NAS: Advanced Configuration

After all the previous step by step installation and settings

We’ve only covered a basic configuration of FreeNAS here, but there’s a lot more you can do with it. For starters, you can use it to share out multiple drives, including CD or DVDs. Like most commercial NAS products, FreeNAS will let you set up user accounts and rights, or you can have it authenticate users from an existing Windows domain (2000/2003 Active Directory only). You can also enable other network services including UPnP, FTP, NFS (for Linux), or AFP (for older Macs) and set up encrypted volumes or one using (software-based) RAID 0, 1, or 5. For more information on these and other FreeNAS features consult the product manual, which is surprisingly useful (it’s available in PDF format from the download page).

Using FreeNAS to build your own NAS server won’t necessarily make sense for everyone. As you can see, it requires a bit more configuration effort than a commercial NAS product, so you have to have the time and inclination to play with it and tweak it to your needs. It’s also worth nothing that since a PCs is usually much larger than a typical NAS device, it may be harder to tuck a FreeNAS system away somewhere if space is tight. Also, that any PC-based NAS is likely to be nosier and consume more power than than a ready-made NAS (worth keeping in mind considering your NAS device will probably need to run 24/7).

But if you’ve got more time, space, and equipment than you do cash, FreeNAS is an excellent way to set up effective and inexpensive network storage.

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About the author:  I am Phesto Enock, Tanzanian male living in Finland, professionally a software engineer, a blogger and online business researcher. I love technology and its wicked twists. I am a main author of NiftyEyeBlog So let us share our experiences. Read more from this author

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