Wireless Home Networking for Mac and PC

Can I get some advice from folks about how to set up a secure wireless home network so that my wife (PC), guests (PC or Mac) and I (Mac) can share files?

Ideally, I'd like to set up in the home some dedicated hard disk space that both my wife and I can access -- guests, too, if they have a password -- where we can upload and share our photos (RAW or JPG). Would like something to which I can keep adding more storage as needed.

It'd be nice for this connection to also be fast enough that I can work with my RAW files over this network. Will it be the wireless router itself that will limit the capable download speeds? If so, which routers would be the fastest?

Interesting topic Nathan. I'm no expert but in addition to the typical password approach most use for wireless security I also have my network set up such that I filter by Mac address (allow only Mac addresses that I've entered). It's a bit more hassle when setting up a new user.

For my kids I also have the router deny access to the internet for all of their devices after 11pm on weekdays.

Friend suggested looking at Synology or Qnap connected to a wireless router.

Thoughts?

We have the AEBS with 802.11ac but only my MacBook Air can use that speed. The biggest limitation is the USB2 port.

My work uses Synology and they highly recommend it. I would also highly recommend it. Expensive but a lot of options. I don't have access to it but when I was looking at it, there was a lot of options you can do with it.

I use an ASUS Router that allows me to create guest accounts and restrict them from viewing my files. I use an external HD to hook up to it but this is only temporary but I will be switching to a Synology setup when I have the funds for it. I am going to the Synology only because of the 2 disk bays and faster speeds since my router does not have a USB 3 port.

The main thing that sucks is that Wireless is shared bandwidth and quite often is a simplex transmission. Meaning if you have the typical 802.11n 150Mbps and you are copying data between two wireless devices, you are effectively halving the speed. I get typically 8MB/s (135Mbps real connection speed/2 devices/8 for bits to bytes) when sharing files with my wife's laptop over wifi. That means over a half hour to transfer one 16GB memory card of pictures to the other computer. Even just browsing slideshow style with large RAW files means a few seconds for each image to load. It's pretty poor for a user experience point of view.

So you need to invest in high grade WIFI with multiple antennas to support full duplex and higher bandwidth, or go wired if you want seamless data sharing, based on my experience.

+1 for Synology, I have one connected to my network with dual 2GB RAID 1 drives. I use it for backup of my primary Win 7 desktop, but it also has folders for shared files.

Can't speak to the wireless speed, mine is hard wired.

I also use Goodsync to sync my files from the desktop to the Synology box, set to sync every hour. It's fast (wired).

tkbslc wrote in post #16938722
So you need to invest in high grade WIFI with multiple antennas to support full duplex and higher bandwidth, or go wired if you want seamless data sharing, based on my experience.

Mine as well. I used to use an airport express with an onboard 2TB drive. It provided a guest network as well as network storage. But opening raw files over wireless (even with current fast routers) can be painful. A GB wired network provides much faster access to networked files.

Looking at going Synology as well. I am hoping it will allow for Time Machine back ups wirelessly. Need to consolidate a bunch of external drives and Synology looks like the best solution, along with allowing for security system recording. Looking at 16TB 4 bay solution but it is pricy.

you will need a nice big bag of patience if you want to work with Raw files over wireless. Transmission speed is too low and latency is just too high for that to work seamlessly. with that said Lets get started....

First: "secure wireless home network" How secure do you want to be? For the most Basic security, WPA2 works well just choose a nice password (15 letters min random, or a string of 5 or so words). That is bare minimum. If you feel like you want more security I would pass all the MAC address filtering or hiding your SSID as that wont work that just makes people interested in hacking into your network. Beefier security = WPA2 enterprise... Having a RADIUS server is a great way to to lock down any network but that will take more than basic hardware.

As for a network attached storage device If you like to go a little beyond the "in the box solution" I would suggest putting together a computer with a low powered embedded solution with an intel Celeron 1037U(An Intel Avoton processor would be great too!) with some ram, hard drive and the fixings.... This setup can have a huge potential with automated backups, Network sharing, Plex Media server (Awesome service) etc.... You can add drives as you need it, Possibilities are vast. I know the "in the box solutions can do this but can use proprietary formatting which can be problematic if the unit fails and you have a raid array, it will be hard to rebuild the raid if the whole thing dies and you cant find the same exact controller the raid was built on, all data is lost. Just something to think about

If you like to tinker a little and want to expand you knowledge about networks, data and servers This is a great way to get into it with plenty of room for growth.

If this is something you would be interesting in let me know and I can help.

After reading all the feedback, I think I'll have decide where I want to put the router and hardwire myself into it for RAW file work. However, I'll still set up a network for my wife to drop her files and for me to access wirelessly should there by a need.

Typically, I'll keep the catalogue files on my laptop anyway... so if I'm just culling or printing, not actual RAW editing, should I experience much of a problem with wireless latency?

Nathan wrote in post #16953235
so if I'm just culling or printing, not actual RAW editing, should I experience much of a problem with wireless latency?

Yeah. It takes about 3-5 seconds just to flip to the next image. Editing actually is better because after the 3-5 seconds its in RAM and then it works like normal. Flipping through images one by one is where you'll feel like you are on dial up internet again. Printing is fine after you open the image and its in RAM.

If you're on a budget, though, you can just setup the shared folders on the computers, and upload/download stuff this way. The way I have it setup at home is that my Win 8.1 desktop is always on. It has 4tb drive + small ssd for the os files. This 4tb drive is being shared over LAN and being constantly backed up to the CrashPlan (unlimited space there). This eliminated the need for NAS. However, everybody is different. And I'm sure it could be of inconvenience if you desktop or laptop is not on all the time. You can also map the drives, so they are present permanently.

bikfoto wrote in post #16966061
If you're on a budget, though, you can just setup the shared folders on the computers, and upload/download stuff this way. The way I have it setup at home is that my Win 8.1 desktop is always on. It has 4tb drive + small ssd for the os files. This 4tb drive is being shared over LAN and being constantly backed up to the CrashPlan (unlimited space there). This eliminated the need for NAS. However, everybody is different. And I'm sure it could be of inconvenience if you desktop or laptop is not on all the time. You can also map the drives, so they are present permanently.

If you wanted to save some power you could set the desktop to utilize sleep and wake on LAN. It goes to sleep after sitting idle for 30-60 minutes or whatever, and wakes up as soon as something tries to access it on the network.

However, it doesn't make wireless any faster.