Is this possible? NAS question.

[Blueprint]

Am I able to have a NAS at my home (200 miles away) and backup my files from my pc over the internet from my college room? How slow would the transfer rate be and how secure is it?

 

Thanks,

Blueprint

[Vitalius]

Yes. You can do that. Either by giving your NAS a hostname (i.e www.domain.com or with dyndns) or something similar then backing up to that.

The speed is entirely dependent upon your college room's upload speed and your home's download speed. Upload is usually the slowest bit, but at a college, that's probably not true.

It's only as secure as you make it. If you use SSH, then it is pretty secure as long as you do it right. 

What I would do, is I would have my computer at home, then make an initial backup (because backing up the OS and such first would take the most data usage). Then, change the hostname from the IP at home to whatever domain you give it (dyndns can be useful for this purpose) when you go to college and let it rock on with that.

The only issue might be that the college blocks SSH ports (22 usually), so you'll need to pick a different port to use (make sure it's a port that nothing important uses). Even then, they could block it with more advanced software that can tell it's SSH just by looking at the data. In that case, you'd have to find a different way to make it secure, which could be difficult. 

[Blueprint]

Yes. You can do that. Either by giving your NAS a hostname (i.e www.domain.com) or something similar then backing up to that.

The speed is entirely dependent upon your college room's upload speed and your home's download speed. Upload is usually the slowest bit, but at a college, that's probably not true.

It's only as secure as you make it. If you use SSH, then it is pretty secure as long as you do it right. 

Ah ok thanks. Is it possible to make a folder that automatically syncs with the NAS?

[Vitalius]

Ah ok thanks. Is it possible to make a folder that automatically syncs with the NAS?

I finished editing that post btw. Might want to skim it for what I added.

When you say "syncs with the NAS", do you mean "monitors a folder and takes new files on the NAS in the folder and downloads them to your PC"? If so, then yes. You'd just use that same SSH connection and have a briefcase or install a plugin on your NAS like OwnCloud for syncing files between the NAS and the computer. That could bypass the need for the SSH connection and the ports and such, but I am not sure if it's as secure.

[ShadowCaptain]

Ah ok thanks. Is it possible to make a folder that automatically syncs with the NAS?

 

I use windows home server not sure if that makes things different...

 

You can map a network drive to your PC, so basically the NAS/Server appears like a local hard drive

[Blueprint]

I finished editing that post btw. Might want to skim it for what I added.

When you say "syncs with the NAS", do you mean "monitors a folder and takes new files on the NAS in the folder and downloads them to your PC"? If so, then yes. You'd just use that same SSH connection and have a briefcase or install a plugin on your NAS like OwnCloud for syncing files between the NAS and the computer. That could bypass the need for the SSH connection and the ports and such, but I am not sure if it's as secure.

Read through the post edit - I'm not hugely familiar with network protocols and the such but I am interested in understanding them and using them for things such as a NAS. I read about what SSH is, is it hard to implement/apply? Yeah, I mean have a folder where all of the files in that folder automatically sync with the NAS like OneDrive or Google Drive. 

[Vitalius]

Read through the post edit - I'm not hugely familiar with network protocols and the such but I am interested in understanding them and using them for things such as a NAS. I read about what SSH is, is it hard to implement/apply? Yeah, I mean have a folder where all of the files in that folder automatically sync with the NAS like OneDrive or Google Drive. 

Not really. You just generate an SSH public key on your NAS, then give that to whatever will be connecting to the NAS (i.e. your PC for example). I've only used it for connecting to FreeNAS and setting up replication between FreeNAS systems, but I'm fairly sure the process is similar for other things. You just don't get a button that says "SSH key scan" or "SSH public key" and have to generate your own. It shouldn't be beyond googling to do depending on your specific programs/hardware.

Then OwnCloud is what you want. That's basically what it is. It makes your NAS your own personal cloud like Google Drive or whatever.

[Blueprint]

Not really. You just generate an SSH public key on your NAS, then give that to whatever will be connecting to the NAS (i.e. your PC for example). I've only used it for connecting to FreeNAS and setting up replication between FreeNAS systems, but I'm fairly sure the process is similar for other things. You just don't get a button that says "SSH key scan" or "SSH public key" and have to generate your own. It shouldn't be beyond googling to do depending on your specific programs/hardware.

Then OwnCloud is what you want. That's basically what it is. It makes your NAS your own personal cloud like Google Drive or whatever.

Ah ok thank you. You've been very helpful.

[Vitalius]

Ah ok thank you. You've been very helpful.

You're welcome. If you need any help with anything else, feel free to ask.