Ideal situation for a network drive/computer?

[Manic Harmonic]

My roommates and I are trying to set up a network drive to stream/ drag and drop music from. However, I don't really know how it works. Finding out shouldn't be too difficult but I have a few options I'm considering:

-I have an old Winbook that I plan to put linux on (heard it's better/easier? for networking and these types of situations, not to mention it's an old computer so it will run more efficiently), and plug a usb 1 or 2 tb hard drive into the usb.

-buy a network drive of the same size and plug it into my router. I don't know how this works though... Is it difficult to put files on to the hard drive remotely? Seems like it would be slow... I'd rather find one with a usb port for easier transfers but I don't know if it's necessary. If I want to take the drive over to a friend's to exchange music, would I have to set it up again on his computer?



Thanks in advance... Budget is about $150, but for the right product I MIGHT be able to spend a little bit more.

 

[Gav2k]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Network drive with Ethernet and USB would suit your needs perfectly.

Use the USB for getting everything on there in the first place then once your done connect it to the network.

If u want to take it to a friends then use it on USB.

Gives you the best of both worlds

 

[Manic Harmonic]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Network drive with Ethernet and USB would suit your needs perfectly.

Use the USB for getting everything on there in the first place then once your done connect it to the network.

If u want to take it to a friends then use it on USB.

Gives you the best of both worlds

Thanks man, is there a way to access a network drive from a mobile device?

 

[Manic Harmonic]

So,I consulted google and it looks like mobile devices should pick up the network easily with the right app.
One thing I'm confused about though, is that there's many network drives with USB... however, all but a few of them say it's for hooking up another hard drive. I would imagine using the same USB to a computer would work as expected, but I don't want to assume; can I get some clarification on this?

 

[Foogoofish]

Ok a little bit more than you are doing, but gives the same idea. I was working on this last night!

I would stay away from NAS network drives.....use that old computer! . Ubuntu 11.10 is doing well for me! I agree with Gav2k though, do an initial transfer via USB.

In the picture, the Mac Mini is an old one from the last decade, so can not support HD video. It is basically my file server - nice and quiet!

 

[paduck]

Thanks man, is there a way to access a network drive from a mobile device?

Yes, that's why you haven wifi router. It has both Ethernet and wifi. If you want to get at it from the road, you can do that as well with port-forwarding. Be aware that it will be a challenge to stream audio/video because of network latency that way, but you could download content. You ISP might limit what ports can be used, so you might/will run into that.