can someone talk to me about about network attached storage!

[QueenBoudicea]

I'm in need of advice!

I'm looking at getting a nas so all our photos, music etc are in one place and get regularly backed up and so it saves space on the myriad of phones, laptops etc that appear to find our way into the house. Also so we can steam music wirelessly so reducing clutter etc.

How much memory will I need? Will 1tb be enough?

We also have a ps3 which is plugged directly into the router as we use it for streaming tv/netflix etc. I assume i can plug both the the nas and ps3 into the router (there are a few usb ports on it)

What do I need to buy?

How much do you need? That depends what you are storing. 1 TB is a lot, but how any devices are you backing up and how much data is on those.

You may be able to plug both the NAS and the PS3 into the router. Are you sure those are USB ports? I would expect the NAS and the PS3 to plug into ethernet ports, not USB.

I would buy a 2 bay NAS box and 2 matching disks from different suppliers. These can then be set up as mirrored disks, so, if one fails all the data is still on the other disk. Buying disks from different suppliers makes it less likely you will get disks from the same batch, which might reduce the chance of simultaneous failures.

A cheap 2 bay NAS will be under £150 and the linked NAS comes with a free 1TB drive. A second 1TB disk should cost about £50, so you could get a 1TB solution for under £200. Alternatively, to give you room for expansion, you can get a pair of 2TB disks for about £75 each, so £300 should cover a 2TB solution.

The issue is that a NAS is just a big disk on your network. So if you want to securely store stuff onto the disk then you really need a NAS with two drives minimum so that you can 'mirror' the disks.

In other words data is stored twice automatically. If one disk dies, the other carries on.

You plug it into the router and go follow the instructions.

Try this one Buffalo NAS but don't forget to configure it as RAID-1, not RAID-0.

Bear in mind that if you store everything in one place it is convenient. It's also going to be a complete bugger if it gets lost, stolen or damaged.

Thanks both - yes you're right - they are ethernet ports not usb.
You've given me some food for thought.
Currently have a couple of old laptops with music, photos and work on. Then two tablets and three smart phones.

I have got the ReadyNas linked to (Well, the Duo v2 which is fairly similar), with a pair of 2TB drives in.
The great thing about a dual drive system is that it automatically backs up one to t'other so if the drive fails, you've got a backup.

My ReadyNAS works with Windows phones, iPhones and Android for streaming.

If you're doing this it is worth considering buying Netgear's automatic backup service for your ReadyNAS, where they'll back up all the data on it on to their cloud servers for a fee (I think it's £10 a month or so).

That way the risk of centralising all your data is mitigated.