So i have been wanting to build a NAS for a long time but have never gotten around to it and I think I understand the basic principle of how it works but I was wondering if it would be possible in this type of situation. So I am moving into a new apartment that the building pays for everyone to have basic cable and internet provided by AT&T U verse. The way that they explained it to me was that each room in the building has its own router/ cable box in it. Would a NAS setup be possible in this type of networking environment?
I doubt that each room has a router in it. Most likely what is going on is that there is Ethernet Cable (most likely Cat 5e) ran through the walls of the house and you can access it through a wall plate. It might also just be that the person informing you has no idea what a router is. They could just be referring to the cable box provided by U-Verse. The boxes either get their data from either a coaxial cable line or the Ethernet port on the back of the box. My guess would be the coaxial. You will have to wait and find out what the set up is when you actually move in to determine whether or not you can use a NAS through Ethernet opposed to Wireless (I do not know if that is possible)
This is the small hub of Ethernet port in the room where my router is located: It leads to two two port Ethernet wallplates which are located in different rooms approximately 50 ft from the router. It might be that they have a main router that hooks up its main Ethernet ports to Network switches around the house. Like I said you would need to actually see what the set up is like in the apartment.
Even if there's a router there, I'd still like to use my own, separated subnet.
Get something like this TP-Link bang-for-buck router. Since I once configured my network like this, wherever I move, there's a UPnP or manual port forward if possible and a dyndns link and a permanent vpn from the WAN of my TP Link on out and all devices like my workstation or wifi hifi are plug 'n play.
That's just my personal preference. You would not even need this if there's only sockets in your flat. Then you might need a network switch and some basic knowledge on how to secure your NAS device.
Yeah the person I was talking to did not seem to know what they were talking about, but she insisted. the thing i find weird is that the entire complex shares the same wifi, its like being in a giant starbucks.... always
Basically any router with a WAN port will do what I described (besides the gimmicks like VPN, dyndns and auto UPnP, they're derived from the custom firmware dd-wrt).
Maybe ask your favorite nerd of the neighbourhood? :P
Take a look at this sloppy gliffy diagram That's how I would solve it, being as easy as possible for if you don't forward stuff and set proper keys you're pretty private inside that local subnet
/// orrr go for the simple solution and just set up the nas with a static ip (ask your local admin for one you can assign) and set up strong passwords. But do get a second and maybe a third opinion on this as I don't know whether you could call your data and the NAS device secure in that more or less 'public' setup.
It does depend on how they are setup the could be like other's have said where they pay uverse for a bulk account and each apt has one cable going down to the "basement" work room, with that you would need/be supplied with a router to which would handle all the security so like so:
uverse into basement work room> line runs up to apt> from that user hooks up router and plugs that wire from wall into wan port. i see this as unlikely to be setup in this manner, I worked for a cable company and in apt's where the customer went with us instead of uverse, the uverse had equipment in each apt.
Most likely each room has its own hookup for uverse. and the building takes part of your rent and pays the att account for their property. and in the contract they have with att it probly coveres them hooking up people, you have to pay to have service hooked up and then they pay the account idk.
i recommend you call the local AT&T and just ask them how they service your new address.
the router you have will work as long as they hook you up with an ethernet wire and not a DSL phone wire, typically uvers installs a wireless modem that is basically the same as youre router but has a port for a DSL phone line, to which is uses to get to the interent.
Didn't know, that a standard like that existed in common apt installments. In germany the cable connections is mostly unprepared and even if it is, every apt gets its own private hook by choice.
To be honest @andrix before overthinking this whole situation I'd wait till I moved in and then just adapt to whatever I come upon.
/ Oh and yes of course you'd additionaly need a modem (the ones with a phone jack) and maybe a DSL splitter if that's not already prepared for your apt up to an RJ45 jack (LAN). But your main question was whether a NAS device could work in such a situation, right? The answer is yes. The how depends on the apartment.
Alright yeah I think I will have to wait and see. Ill be very sneaky and take some pictures of the installation stuff and maybe someone who knows more about networking than I do can at least point me in the right direction. I move in next week.
If the building uses wifi as the internet connection for everybody then you could do it this way. But a cheap access point, say a tp-link, put it in client mode and connect to the wifi connection with that. Then use your choice of router and plug the ethernet cable from the access point into the WAN port of the router and there is your own private network. And then you can have your own secure wifi off of your router and have everything secured from the other users in the building.
All I would have to do is hook it into the router that I brought with me? Is there anything software side that I would need to do to get it up and running? Again sorry about all the questions like I said previously I really have little understanding of the network side of computers.
Awesome thank you @smittyjones502 I think I understnad what I can do now. I just ordered the access point this morning and it will be here monday. I will let you know if I have any issues with it. So once I create my own private wifi network, I can just plug a NAS into my router?
