I need some storage and rather than getting just another hard drive I was thinking about NAS.

I run a Mac and it would be good if I could store my iTunes folder on it… and am I right in thinking that I can then access the data from anywhere with an internet connection? I’m a little confused as to the possibilities.

Western Digital 1TB My Book World Edition NAS Gigabit Ethernet looks pretty good value, or would you definitely go for something with RAID – Iomega 1TB StorCenter perhaps?

What’s your setup and what does it do?

RAID – worth it if you are going to use as only back up. Personally, I’ve got a couple of drives and to multiple backups.

Remote access depends on the box you get, but you need to consider the following:
The NAS & your router need to be on to access it remotely, so do you want these on 24×7?
You need to ensure you apply very good security to the setup so the you & only you can access it from outside the home

So being able to get to my music, and secure files, from anywhere is not a good idea. But I could limit access from the IP address at work?

Depends on the interface it comes with, I believe. You should be able to apply restrictions using the firewall on your router as well (if it has one).

Prob worth checking that you get a static IP address from your ISP in the office as well. If you don’t you could end up with a bit of a headache when it changes

so ay particular recommendations?

I used to use a NAS system (well Linux with SMB/NFS but that is what most NAS boxes use anyway) for my iTunes folder to my iMac. In the end I moved the iTunes to my Mac as I had to continually connect to the network share before firing up iTunes, else it would default to my Music folder.

You could, I guess, use ‘Back to my mac’ if you are running leopard on both machines. Or share out your mac’s Music folder using SMB.

Make sure that any NAS box you buy will work with MacOS. I have heard that some only work with Windows, must be a strange network protocol…