Networking gurus - can you help me set up my NAS?

I'd consider myself technically inclined, however some of this networking stuff goes way over my head. Case in point, about 10 years ago I purchased a D-Link DNS-323 network attached dual-bay enclosure, along with 2 Western Digital 500gb Caviar drives.


I was using this as primary storage, but had trouble with it. Fearing that I lost data, I simply unplugged it and put it away lest I ruin anything. I was pretty sure the data was gone but I didn't want to risk doing anything to completely lose it if there was a chance it could be recovered in the future.


That future is now, and I've recently managed to recover all the data off those drives. Also having a much better data-protection plan in action, I can say that the data is safe, and now have these 2 drives and a network enclosure which I can use again.


Of course they are very "old" when it comes to computing equipment, even though it has sat unused for many years I have no idea how long they will continue to work. In any case I'd like to get some use from them in the meantime. They will not be used for primary storage, simply for access.

What I have done is configured the 2 drives to run as RAID 0 to give me an effective volume of 1tb, and copied over my music library. All my lossless/hi-res currently sits at about 800gb so it's a nice fit.



I have 2 goals for this little project.



1. (The easy one)
I'd like to access the NAS on my local network, in the next room there's a laptop/foobar/dac set up. I have the NAS recognized by Windows 10 as a networked drive. So I've got this part down and have access to my full library.


2. (The slightly more involved/confusing one)


I'd like to have access to the NAS while away from my local network and set it up for SFTP access, so I can have access to my full lossless music library while on-the-go. (this + unlimited mobile data = audiophile wet dream?)


I have the "FLAC Player" app on my iPhone, and it has a feature where you can access files via sftp. I'm just not sure what the appropriate settings would be, or how to even configure my NAS/router to even allow such a thing.


I have configured Remote Desktop access in the past so I know I'm capable of doing something similar, I just really can't remember how I did it at the time and probably followed a guide.


My google-fu so far has been unsuccessful when trying to figure out how to access this drive via sftp, and in my attempts it seems I may have screwed things up a bit and even had to reflash firmware/settings to get back to where I was. Anyone who can help or maybe provide some guidance, it would be greatly appreciated. Many great thanks and internet cool-points will be bestowed upon you.

 

Ok easy. First I would reconfigure those drives in a RAID 1. You do not have to but for me having the parity drive is insurance against disk errors or failures. Again my choice considered the value of my collection vrs. the cost of storage. But to move on with what you want. I assume the laptop you are using as your music server (Foobar in the other room) is on your network and the NAS is being seen by it? If this is true then open Foobar-select the Library Tab-select Configure-aim Foobar at the NAS file holding your music. If you have not created a file system and only have "loose files" on the NAS, create a Folder and call it whatever you want (mine is call duh..music). Move all your music files/folders into it and then you can select the "music folder" in the Foobar setup. Once done Foobar will index and monitor the library.Here is a setup guide (Play Music Like An Audiophile With Foobar2000 [Windows] »).

Next is remote access of the NAS. I use Synology so I know it specifically. So in general you need to look at the the NAS documentation on how to set it up for external access. You may have to make settings in your Router also. Take a look here ()). If I understand what you want it may answer your needs.

 

Get new drives. It is cheap insurance. And raid 1.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I just want to point out that the choice to use RAID 0 was a very conscious decision. The drives are ancient and small, so the extra capacity is a big plus. And again, I expect these drives to fail at any given moment. They are unreliable and so are not being used for storage - simply for access only. Any use I get out of them at this point is a plus, since I have not been able to use them for the past 10 years. I'm just making use of them while I can rather than throwing them out.

When I put together something I really plan on using for actual storage, I will likely be making a more informed purchase of a nicer enclosure, and nicer hard drives. Which I will be running as RAID 1.


I'll have a look at that video while I'm seated in front of this thing so maybe I can figure out the right settings

Edit: I don't have the "virtual server" settings page used in the video for the 325. If I'm not wrong this really seems like such a basic function and something that any NAS should be capable of by definition, but that would indicate that the 323 can't do it too?

 

You may be able to install subsonic on your NAS and then access that with an app for your phone. I see there is an app for D-Link NAS' s but not sure if your model is supported.

 

I have this arrangement. It is truly awesome. You need a program/software to "serve" the music to your phone, via a port in your home's firewall, in order for your phone to get it. I use Logitech Media Server/Squeezebox running on my Mac mini 24/7, and a applicable app on my phone. The phone app is a music player, and I "point" the location of the server to the external IP of my home, open up a port on the firewall to let the appropriate traffic pass, and boom it works.

 

Giving this a slight bump. I'll be going away in about a week so I'd really like to get this set up before then

Just to clarify, I am not looking for PC software to act as a server pointed to a directory that serves the files, I would like to access this NAS via SFTP and am unsure of how to configure things so that may be possible. While I appreciate the alternate suggestions they are really not appropriate and do not help me to achieve the goal of accessing the NAS via SFTP using the FLAC Player app.

 

It's too bad you feel my suggestion is not appropriate. I really don't think there is anyway to do what you're describing. There is no such "FLAC player app" that has the ability to use SFTP to do what you're looking for.

You admit in the first post that this networking stuff is over your head. If you're looking for a solution that requires no new hardware, and a <$10 app, you could get this set up in about an hour, and you'd be enjoying your music during you trip. Cheers.

 

I of course don't expect you to spend $10 to find out for yourself, but if you simply view the "FLAC Player" app in the App Store, you'll note the following in the description.

"FLAC Player can download from SFTP Servers… NAS devices, or other systems running SSH."

And one of the screenshots provided does in fact show the functionality of accessing remote files. So I can assure you that the app does in fact exist with this functionality, and presumably works as advertised.


Regardless of what the app is capable of - what I use to access the NAS is besides the point. My problem is that I don't know how to configure the NAS so I can access it, from anything. App or otherwise. Like I said, a lot of this networking stuff goes above my head so anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the textbook definition/main functionality of a NAS is a storage device that is meant to be accessed remotely via ssh and/or ftp. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I understand that to be a major purpose of such a device. So I'd rather not configure software and leave a computer running 24/7 to achieve a similar end goal when I can use the purpose built hardware I already have that was designed for this very task. Again, I appreciate your insight and I don't mean to offend or appear dismissive. I am glad that you have a solution that works for your needs but it simply does not fit mine.

 

Just google for the manual and read where to check the box on the web interface to turn on FTP.

 

It appears as if the server is active so I presume that it's "on" but to access outside of the local network I imagine there's some very specific configuration that would have to take place in my router settings. And then of course to access it there would have to be some configuration of the ssh client to point it to the right place as well… I'm definitely lost.

 

Here is a good article from Chris C. at Computer Audiophile that explains the process your attempting to accomplish. He uses JRiver as playback software as do I. Creating the port forwarding on your router will be virtually indentical regardless of the playback software you choose to use. I would recommend having the directions for your NAS and router present as well.

Computer Audiophile - Streaming Around The Globe Or Around The Home With JRiver Media Center »

 

Thanks for the link, I gave it a good check over but it appears that he's also using Jriver as the server as well as the playback software? I think I'm way misunderstanding this he did make mention of having Jriver installed on a NAS to serve music but I'm unsure of why this would be done if the NAS already acts as a server.

 

Even if you were to get it to work in this manner, it would be a "pull" type functionality. You're simply pointing the FLAC player's file origin path back to your NAS, and asking it to pull down files to the phone. You might be able to stream one song while it tries to pull down a folder to load on your phone, but this is not the same thing as requesting one song, listening for a minute, changing your mind and looking to listening to a different song immediately.

You don't have to leave a computer running 24/7. Your NAS can already run LMS, or presumable JRiver, and just server up the files to your phone. Right now, you don't have anything installed to "push" the files/music to your phone, even if/when you do get an app to request such files. The FLAC app just appears to "pull" them.

Anyways. One last try then I'll bow out of here unless you have more questions regarding my (and several others') suggestion:

1. You will need to set up rules on your firewall to let the NAS send out traffic on a TCP/UDP port, i.e. 9000
2. You probably need a DNS service, or static IP for your home internet, so your phone can look up your IP and your port above
3. Life will be much easier if you use purpose-built software that used by thousands to try to do this.

 

The FLAC app requires Secure SSH/SFTP. Your NAS device (it's not a server) only appears to offer basic FTP capabilities.

 

I think I understand what you're saying, in that the networking capability of the FLAC Player app is more akin to a file transfer than something more akin to traditional streaming.. Which I suppose is a roundabout way of essentially achieving the same end goal but I actually think I would prefer it that way, which is why I'm so adamant to go about it the file transfer route rather than the traditional "media streaming" route. Theoretically once this is set up for sftp access it could be accessed by any device, and for any file in any directory (although I do only intend to use it for audio files at this point in time)


I do know that I have an open port for outside access because I often use Windows Remote Desktop when away from home. I tried configuring the nas similarly to my laptop in my router settings but again I have no idea what I'm doing. So I know it's possible to get in to my home network/ip from outside, just… no idea how.

Hmm. Okay I think this explains quite a bit as to why I've been having trouble. I installed a custom firmware (funplug) and from what I can tell this does offer an ssh server! But again, I have no idea how to configure or access it. I think I need an IT guy

 

Correction: I confused it with something else I saw online. What I actually installed as an alternate firmware is "Alt-F 0.1RC5"


My main problem with this is that while this appears to include an ssh functionality (that I still do not know how to use) that the standard firmware doesn't provide as far as I am aware, it also breaks functionality with the packaged d-link easy-setup utility, it can no longer find the device. So I am not sure how to map it as a networked drive in Windows without being able to use that utility.

 

You'd almost be better off buying a raspberry pi or something like that as a lightweight server, and serving the content from there. Then you can do anything you can imagine as long as you're willing to get your hands a little dirty.

 

Yup $60 and done.

 

I'm not sure how the Rasberry Pi would help in this scenario, if you can elaborate. I really don't understand why it's so difficult to SSH into a common and well-reviewed NAS enclosure. Surely such a trivial networking function isn't impossible on the device I already own? Or is that what is being implied?

 

Raspberry Pi means you'd run a lightweight music server software on the Pi, which is connected to the NAS for the music files. A Pi can be easily set up to send music files out through your firewall, via an open port, to your phone. I think you're overestimating what you can do with SSH/FTP. Even if you get the NAS to work, it's going to be clunky, slow and frustrating.

5 different people on this thread have recommended doing something other than what you've original requested. No one thinks that SSH/FTP to a FLAC player app, directly from NAS is a good idea (we're still not even sure it will work!). So why not take the easy path? No one appears to be able to help you with the "hard way"

 

You can still use the web interface even if the utility doesn't see it. If you're not sure what the IP address is, log into your router's interface and you'll be able to find it there.

 

I know, I know. I'm definitely as stubborn as they come and very much going against conventional wisdom here, but I think this method would work fine for my needs. Again, the goal here was to use hardware that I already have laying around instead of throwing it out. When I actually invest into this it's going to be something much more robust and functional.

So for now, the only 2 goals I have are:

1. To mount the DNS-323 as a network drive in Windows 10
(I had this done on stock firmware thanks to D-Link's easy utility, but I don't know how to do it "manually" and the D-Link utility will not recognize it as a D-Link box once Alt-F is installed)

2. To SSH into the DNS-323
(supposedly can't do this with stock firmware, Alt-F claims to run an SSH server so I installed that)


So if anyone can walk me through either/both of these two goals, it would be greatly appreciated. I am definitely at my wits end, which I probably deserve for doing things the hard way. I just don't know why this is seemingly so difficult to do something so trivial. I have past experience with installing/running/accessing ssh servers, mainly on the iPhone, although that was only on my local network so it was much more straightforward.

 

This is true and basically the current state of affairs. I have access to all the device settings and statistics from my web browser by entering the device IP, and I'm able to see that the ssh server is running. But I don't know how to mount it as a network drive without the utility, and I don't know how to ssh into it from outside of the network.

 

Using 10 year old technology is asking for trouble...buy a Synology and two new WD Red drives...all the things you could ever want to do are included in their software.