Router Storage vs Server

[guggas]

I'm sorry if this is a painfully stupid question: I've noticed that the higher end Asus routers have usb ports on them where I could attach a storage device. That seems like a really easy cheap way to handle the functions of a server. If my goal is to share data between 2 to 3 computers in a small office environment is this a viable solution? Would a dedicated server machine be way better and how so? I appreciate any information you can provide, I'm trying to decide which path to go.

 

[kanewolf]

For a commercial environment, I would not recommend it. The router doesn't have enough CPU or RAM to be a good network storage. A dedicated NAS will have better performance, greater security and greater stability. Look at the dual disk units from Synology, Thecus or Q-Nap. These are sold as bring your own disk units. Purchase the base unit and two quality disks. Set up two volumes and a backup job to copy data from the active disk to the second disk. If you want more security, add a USB disk to third level backup.

 

[game junky]

Depends on how much data is being continuously accessed and how stable that network is.

The cheapest solution would be to just add a large capacity HDD to one of those workstations and put share permissions on that drive and it's subfolders. You'll have to keep that system powered on whenever you want to share data, but it's effective.

Another easy and fairly cheap solution would be to purchase Cloud Storage appliance - Seagate & Western Digital both make consumer options, I have Western Digital's MyCloud and it has done a good job of being a storage target and sharing resource for the computers at my house. I selected the MyCloud because you can expand it with another external HDD daisy-chained through a USB port on the device, but the features are pretty similar to the Seagate solution that's on the market.

Here's my home setup - my main workstation has a SSD for the operating system, a SSD for sharing audio files on my network, a high capacity HDD for sharing video files and miscellaneous document files and I backup the music and video drives to my Cloud Storage appliance which I can hit from anywhere using Western Digital's MyCloud Application.