Synology DS 406

[cirruslogic]

Firstly, this is my first post, and I am very new to this technology, and as yet have not even got a squeezebox yet.

Before I take the plunge and spend loads of my hard earned cash, can anyone tell me whether the synology DS 406 is a good NAS device to use with slimserver?? Or, would I be better going for an Infrant solution? (I prefer the smaller and quieter 406 tho)

Also, will installing slimserver cripple any of the 'out-the-box' features of the NAS?

and, finally, can I use AlienBBC with the with this?

Thanks in advance.

[flipflip]

You mean CS-406, do you? Yes, it's great to run SlimServer (the best from the DS/CS family).

The DS-106 is okay as well. The DS-106x is slightly better than the DS-106 but not available outside Switzerland.

SSODS won't touch the functionality of the DS at all.

And yes, you can use AlienBBC with it. You can even choose if you want it delivered to the Squeezebox as mp3 (via lame), as flac (via flac) or as pcm data (directly from mplayer). It is even possible to feed several SB with different BBC-streams.

On noise: look around the forum. The devices are not noiseless.

Read the README.txt on my page (see signature below). It covers all your questions.

Regards,
flipflip

[cirruslogic]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, sorry I did mean the ds-406.

Oh, thats great news regarding the compatibility, ok, looks like Im going to take the plunge and buy two sb3's and A Nas device. Just a question of which one, synology or infrant?

The reviews I've read on the ds-406 suggested it was reasonably quiet, and the infrant rather noisy. I suppose noise levels are subjective, and without having the two side-by-side.

AlienBBC - sounds good, although I'm a bit lost on your explanation on delivery formats, oh well, suppose I can learn that about when the time comes, as long as I know it works.

[bpa]

AlienBBC does NOT work on Infrant.

[flipflip]

Yes, sorry I did mean the ds-406.

Aye :->

AlienBBC - sounds good, although I'm a bit lost on your explanation on delivery formats, oh well, suppose I can learn that about when the time comes, as long as I know it works.

Right. The point is that it works.

flip

[cirruslogic]

Ok, got my CS-406 and Squeezeboxes.

Have not got my drives yet, have not tested slimserver on the cs, really impressed with server running on the pc over 3 x SBs.

A question:-
When my drives do turn up, Id like to use Raid 5. But.. what if, in a couple of years time my CS dies but drives are ok, or I decide to upgrade... Can I transfer the raid into another host and expect it to work?

Thanks

[flipflip]

You don't really expect low-cost (consumer) drives running 24/7 to last for years, do you? In my experience they don't last very long.. e.g. in our lab with maybe 50 harddisks in about 15 PCs, harddisks crash on a regular basis (one every 3-6 months).. and we buy the expensive server/professional grade models (used to be SCSI, now is SATA). At least we usually get them replaced by the manufacturer for free.

Probably they will work in a Linux-PC since the DS uses Linux' software RAID (md).

If you use simple mirroring (e.g. with 2x1 harddisks) each harddisk can be mounted individually on Linux. If the array consists of more disks and you use the more sophisticated raid levels, it will be a bit more complicated. But in theory, it should be possible, i think.

I would recommend to have backups on tape, DVD or so..

flip

[roamingstudio]

Had a friend who was a devout Hardware Raid = answer to everything guru. Until one drive failed (in bit mirroring) : then on reboot the mirrored drive also failed. He was lucky - he ressurected the mirrored one; but still lost some data.

For most home users (i.e. non-corporate systems where downtime is not business critical) RAID comes across as more of a gimmick and it is probably (but not necessarily) easier to invest in systems where you can simply mirror data overnight.

[cirruslogic]

I have got the CS-406 with Slim Server 6.5.0 installed, all working very good.


Can anyone advise how to get AlienBBC installed on this device?

Thanks

[flipflip]

Yeah, RTFM (README.ssods).

Or a bit more detailed :->

The README.ssods tells you how to enable the SlimServer installation directory as a normal share so you can add/modify files in there.

Once you have that, you copy the Alien folder (found in the Plugins folder of the alienbbc...zip/.tar.gz) into the Plugins folder of the SlimServer installation. You don't need the Bin folder from the alienbbc package.

Then modify the custom-convert.conf as described in README.ssods.

Regards,
flip