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158.96.4.13
...will my Logitech Duet be able to access the files from the NAS?
I can access the files via the Mac Mini in the music room but apparently the Mini has to always be on to do that. I was hoping an access attempt from the Duet would awaken the Mini from sleep mode but that does not appear to be the case.
I am starting to realize how nice it would be to be able to access all this music downstairs, not just in the music room where the Mini is with the external drive attached to it. Should I just leave the Mini on all the time?
Thanks, Steve
Follow Ups:
which is the location I point squeezebox server to for my music files. It could just as well be anywhere else; it's on ethernet cable. Simple set up. The NAS is an LG 2-bay box. It houses 2x1TB hitachi drives. One of the folders is 'music'. (the other is 'photos', used for back up of all my photos). Seems to work fine. When I point the squeezebox touch to 'my music', it looks to the NAS music folder. I can control it with my iPhone, the SBT remote, the SBT screen, my macbook, or the main computer which is a PC on the other side of the house that runs SBS.
The music on the NAS is only available when the PC is running and I'm logged into my account there. I sleep it at night or when I'm not using the music for any length of time.
If you aren't against Windows, you might think about something like this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859105777
Little box, but it has four drive trays (three free, as the 1TB drive is using one). So, $399 for the computer with Windows Home Server, $210 for three Hitachi 2TB drives, and another $50 or so to bring up the ram to 8GB.
Less than $700, and you have 7TB of very flexible storage. WHS supports automated backup of the other computers in your house (even Macs) to the server too, so says the advert. Last I read, it can intelligently spread the data across disks for redundancy. It isn't RAID in the traditional sense, but it provides some security against drive failure. It also supports 'shadow copies' which help prevent against accidental deletions and stuff like that. For $700, it is a pretty feature packed setup, is tiny, and uses very little power. It definitely supports Squeezebox software.
I wish I had an excuse to get one for me.
Edits: 09/14/11 09/14/11
D-Link DNS-323 works very well as a NAS. Has its own OS built-in and can accept two identical drives if you want to do a RAID in any config. When not in use the drives do spin down but it only takes about 15 seconds to respond and begin streaming.
This way you can shut down your computer and give it a rest as well as using the NAS as a file backup.
I am realizing that is the important issue...
Thanks, Steve
Requires a bit of hacking but looks doable.
http://bfg100k.blogspot.com/2009/05/setting-up-squeezecenter-on-dns-323.html
This doc looks like a better list of NAS boxes that will work:
http://www.squeezebox-forum.nl/downloads/welke-nas/welke-nas.doc
Leave the Mac Mini ON 24/7 as it draws such little power -or- you can go into System Preferences and schedule it to power ON automatically in the morning and power OFF late at night.
In addition to running your Mac Mini as the music server source driving your main audio setup, installing the Squeezebox Server software on the same Mac will allow your Duet to gain access to the Mac's iTunes music library and play lists. No NAS needed.
My Mac Mini in the basement listening room also runs the Squeezebox Server software which enables my Squeezebox audio system in the kitchen. This setup has been working flawlessly running 24/7 for the past four years.
Mac Mini music server in my basement audio system using iPod Touch and Remote App to control it:
The same Mac Mini down in the basement enables my Squeezebox system in the Kitchen. It's been working flawlessly for four years.
If you want the NAS for the rest of your family that's fine, but you don't need it for the audio systems.
get a cheap computer and use that instead. I use a 10 year old machine that I paid about $100 for with 8 external drives plugged into it running Ubuntu Linux, it's on all day now for about 5 years in my basement, no problems. I replicate the data so if a drive fails, simply plug in another one. NAS will limit you.
Recent Mac Minis don't use much power at idle. Why do you think that using a NAS to store your files would be preferable?
Bill
would not have to be on all the time, and I could use the NAS for other files everyone in the house wants access to. Those would never be stored in the music system anyway.
Steve
Leaving the machine always on is the simplest way to do things. However, this will cause your disk (unless solid state) to wear out sooner, if this is of concern. Perhaps power management of disk spinning will work properly in this application on Macs, it can be problematic with Windows machines, and certainly causes a delay when a music session starts for spun down disks to spin back up.
Figure a PC drawing 50 watts of power on the average as burning through about $50 per year in electric bills, depending on your local rates. (I won't comment on "carbon footprint" except to observe that this is a scam.)
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
The biggest wear and tear on the drives isn't how many hours they are spinning, but how many times the heads get parked.
Because of that, it is often the power saving setup, either by turning the computer on and off, or by allowing it put the drives to sleep, that is adding wear and tear the most.
As I understand it the drives are spec'd for running hours as well as takeoff/landings. With suitable power management settings there will be an advantage to powering down if the drive is likely to be idle for several hours. Each manufacturer (and possibly model) has their own specs. I use my NAS mainly to hold backups, so it generally only gets accessed for an hour or so every night. I leave the drives in my PC spinning all the time the machine is awake, I can't abide the wait for them to spin up.
Some of the newer "green drives" seem to have deal with this problem by lowering the RPM when the drive is idle, thereby conserving wear, saving power and avoiding absurdly slow "spin up" times.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
.
Is your NAS allows the installation of the Squeezeboxserver software, then yes, the Duet will be able to play from it.
I don't use a NAS, but in reading the Slimdevices forums, some NAS boxes appear to work better than others for this task.
In fact, the Vortexbox was specifically designed to run as a very low power consumption, dedicated Squeezebox server. They start at under $400 for a box with a 1TB drive.
In my case I use a 7 year old PC with a larger drive installed. Works great - the only thing is it uses more wattage than a NAS. I'll probably run this box until it peters out from age.
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