The media server software can access files over the network, so you do not have to copy them to a separate machine. If your network can handle, say, 1 Gbit/s then that will be a limit, but most media files do not seem to approach that. You could also just try running it on the same unit as the NAS (in FreeNAS this would entail something like creating a user named ‘plex’, creating a dataset with access control set to that user, installing the Plex plugin, and editing the plugin jail to mount the dataset).
I have a Synology NAS and it is a breath of fresh air - it functions very much as a consumer appliance, but feels like a more feature rich server. Very low power draw when idle; quick to boot, easy to map drives and set permissions; easy to set up sync with cloud storage (I use mine primarily to delegate the process of maintaining the offsite copies of my data - I drop a file on the local network share - it quietly backs it up to my cloud storage.
A NAS and any drive directly accessible from any of your devices is a potential target for viruses and especially ransomware. So you need a second backup, ideally offsite physically or cloud. 3-2-1 Backup. 3 copies of your data, 2 on different media*, 1 kept offsite in case of local disaster; fire, flood, hurricane/tornado, power surge, theft, etc… .
*This becomes very costly when you get beyond mid 10’s of TB with optical disks multiple times per TB vs hard drives and tape having a high hardware cost.
I don’t have a NAS, but a consideration of pre-built vs DIY is that pre-built boxes may be harder to protect against attacks because of their hardware versus DIY where just the software has to be patched.
Last year and earlier this year, some old WD MyCloud boxes were hit by attacks due to a vulnerability in the firmware and OS… WD’s response was to discontinue support for the boxes and give users a discount on new MyCloud purchases.
I never view anything except at home on one of my TV setups.
My setups are DAS on a PC not connected to the internet for my main viewing setup. A second DAS setup with select videos on a PC connected to internet on my second viewing setup. A third DAS connected to my main PC, but usually kept off. And a second cold backup kept in another room. No one I can trust to keep at their place and cloud for 100TB+ is too expensive.
All transfers are by sneakernet.
I pay for Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Netflix. Yet I pirate all of the content that I want to watch so that I can put it in Plex, where everything is in a single, accessible library. I don’t feel guilty; I’m paying for the content, just in the manner that I prefer. It’s the content I’m paying for, right?
You would need expert advice to untangle what license agreement you may have signed up to with those services, whether it is enforceable, whether format/media shifting, ripping, or even third-party downloading is accepted as legal in your jurisdiction or is otherwise decriminalized. Providers of generic media server software would say it is your problem to worry about it as they do not provide the content. Sometimes there are plugins to access your official account, for example, a Netflix plugin for Plex or Kodi.
As I said, I’d like to keep this thread on the technical issues, not copyright, but I can’t let this stand unrefuted. No, you’re not paying to keep a copy of the content on your own device. That is a clear violation of copyright. You’re paying for the service of being able to stream it any time you want.
I was responding to Heracles, who was asking for anecdotes, which I provided.
My question was largely rhetorical, obviously. Well, it would have been inferred as obvious to most people. But go ahead and refute what you need to refute. It’s kind of precious.
I use a PC (a gaming PC that my son had replaced) running ClearOS as a file server/internet gateway/application server. It runs my usenet search tools/torrent downloader/media server/video conversion. It just works, as long as I keep an eye on it to ensure that a disk hasn’t died.
I prefer it to a dedicated NAS - they are underpowered (particularly for transcoding x264 to x256, and x256 to MPEG2), and too many hardware NAS platforms have been abandoned leaving owners with insecure devices they don’t want to discard.
ClearOS has been simple to manage and has been fantastically reliable.
I’ve been using a plain old Windows box since whenever Win7 came out (now it runs 10). It’s hooked directly to my upstairs TV and runs 24/7 running my torrent app. I can also use it for any streaming service including YouTube videos. I used to just watch videos using VLC on this TV, and shared the media folders so I could also watch the videos on my laptop also using VLC.
Now I have Plex and it’s amazing. I kept having problems with losing my network shares but now I can just use Plex to access all my stuff. And now I can also access my stuff in the basement from the TV that has a Roku. AND, since I bought a Plex lifetime membership, I can access all my stuff via my phone which was hell cool when I went on vacation this summer.
I don’t know if now, with Plex and appliances like Roku, there’s a need for an interface to your media server. But when I started it sure was handy to be able to watch YouTube on my big screen TV.
I have an old Creative 5.1 sound system hooked up to my computer, and a very ancient and basic video card, and everything sounds great and looks sharp. One time I was watching a show on the TV proper that I usually had watched on the computer-as-TV and I was struck at how bad stuff sounds without my subwoofer.
I’ve had to replace the network card and the video card once since I built this machine, and have added a lot of storage, but it’s been a workhorse, easy and perfect for over a decade now.
Anyway, if something like NAS or Linux confuses you, building a basic Windows box with lots of storage works just fine. Plex does all the work.
One thing to be aware of when repurposing an older desktop is that they can be kind of power hungry. Depending on your use case, you may not want it up and running 24/7/365 because that can easily beat the total power usage of an electric water heater. Maybe your particular equipment is efficient enough, or you can sleep/idle it, but just keep that in mind. I have an older desktop that I use for occasional backups, and it uses about 200 watts just at idle, so I only run it when necessary. YMMV of course.
Before I bought my Synology NAS, I bought a WD MyCloud (direct from WD’s own store) - by the time it had arrived at my house, WD had discontinued it, and deprecated some of the features - in particular, they had withdrawn the cloud sync app from being available on the model I bought, so it was no longer capable of the functions it was advertised as doing when I paid for it. There had been no warning that the device I was buying was about to lose features, in fact they continued to sell them with the features described on their web store for at least a couple of months beyond the point of deprecating the features.
I raised an RMA and sent it back. They just sent me a replacement of the same model. I complained and they tried to argue that I couldn’t return this one now because it was A)a different serial number from the one I originally bought, and that B)the RMA turnaround time had now taken me outside of some time period for quibble-free return.
I replied to say that A)you swapped the device, therefore you concede they are fungible and B)I’m not looking for quibble free return, I am rejecting the item as unfit for purpose, not as described, and cited a couple of bits of relevant UK consumer law. They eventually took the item back and refunded me. Even though this was eventually resolved OK, I won’t buy from WD again.
Two hearty pats on the back for standing up for your rights!
However, I recommend rethinking your WD boycott. There’s only Seagate and Toshiba left, and there are reports that getting an RMA on Toshiba drives can be very difficult.
Yeah, maybe I’ll buy bare drives, just not a consumer solution
This is a point very seldom mentioned in tutorials etc on the topic. I guess ‘but you probably shouldn’t’ sort of takes the shine off ‘Hey, you can repurpose your old PC as a server!’
Fair point. I’ve done a bit of checking since electricity prices in Europe have soared.
The old desktop was not too bad, but due to it’s usage as a VMware “server” with several virtual machines and some large capacity disks was using about 50W.
I had bought an old Optiplex 9020 a while ago because it was too cheap to pass up on: €25 for an i5 & 8Gb of ram. I installed Debian on an old SSD and added just one large capacity disk and with some powertweaks, it idles at 11W. That’s a huge difference. Instead of VMs, I resorted to Dockers (lots of fiddling to get right 
) and usage wise it acts the same as the previous one.
Thanks. Like others, I hadn’t thought of that. The PC I mentioned is on all the time. When I have a spare minute, I’ll put it on the Kill-A-Watt and see how much it’s drawing.
One of the reasons that I use true NASs (Synology) is that they draw so much less power from my UPSs. I can keep a NAS running for almost six times as long as a PC configured as a NAS.
Seagate also generally has the highest failure rates, though a lot depends on the individual drive model.
Maxtor was the bad guy. Cheap drives, but one day, without any warning, the ‘click of death’.