personally I wouldn't opt for one of the devices which your link refers to.

Lots of reasons;

- it is just an external hard disk that connects to a network port
- there is no processing power in the box
- will not lend itself well to being accessed by multiple users
- no redundancy
- finite storage space with no real option to expand - you possibly could install a larger disk
- No onboard encryption
- No onboard virus scanning
- No security protection for the data at rest

As has been suggested QNAP are the best SOHO stuff out there at the minute, but I think they will bust the budget.

Maybe consider something like this from Iomega, they are now a subsidiary of EMC who know a thing or two about enterprise grade NAS and SAN storage.

Iomega 1TB StorCenter ix2 Network Storage 34338 at TigerDirect.com

I think this is around £165

I would not rule out Free NAS or open filer without knowing more detail about your requirement - I didn't think it could be as good as it is, I run two for my personal data & music collecation. I have another 2 which take care of our business storage.

Drop me a PM if you think I can be any help.

Avi

They currently have a laptop each which i need to replace. They only store documents on the local drive as well as their outlook pst files (mail retrieved via pop3 to each laptop) . When they are in the office, they need to back up these documents. There's only 2 people work there, so not exactly a big overhead to deal with. They do have one access database on one of the laptops which they would potentially like to be available to both.

It's a charity, so really limited on funds, and £1000 is the limit. Not a penny more.

So i need to source 2 laptops, 1 cable router and 1 network attachable drive (i'm going to refrain from calling it a NAS from now on ) .

I'm sat at work next to 2 EMC Sans so i'm quite aware that it's a shoestring budget . It might be that they end up with just a USB Drive if the budget won;t take it, and they'll have to swap it between them.

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

Ok - here we go..

Router - Linksys WRT54GS £30 from here

Digidave.co.uk for all your broadband needs! > Main Section > ROUTERS > Cable Routers > Linksys WRT54GS Wireless SpeedBoost Cable Router

Laptops - Dell Inspiron 15 - £399 each

Dell Notebook and Laptop Deals | Dell UK

NAS - 1Tb Media Drive - £115

Iomega Home Media Network 1.0TB Hard Drive - Misco.co.uk

Leaving about £55 to cover postage.

splitting the database into a front end and linked tables is easy enough.

any resale value in their old laptops???

Avi

Cheers/.. i reckon you're pretty much spot on with that lot!

I'm not really up to speed on current hardware. They've just suggested these laptops themselves.

Looks quite reasonable to me

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