Cactusmen75 Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 Hello, I'm wanting to move my noisy NAS drive out of the listening room and into a cupboard in another room but still connect it to the stereo. Can anyone step me through the connections that I need to make? The cupboard in question has a power point, but not an ethernet or phone connection in it. At the moment the phone line goes from behind the stereo to the router/modem - which is our only Wifi point in the house and it drops out and doesn't currently reach all rooms effectively. An ethernet cable goes from the NAS into the modem/router and from there into the back of the pre-amplifier/streamer. I was wandering if I put one of those wifi over power line (e.g. http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/d-link-dhp-701av-powerline-av2-2000-gigabit-network-kit-dldav22000) into the power point in the cupboard and transmitted the signal back to the modem/router through the electric power cables? Would this work and preserve the quality of the sound coming from the NAS at the same level as if it were direct wired via ethernet (i.e. as good or worse than the current situation). I could get someone in to put in an ethernet connection into the cupboard, but would like to save the expense if possible. I also want to be able to extend the wifi range. Any advice would be gratefully accepted.
ChupaChups Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 Nas in a cabinet? Noisy usually means it has a fan or two, hence you'll need ventilation. Assuming you have ventilation sorted. What is the primary purpose of the NAS? Storing music and photos plus a movie or two? You'll probably need a robust connection, For the money you'll be spending on AV-line product which might or might not fulfill your needs (it also dependent on the condition of your home electrical wire eg. age). Best spend the money on getting a cable installer and be done with, IMHO.
betocool Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 Hi, I have a solution that might work for you. Well... it works for me. Modem is in the kitchen, and has wifi and 4 network ports (unused). The telly resides in the living room about 5m away, as well as the streamer, all Wifi. My and the boss' office room resides a good 10m away from the kitchen in the last room of the house. I have 2 desktop PCs and the NAS running 24/7 in that room. All 3 devices (NAS + 2 PCs) are connected wired to a router. The modem has bridge capability, and it connects to the modem in the kitchen over wifi. In that case, all other equipment can access the NAS, especially the streamer. I have the NAS mainly for music and photos for the living room area, and documents for general work. It took me a few goes to get it right though. You know how on the settings you can choose automatic channel? Well, that was throwing the connection to the bin after not too long. I did a firmware upgrade on the router in the office room and changed on both router/modem the channel to 11 (I think). Also, the router in the office does NOT act as a hotspot. That's only for the one in the kitchen. That's the master. I would advise against a wallwart switch unless you have no choice. I heard (never tested) from people that quality is ok, but you can get all the noisy high frequency LAN data into your equipment. Also more difficult to troubleshoot and you have to make sure they're connected to the same circuit. Re NAS in the cupboard, unless you cover it with clothes and blankets it should be fine. Just make sure to leave about 20cm of space between NAS air slots and walls. As Sirmorebeer says, best of all is cable. Run a wire from the NAS to the kitchen modem... but that is either really hard or really expensive if it has to look right.
Cactusmen75 Posted December 8, 2016 Author Posted December 8, 2016 Thanks guys. Primary purpose of the NAS is for music, although I do use it as a cloud for my working documents as I swap between desktop and laptop computers. It's a Qnap with a fan and the cupboard in question is a large hall cupboard that is big enough to house surfboards. Betocool, do you have a modem and a router in the office, or just a router? (not sure if your sentance "The modem has bridge capability, and it connects to the modem in the kitchen over wifi" meand to say "The router has bridge capability, and it connects to the modem in the kitchen over wifi"). If there are both a modem and router in the office, are either of these devices plugged into a phone or ethernet socket in the wall or do they connect purely via wifi to the kitchen? Do any of your modems or routers operate on less than giga bit connections?
betty boop Posted December 8, 2016 Posted December 8, 2016 cm you dont necessarily need a nas for music. not in my experience anyways. if have a large volume of movies or something tends to justify but music unless got 1000s of albums dont really take up much space and in that case no real need to hook upto a network and can just plug a drive directly in. I dumped my nas I had which used to hold my media. mainly because it failed and a was nuisance in use anyways. theres no noise in a drive plugged in, can even be a little ssd which is all i use. they are quite cheap and in the affordable realm now days.... another option if wanting to setup a wireless bridge.... is how I did do for a while... i.e. with two apple base stations. one end plugged into the router. the other one just into power and feeding about 4 devices hooked into it via network cable. still have them now in the garage collecting dust. can have them if you want at $100 a pop. I just kept them ... just in case. but havent used in a while or used them so probably should move on.
ChupaChups Posted December 8, 2016 Posted December 8, 2016 8 hours ago, al said: cm you dont necessarily need a nas for music. not in my experience anyways. if have a large volume of movies or something tends to justify but music unless got 1000s of albums dont really take up much space and in that case no real need to hook upto a network and can just plug a drive directly in. I dumped my nas I had which used to hold my media. mainly because it failed and a was nuisance in use anyways. theres no noise in a drive plugged in, can even be a little ssd which is all i use. they are quite cheap and in the affordable realm now days.... another option if wanting to setup a wireless bridge.... is how I did do for a while... i.e. with two apple base stations. one end plugged into the router. the other one just into power and feeding about 4 devices hooked into it via network cable. still have them now in the garage collecting dust. can have them if you want at $100 a pop. I just kept them ... just in case. but havent used in a while or used them so probably should move on. I have couple Qnap nas, they are on 24 by7 and been running several years now - touch wood no problem s thus far. I value my data, they afford me some level of protection. Modem nases are easy to use unlike what al had experienced. @Cactusmen75, running cat5 cable is not that hard. Seen one of this?
betocool Posted December 8, 2016 Posted December 8, 2016 10 hours ago, Cactusmen75 said: Thanks guys. Betocool, do you have a modem and a router in the office, or just a router? (not sure if your sentance "The modem has bridge capability, and it connects to the modem in the kitchen over wifi" meand to say "The router has bridge capability, and it connects to the modem in the kitchen over wifi"). If there are both a modem and router in the office, are either of these devices plugged into a phone or ethernet socket in the wall or do they connect purely via wifi to the kitchen? Do any of your modems or routers operate on less than giga bit connections? Sorry for the confusion, you're absolutely right. The Internet modem/router is in the kitchen, plugged to the Internet and connecting everything wirelessly (I don't have a fridge with network cable... yet). The router in the office has bridge capability, is not connected directly to the internet but through the wireless bridge connection to the kitchen modem. So far I know, the router in the office is gigabit for wired. No problems with copying heaps amounts of data. So, office PC's, NAS and router are wired, and that subset of devices is connected wirelessly to the kitchen modem/router. Between the wireless devices (telly, streamer, phones, etc) I only get 54 mbits max, but more than enough for audio anyway. Never a hickup. The only Ethernet socket I have is in the kitchen, and that leads to cyberspace.
Cactusmen75 Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 Thanks Al, I use the NAS, for my home file sharing network so will keep it. Apart from the fan noise, it's pretty good. Thanks also for offer of the Apple base stations, but I've got an airport express and timecapsule, but not using these at the moment. I've now spent a day putting ethernet cabling through the walls to a couple of spots, including the large cupboard. Great to have the NAS out of the listening space and it works perfectly this way. Next step will be to put in a stronger wi-fi access point in the middle of the house. It looks like the Ubiquiti AC Long Range or Lite is the way to go. 1
Recommended Posts