ICT: My home network

Date: March 2015
Function: Hobby

In the picture you will see the end result in my search for storing all my work- and private data on one device. It had the requirement to be accessible from different devices while also being able to edit the files, this included some video editing. With those requirements I started to look in the direction of nas devices.
Because I always want to know what I buy to the get the best price/performance, I had to do extensive research on nas devices. I soon realized I also needed to do more research about network systems. This all ended with me learning a lot about the current and upcoming technology in ICT network. Several aspects I learned were:

• Differences between Nas devices and light servers (extensively on Synology, Qnap and Homemade Nas)
• Network protocols
• Lan aggregation
• Switches (managed vs unmanaged and layers)
• Cable types from the first cat version to the lattest cat 6a
• 10gb lan technology (cat system)
• Network options other than cat system
• The bandwidth of video’s, 1080p is up to 30MB/S while 4k is 30-40MB/s (raw is higher)

One of the newer developments is 10gb lan technology. After some research I found that this is too expensive for home and most small offices. However, the cable systems are not expensive so if you ever plan on putting cables through your building make sure it's cat6 or 6a, they are backwards compatible. It's worth the investment for the future when 10gb network devices become cheaper. It might be possible in the future to run 10gb through the old cat5e cables but the distance will be small and less stable.

I ended up with Synology 1815+ with a Netgear managed switch. I bought a large Synology so I could easily expand it. I went with a managed Netgear switch so I could make use of lan aggregation which allows me to use multiple 1gb ports on the same device. I almost went for a Qnap device but I did not need the extra features which I would pay for or I had to do with a lesser cpu. In addition Synology has more flexibility in folder safety management which I will be using. It was a close call because I was really charmed by Qnap’s interface and device.