First time building a NAS. Need lots of Help...

[ChusHuy]

First, I'm a total noob so please bear with me guys. Thanks a lot, much love UwU

 

I want a way to access my 696GB of Private Research Video, without needing to store them on each of my devices. also, I want to access them, both when I'm at home on the toilet and when out about somewhere on a public toilet. I have heard about Plex, but I'm a bit concern about my privacy, mostly because of my Private Research Video are well private, so I want to go DIY. 

which left me with FreeNAS, but it would seem it is much more complicated then I intended, so I want to ask the Forum first before starting.

 

1. All I have is my laptop, but I read that not every laptop is supported by FreeBSD which FreeNAS is based on, can this be a roadblock?

Spec:  

Spoiler

System Model    Aspire E5-575G
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date    Insyde Corp. V1.47, 06-Sep-18 Ironman - SK
RAM 16GB DDR4 2133MHz

Graphics: Geforce 940MX

Storage: 500GB MP500 SSD / 500GB HDD

2. I have heard dual-booting with FreeNAS isn't recommended? what if I install FreeNAS on a separate HDD, would it help?

3. After installing FreeNAS, would I have access to the files if I just plug the laptop in the Router through the Ethernet port? or do I have to do some configurations? where can you get some tutorial?

4. Can I still use my laptop? I would still need to bring it to school here and there, so would disconnecting it once every week be OK? 

5. How about getting a Raspberry Pi 4 and turn it into a NAS?

6. How can my phone access the files when not home? Can I connect to the drive through file explorer network feature and just access them normally, or do I have I get a separate app to play the files? (I want to keep using the Poweramp an Gallery)

9. I want to use the Media Player on PS4, so how can I get DLNA supported? Is there a different App on PS4 besides the Media Player?

 

Again, thank you very much guys, all help is appreciated. Much love, hope everyone have nice day

 

 

[DrProfSagi]

hey, i am not familiar with freenas that much...

but i have myself plex server at home.

i obviously didn't read the entire thing, but plex privacy policy says (sort of), that your data is yours, and that they are not accessing it and are keeping your privacy.

i don't know how much you can count on it, but just keep it in mind that you might just be able to sort this out by reading their entire policy...

 

to your dual boot questions:

dual boot is not recommended by any company for two main reasons:

1. they want you to give them exclusivity, no one likes to share...
2. every kind of dual boot comes with at least a bit of funkiness

i personally dual booted my laptop after windows 10 update back in the days... and i was able to access my windows files from my ubuntu second boot, but not the other way around.

if you going for a "resilient" solution, i wouldn't go with laptops, especially one you use for other stuff.

not only that dual boot has a big risk of just wipping your previous boot, it is also not a good idea to use a laptop in general, as they are not built for continues workload, meaning they are built to be portable, and not be on 24/7 and serve data.

 

a raspberry pi 4 is actually a great option for your situation, use the sd card for a boot "drive", and attach a hard disk/ssd or even two in software raid to the usb3, and you are golden.

if you are going for a rpi and need help setting it up, message me and i will gladly do what i can to help

 

for accessing trough a phone, if you are going plex, they have a phone web view, that lets you access your videos freely, and also a paid app and paid subscription to access your data, and if you are setting it up right, it is accessible from everywhere you have network.

 

to your last question i can not provide answer as i am not that familiar with that area...

 

hope i helped.