vaibhavyagnik
Active Member
Dear fellow Hifivision members,
Let me briefly introduce my self, I am an engineer and an avid computer lover. I love DIY, especially when it involves computers. I have built 4 systems till date. Recently i ran out of space on my HTPC cum gaming machine. This is when i stumbled upon the concept of a NAS. A few days of searching, i reached the conclusion:
1. NAS should have expandibility
2. NAS should be able to provide some level of redundancy if required
3. Low power consumption
4. Low cost
5. Support various transfer protocols over TCP/IP like SAMBA/CIFS, Bonjour, FTP, HTTP etc.
6. Headless is good. now need to attach keyboard, mouse display, thus saving cost.
7. Provide scheduled email messages to send emails about NAS health status
8. the components should be readily available in market
I did some research on ebay and found that the lowest NAS were 1 TB network enabled HDDs from iomega and some other vendors. The lowest true NAS is NAS 110 from seagate retailing at about 11000 bucks
The advantage:
1. Comes with configuration software
2. Designed to run out of the box
3. professional looking
4. headless
5. Low power
6. Supports all the above mentioned protocols
The disadvantage:
1. NO expandibility. 2 TB means 2 TB. no expansion as only a single drive bay available
2. No redundancy as no RAID possible
3. As you add features like multi bay, expandable, cost increases prohibitively
4. Configuration software does not always work
This reasons compelled me to build my own NAS. Now i want to offer this functionality to others as well, minus the disadvantages of professional NAS (high cost if expandable, if cheap then there is no expandibility)
My business model:
A. Ask the prospective customers about their needs
e.g:
1. budget
2. existing network at their work/home and their components, configuration
3. likely number of devices the NAS is going to cater to
4. Storage space required
5. Level of redundancy required
6. offer support and solution
B. Give a cost effective solution for the above needs
C. If customer gives a nod, ask for a token deposit
D. Prepare and configure NAS. List it on ebay
E. When customer pays full amount, deliver the NAS
D. Establish shares on customer network through team viewer (physical connections should be done by customer.
In case of hardware failure, customer will be responsible for taking to respective service centers and claim warranty. As the hardware will be bought off the shelf, each component will have individual warranty. The components will be intel/amd processors, generic RAMS, high quality PSUs/ Generic MOBO etc. software will be linux or freenas according to need.
In case of software failure/new feature addition (creating a new share) will be done through remote support (teamviewer).
How does the above model sound to you all?
Request you to give your valuable suggestions.
You can even put your wishlists NAS features over here.
Let me briefly introduce my self, I am an engineer and an avid computer lover. I love DIY, especially when it involves computers. I have built 4 systems till date. Recently i ran out of space on my HTPC cum gaming machine. This is when i stumbled upon the concept of a NAS. A few days of searching, i reached the conclusion:
1. NAS should have expandibility
2. NAS should be able to provide some level of redundancy if required
3. Low power consumption
4. Low cost
5. Support various transfer protocols over TCP/IP like SAMBA/CIFS, Bonjour, FTP, HTTP etc.
6. Headless is good. now need to attach keyboard, mouse display, thus saving cost.
7. Provide scheduled email messages to send emails about NAS health status
8. the components should be readily available in market
I did some research on ebay and found that the lowest NAS were 1 TB network enabled HDDs from iomega and some other vendors. The lowest true NAS is NAS 110 from seagate retailing at about 11000 bucks
The advantage:
1. Comes with configuration software
2. Designed to run out of the box
3. professional looking
4. headless
5. Low power
6. Supports all the above mentioned protocols
The disadvantage:
1. NO expandibility. 2 TB means 2 TB. no expansion as only a single drive bay available
2. No redundancy as no RAID possible
3. As you add features like multi bay, expandable, cost increases prohibitively
4. Configuration software does not always work
This reasons compelled me to build my own NAS. Now i want to offer this functionality to others as well, minus the disadvantages of professional NAS (high cost if expandable, if cheap then there is no expandibility)
My business model:
A. Ask the prospective customers about their needs
e.g:
1. budget
2. existing network at their work/home and their components, configuration
3. likely number of devices the NAS is going to cater to
4. Storage space required
5. Level of redundancy required
6. offer support and solution
B. Give a cost effective solution for the above needs
C. If customer gives a nod, ask for a token deposit
D. Prepare and configure NAS. List it on ebay
E. When customer pays full amount, deliver the NAS
D. Establish shares on customer network through team viewer (physical connections should be done by customer.
In case of hardware failure, customer will be responsible for taking to respective service centers and claim warranty. As the hardware will be bought off the shelf, each component will have individual warranty. The components will be intel/amd processors, generic RAMS, high quality PSUs/ Generic MOBO etc. software will be linux or freenas according to need.
In case of software failure/new feature addition (creating a new share) will be done through remote support (teamviewer).
How does the above model sound to you all?
Request you to give your valuable suggestions.
You can even put your wishlists NAS features over here.
. add customs and shipping (with issues related to it) and it costs a fortune if i import it.
. I am sure it is possible.