network question (not your typical ones...)

[omni]

My Condo is wired throughout all the rooms - except where my main iMac is (was supposed to be...but they forgot and now there is now way to get it wired now). I have 3 appletv's and they all wired but my main iMac is wireless (N for what it's worth).

Right now I have a drobo attached to my iMac but things are getting slow for whatever reason and I'm getting frustrated so looking to buy something new.

Here is my question - if I buy a NAS drive - will the data have to go from the NAS drive - to my iMac (wirelessly), then sent wirelessly back to the route/appletv?

Or does the data actually go from the NAS drive wired to the appletv's?

Just wondering if I'm really not gaining anything about buying a NAS drive.

Or if I'm going to have to bite the bullet and run a headless mini with a has drive just to have a wired iTunes media server.

 

[Darien Red Sox]

Don't quote me on this but I think that it would need to go from the NAS to the iMac and then to the Apple TV. I would get a mini or run a cable for your iMac.

 

[dreinfeld]

I believe that you could use a NAS with a built in iTunes server. My readynas duo has one. You would need to direct the ATV to that instead of the imac

 

[peterjcat]

Unless you jailbreak the ATV2s, the data has to go from the NAS to the iMac and then to the ATV2s, so that would involve two-way wireless traffic and may slow things down. No NAS has an iTunes server that will do video or work with ATV2.

 

[paduck]

This is, in fact, a typical AppleTV question. The answer is "yes, if you are streaming to an ATV using iTunes on your iMac, then data will go from your NAS to the iMac running iTunes to your ATV."

If you are renting straight from Apple, then you don't need the iMac at that time. But you wouldn't need the Drobo either!

Consider getting a low-end Mac or PC to be a media server and serve up your content from there. It can also serve as a Time Machine backup.

 

[DustinT]

Consider getting a low-end Mac or PC to be a media server and serve up your content from there. It can also serve as a Time Machine backup.

Yup, this is my plan. A Mac Mini with Lion server would be useful for whole house backups + itunes server.

 

[Hammie]

Omni,

If they were supposed to run a cable to the iMac room, then you should fight to have them do it.

If they say that it is impossible, that is a crock. I have run many a wire in wall over the years and cannot be done. It involves a little drywall patching, but it can be done.

I would fight to have it made right and not have to do an optional solution just because something was not there.

Other than that, a Mac Mini would be a nice solution. I use a Mac Mini for my Media Hub in which an ATV, ATV2, and HT receiver utilized my movies and music. I also added a 2TB FW800 HDD for all my media, which is backed up on a NetGear ReadyNAS NV+.