Network backup recommendation
 

I’m currently trying to setup two network backup systems for the laboratory and office I work in at Mississippi State University. There are 4-5 PCs running equipment that I need to back up around once per week, plus several office computers with thesis’s and dissertations. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a NAS device? I’ve looked on newegg but most of them have horrible reviews. A storage capacity of around 200GB should be good for both.

talk with your IT department, they probubly have a bit of server space they can let you use, and a good way to do it. the community college i work at has plenty of space on our network, and if there is a legitimat use (such as yours) we would find a solution for you.

Seconded. Your university almost certainly already has a backup system in place.

Also, the plural of thesis is theses. Rhymes, not coincidentally, with feces.

He Said that the ones in the lab are hooked up to equipment and if they are specialist things they might not be hooked up to the main network say if they were macs and the main network is for windows...:confused:
Chris

Thanks for the ideas, but as Chris suggested they aren't on the main network. The faculty is so worried about virus attacks that all equipment is isolated. It was hard enough to convince my professors that a central backup drive wouldn't compromise security.

ratbastid, that's what I thought. Serves me right for trusting in Word.

I'd still contact the school admins. They may have school software licenses that would cover your needs. Hey, they'll probably even have spare tape drives if they've been through a few generations.

Worried about a viruses and worms? Do they have a LAN that is locked down, on my campus we have several VLAN's one for staff, one for student, and then several extra quarantine LANs. Is it the faculty that is concerned or the IT staff, I bet you the professors are overacting.

Bottom line, if you are doing anything computer related on campus, you need to talk with the IT department. I hate finding rouge wireless networks that have access to our main servers from some professor that thinks they know about networking. This one time, one of our 'brilliant' professors set up a DHCP server on our network, hosed the network in his building for a few hours before we tracked it down.


Mac or PC, it makes no difference to an experience IT staff, Mac can handle almost anything, excluding DFS, but DFS sucks anyways.