Windows 10: Sharing HDD via Wifi - Questions

No. It is made for specialized uses where you would need to plug in a USB device at a RJ-45 port, so that you can connect it within the length without a power booster.

I love the Synology DIS216+2 NAS that I have. I have two 1TB Seagate Constellation drives in it and the Fantom USB/eSATA for backup. I also am running PLEX on it as stated before.

I did find out last night that the firmware upgrade for the Engenius EAP1750H with POE, is now capable of 3 2.4GHz Channels and also 3 5GHz Channels and you can tweak how much load can be placed on the 5GHz, before others are placed on the 2.4. Since updating it last night, speeds have stayed solid and actually has been a lot faster in moving my Time Machine backup from my MacBook.

Planning a network is like building a house. If you mess it up the first time, it will haunt you. If you take your time and build it to be future proof and not lock yourself into a all-in-one device like a Wifi/4-port switch/Router.

 

I have a manufacturer refurbished D-Link DNS-325 that I purchased from eBay with no hard drives. I put two 3 TB hard drives in it for a total of 6 TB storage.

Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup - Windows 10 Forums

 

Hi there.

@Craige

My suggestion with these things would be to use an Ethernet-->wifi Bridge. The advantage is that if you use a Router this way it will generally have a better wifi signal reception than typical wifi cards and you can use faster 5GHZ Wifi even if the original device doesn't support it. Another plus is in general the Bridge method will be FULL DUPLEX whereas the Wifi card will normally be HALF DUPLEX which on a server will really limit speed.

If you can get around 600 - 700 Mib/s over the wifi part of the connection (Max for 5GHZ is around 1.2 Gib/s - on domestic grade stuff you won't get anywhere near that) then you should get HDD transfer rate of around 18 Mb/s (mega BYTES / sec) so still slow but perfectly OK so long as you aren't regularly transferring large files (> few GB).

It really depends on what you want your NAS to do - for basic multi-media serving etc the Bridge method is more than fast enough and saves having LAN cable all over the place.

For the NAS itself I'd advise getting something like a small Cube type server with RAID and install one of the excellent Linux distros - say CENTOS / SUSE / MINT /UBUNTU etc --one of those 4 though are good and stable --remember the server normally is available 24 hrs a day so you don't want repeated boots - and servers are designed for long running.

Run the thing headless (don't have a monitor on it) -- if you install VNC / XRDP you can access it from a Windows laptop / desktop via RDP / TightVNC or whatever.

I prefer running an OS like Linux on a NAS -- much easier to maintain and more flexible than using something proprietary like QNAP and of course a lot cheaper. Start with at least 2 HDD's on the NAS and have a RAID controller.

The Bridge works as follows : NAS-->Ethernet-->Bridge router-->Wifi-->Your ISP router/box-->Internet/LAN/WAN.

NAS accessible via Ethernet or Wifi depending on where you've placed your NAS and nr of ports on the Bridge router --usually 4.

Definitely go for a SERVER rather than use a desktop for the NAS -- Servers are designed for continuous running and will have better cooling and power operation. One thing though with servers -- remember most of them take a lot longer to boot than a typical laptop etc -- that's because a server goes through a lot more checks at startup - and in the BIOS there's usually a whole slew of more options.

If you do use a LINUX type OS remember to install SAMBA as a package for network sharing HDD's. The HDD's can be formatted with any file system you care to use -- IMO the fastest and safest are either EXT4 or XFS. Via SAMBA your Windows machines will have no problem reading / writing to these.

For MOVIES etc setup PLEX on your server -- I suspect your pixellation / other problems are due to some sort of transcoding taking place. With PLEX MKV / MP4 /AVI movies don't get transcoded - some H265 stuff might but if you set subtitles to automatic and enable direct play transcoding in PLEX can be avoided. You need to give the buffer size a large value too. PLEX can handle loads of users too --it's designed as a multi-media server. !!!

Read the PLEX website on how to set it all up --installs easily on Linux (and Windows too) - you only need the FREE parts. Also if you have something like GOOGLECAST or an Amazon Firestick / TV box then you can serve your own movies / streams to remote TV's (so long as they have an HDMI input).

On your client VLC is good for playing the movies or these days the built in Windows Movie player actually is OK too !!!!! -- don't bother with the older Windows media player.

Cheers
jimbo

 

He has a 700 sq ft. house (post #9). We know you love your WiFi bridges, jimbo, but not everyone needs one. Especially when the vast majority of the streaming traffic will be one way over the WiFi once you connect the NAS to the router via ethernet cable, then at most a 100' WiFi connection to the desktop or the laptop.

 

Although NAS is a great solution, my usage is low with a single user & hence there is absolutely no need for a dedicated NAS box and hence thinking of using PC to stream only.

I do have multiple Plex questions, as I just tried it today:

1] What is the difference and benefits between sharing a folder via windows 10 inbuilt sharing function vs Plex.
2] What kind of security is there in plex so that my neighbor’s cant access my files ?
3] How to stop Plex from transcoding my files before streaming.. couldn’t find anything to stop from settings.
4] In order to stream video files to my laptop I keep getting “the selected server cannot be reached securely”.
Indirect/insure connection would be possible – I checked out and theres a huge troubleshooting things which I will check once I get enough time and with new router. – Any easy solutions lemme know

You the man ! Looking for this forever *Cool

Also, one more thing I want to clear my doubts with:

While sharing folders (from Desktop) via windows sharing function and accessing on Laptop –
I also see laptop under “Network” and when I click on it there’s users folder and under all things on my
laptop. Now I haven’t shared any laptop folder, wonder why is it showing the same? Is it by default ?

 

Right click on the network icon on the left side of your task bar. Select Open Network and Sharing Center. On the left of Network and Sharing Center, click Change Advanced Sharing Settings. Under All Networks, Public Folder Sharing, click the option to turn off public folder sharing:

 

Craige my use is low for the NAS, since it is mainly for Time Machine Backups for my Macbook Air and my wife's laptop. The only other stuff that it does is record OTA tv shows and movies with the Plex Beta DVR software. We also keep all of our Pictures and documents on it, so that if we are off the LAN, we still have access to a copy if I have not put an updated copy on my iCloud for my phone.

You find that having a decent NAS is a godsend when it comes to streaming media. Just getting something like say the Western Digital LAN capable units are really bad low grade speed CPU's with very limited RAM to handle any exchange of data. In this day you need something that can handle the Wireless-ac and 1000mbps speeds with how much our use of our home networks have changed.

 

Sharing media with friends and neighbors means that you are doing the same as if you were handing them a DVD or Blu-Ray, even back in the day VHS and hoping that they will not make a copy and you get in trouble for sharing. You also have to remember that the problem with home sharing across the Internet is limited to your upload speed. If your neighbor is using your wifi on a separate segment that does not allow access to your side of the network, but can go into only those shares that their assigned username and password only allows. That is when you are talking a little more advanced, but it can be done with say NethServer or Zentyal handling the sharing and running Plex on a decent system.

I get issues with the NAS dogging down if it is doing a copy job from Time Machine, even though it has decent horsepower, it is the fact that the streams are taking a priority, since I have not really gone in and tweaked things with Plex, since I am still getting used to it.

 

Hi there

@Craige

To stop PLEX transcoding

ensure in the setttings (click on the tools icon (spanner / wrench symbol) and select WEB. (I'm using Linux but it's identical settings if you run PLEX on Windows). Ensure the ADVANCED mode is enabled.

Now:

1) choose Player from the sidebar

2) select ORIGINAL in all the three quality settings (Local, Online, Remote). Changing these will cause transcoding if the quality you select is different from the original.

3) Select next five options (HTML5, Direct Play,Direct Stream,Allow Direct play of AC3 audio, prefer AAC audio)

4) subtitles - choose for Burn subtitles either Automatic or Only for image formats - the default setting will transcode even if you don't display subtitles if any subtitles exist - also uncheck things like play cinema trailers etc.

5) Now on the GENERAL settings ensure Library is NOT updated hourly - I do it manually as I don't have a huge amount to add to my library very often I send MUSIC to a BOSE sound touch speaker too - BOSE Wifi speakers can access PLEX music libraries BTW.

6) When setting up libraries I'd disable video thumnails and when creating your library use the VIDEO scanner (even for movies) and use Personal media and Local assets as the agent.

These settings I've found minimize transcoding -- although with a decent CPU transcoding usually isn't a problem --selecting correct Buffer size IS though.

To get a decent buffer size (good also if Wifi connection drops a bit) select something like 180 secs for throttle buffer and on Windows set something like 4194304 in the setting Size of IPC buffer in bytes -- in the SERVER -->GENERAL setting

Save video of course in a form plex doesn't have to transcode - MKV, MP4, AVI, XVID etc will be fine.

Hope these tweaks help

For security - this is actually a bit of a dog -- since in theory you need to have a PLEX pass (i.e PAY). However I don't do it that way -

What you can do is in the USERS settings use the Invite Friend and then you can set restrictions on the media access.

Of course you still have standard Wifi password access to prevent 3rd parties from accessing - but as I use mine simply for LOCAL serving (including some Remote TV's via googlecast / amazon fire box / smart TV connections) the security aspect of other users is one I haven't bothered with -- I can see though this Could be a weakness of PLEX.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Jimbo I am still kind of confused on the whole Transcode. I have my Synology DIS216+2 with the DVR beta set up to record from my HD Home Run Connect, with Quality set for Automatic, Background x264 is set for Faster, Simultaneous is set for 4.

On the NVIDIA Shield TV, it is set for the Plex Player to do Original quality, Direct Stream and Direct Play from the NAS. If I play stuff off of the NAS from the web browser, that is when I get the pause and the server error about processing.

 

Thank-you all for helping me out here.
I have got a new router and streaming is no longer an issue *Smile

Furthermore I do have certain Sharing questions, which would be great if you can answer here:
Sharing Folders – Multiple Questions

 

On my network between machines I use Public between Windows and Linux, or will just make sure that the folder for the user allows certain SMB/CIF share rights to the user on that computer and log into my wife's laptop that way if I am needing to put something on her laptop, instead of her share on the Synology NAS on our network.

If having issues with Username on the machine, even with SMB/CIFS advanced permissions are correct, then we would need to dig deeper into what the changes that Microsoft has made to AU and are also making to Redstone 2. The Security software companies cannot keep up with all of the changes that Microsoft is making, along with the different groups at Microsoft are not working together, which has been an issue with them and was like that with Apple before Jobs came back after he was let go and then current management was killing the company like Microsoft has killed theirs since Gates the OCD/PITA has left.

 

The Everyone or Guest permission is one that Microsoft has made a lot of security changes in the backend to bandaid their Zero Day flaws, since they used a in house version of Samba that is older than the current version that all Linux distro's and Mac OS-X is using, same as the kernels for Linux and OS-X.

Run this report from you My Documents folder in a open Command Window as Administrator: netsh wlan show wlanreport https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10741 (make sure you place an X in your Public IP digits when you copy the HTML info for you to paste into a Text file to edit out that.) You can change your Username to something like "Help me" or just X's at the end of the folder name. Everything else for Router Internal stuff has to stay, so that we know if you are using a class A (10.10.0.0, 255.0.0.0), Class B (172.16.0.0 - 172.31.0.0, 255.240.0.0) or Class C (192.168.0.0, 255.255.255.0).