Advice on network access/backup

[bolfings]

I am trying to design a very simple household back-up / shared file system.

I ordered a new Netgear WNR3500L router today. I like that it supports some of the open-source firmware, the processor speed and memory, and especially that it offers 4 gig ports and a USB port.

What I would like to do is place this between my DSL modem and a 24 port switch, which I have my DVRs, Macs, slimservers, and PCs all plugged into. The macs, with gig ethernet in them, could plug right into the router - everything else into the switch. Then, I would like to find a good USB 2.0 external drive with 2 drives in it that can be configured Raid 1, with at least 1 TB storage ( 2 1TB drives min. ). This I figure I would plug into the router, and establish some shares on it so that each mac would have an alotment for backing up themselves with Time Machine, and a common space for everyone to be able to access common files. The macs ( 2 minis, and a Macbook ) would be able to backup either wired at gig speeds, or wirelessly at "N" speed -

So - Any thoughts about how to set this up, or recommendations on a good (inexpensive) USB drive, or experience trying this that anyone can share?

Thanks!

[Cypher]

I have a similar setup.

My Cable modem connects to a 100Mbps 4 port Wireless Router. I also have an additional 5 port Gigabit Switch connected which I use to interconnect the Macs and a 4TB Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ NAS drive which I use for a media centre and also for backups.

My experience is that even though the NAS and Macs are on the Gigabit switch the speed isn't anything like as good as I thought it would be but I have found it is adequate for my needs. Connecting Wirelessly is slow though especially when your transferring big files or doing your initial TimeMachine backups so where every possible I connect up to the wired network. My NAS drive is also running a version of linux which has given me a few issues with file permissions due to Snow Leopards extended attributes not being fully supported.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[bolfings]

Thats kinda what I'm afraid of - If I have this large drive hooked to the router, do you think I'll be able to VERY reliably use it for Time Machine backups and restores for multiple users, and still maintain a partition that could keep a bunch of common files available to everyone? I'm thinking of all our music, that I play through the house with Squeezeboxes, and I also want to be able to use it as a library with itunes with multiple users -

It all seems like it should be pretty straightforward, but its the little issues ( file permissions, disk formats, wireless protocols, etc ) that crop up and wreak havoc on the best thought plans -

[Cypher]

When I say that the wifi is slow, i probably should have said it's slow in comparison to Gigabit Ethernet so for me it's a no brainer to try and transfer large files over wifi when I can much more quickly just plug in an Ethernet cable and do it in a fraction of the time.

My NAS drive isn't the quickest by far, in fact it's quite slow compared to the more modern ones. I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro which both have Plex installed. My daughter has a Macbook again with Plex installed and my two sons have Windows laptops running XMBC. I've had all of them running at the same time watching different TV shows and Movies all from the same NAS drive. Most of my TV shows haven't been encoded to HD quality, so that does help reduce the bandwidth required. I'm not sure how it would have coped if we'd all tried watching HD quality shows.

I also have a load of music on the drive but thats mainly backup storage. Would having iTunes on multiple machines sharing a single common library even be possible?

I also use the drive as a common file area where we all share files and I also have a time machine share on the drive. At the moment it's only my iMac that I've got setup to use it.

I have had a few issues with file permission, but I'm hoping a firmware update will fix that problem although now I know the quirks of my particular NAS its not really much of a problem.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S