I'ts not often that one of the old school "mainstream" publications gives any significant space to one of the free NAS distributions that allow you to turn a PC into a NAS. PCWorld has just posted an article that outlines how to do just that with an old PC and FreenNAS. The article summarizes one of the big advantages of FreeNAS:
Best of all, the software--FreeNAS--that will power this machine is exactly what its name describes: a free operating system for network-attached storage. And side from being free, FreeNAS is easy to install, configure, and run. You'll find everything you need to know in this guide.
Source: PCWorld
The post walks through installing and setting up FreeNAS as a network shared drive and sums up the additional features that aren't covered in detail:
Our simple share drive is but the tip of the FreeNAS iceberg with regard to features. Options include locking drive access to users and groups, creating recurring snapshots for restoring older copies of files or deleted files entirely, and using the power combination of Dynamic DNS and FTP access to give your offsite workers easy access to the files they need. Now that you've mastered the basics, a world of advanced configurations and scenarios is yours to explore!
Source: PCWorld
I've personally built and installed several FreeNAS servers, and I believe it is one of the easiest NAS distros to build with, setup and maintain.
Related articles
- Building a E-350 based NAS (nas-pro.com)
- Configuring FreeNAS To Host Time Machine Volume, Allowing Mac Users To Backup Data Across Network Using Time Machine (essayboard.com)
- FreeNAS 8.2.0 beta 2 enables plugins (h-online.com)
- Using FreeNAS With VirtualBox To Create A True Personal Storage Cloud? (essayboard.com)