DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Hrmm, so the DNS would download the torrents directly instead of your PC (what is the difference)? 

In terms of windows shares.  I run a backup program on my main windows PC, it nightly grabs data from my various drives & network drives (WD Netcenter, WD MBW, other pc's, etc).  Could i have the DNS do those backups with Rsync? 

Or are people using Rsync to backup drive 1 in the DNS to drive 2?

Supposedly - running BT on the DNS-323 as against running it on a PC is that the DNS-323 uses a lot less energy than a PC, so if it means you can turn the PC off instead of having it running 24/7, the advantage would be seen in your electricity bill.

Well I think the point is that you already have the DNS-323 and since it's going to be running 24/7 in the majority of setups it makes sense to have it do BT stuff for you.  I wouldn't buy it for that purpose alone but once you have it there's little reason to setup a separate machine to run 24/7 for BT purposes.  Additionally, if you're going to store the files on the DNS-323 anyways then having the client there simplifies the whole thing and takes a bunch of stuff out of the equation.

I agree that if the BT client on the DNS-323 satisfies one's need, it would be a perfect choice to download stuff. Much lower cost.

My personal experience is that any value-added features on consumer NAS boxes are of limited usability. For example, my DNS-323 experience is as follows:

Network file storage in a home? About perfect.

Print server? Works sporadically at best.
BT client? Too many limitations.
Media servers? Good in concept; many practical problems.
DDNS: received abuse warnings.

Almost all of the value-added features are orders of magnitude simpler on an old laptop. I used to lose a lot of my hairs trying to tweak the DNS-323 to work properly until I started to treat it as what it should be--home network file storage. Likewise, I used to pull my hairs trying to stream stuff to my so-called media extenders such as xbox 360, etc, until I just gave up and built a number of low-cost HTPCs for each of my TV. :-)

fordem wrote:

toolbox wrote:

blahsome wrote:

Actually an old laptop with a sizable hard drive wouldn't be a bad idea as a download client at all. It offers most flexibility at a comparable power consumption level as the DNS-323 (as long as you turn off the LCD display).

old laptop will work but most old laptop doesn't have a "sizeble" hard drive. a 3~4 yr old laptop would have a 60GB drive and not 1.5GB. In addition, most old laptop don't have gigabit network interface card.

Are you confusing a download client with a NAS?

There's no need for a download client to have either a humongous hard disk or gigabit ethernet - I'm inclined to ask how large is the file you're downloading and how fast is your internet connection?

With the DNS-323, I can torrent stuff and keep the stuff there and available to any and all of PCs. With an old laptop, you can download but you need to move stuff to someplace else once the hard drive is filled.

toolbox wrote:

fordem wrote:

toolbox wrote:

old laptop will work but most old laptop doesn't have a "sizeble" hard drive. a 3~4 yr old laptop would have a 60GB drive and not 1.5GB. In addition, most old laptop don't have gigabit network interface card.

Are you confusing a download client with a NAS?

There's no need for a download client to have either a humongous hard disk or gigabit ethernet - I'm inclined to ask how large is the file you're downloading and how fast is your internet connection?

With the DNS-323, I can torrent stuff and keep the stuff there and available to any and all of PCs. With an old laptop, you can download but you need to move stuff to someplace else once the hard drive is filled.

There's a reason I'm leaving the nested quotes

You are confusing a download client with a NAS.

A download client is for downloading stuff - the NAS is for storage - you want both in one device.

toolbox: I'm running version 0.6.4 of rtorrent. I had not heard of ntorrent until you mentioned it in this thread. A quick google showed a GUI frontend for rtorrent. Let me know if I'm wrong as I just clicked on two links...

My understanding is that this would require some sort of X server which the DNS323 does not support mostly due to cpu limitations. If you're looking for a shortcut to start using rtorrent I would recommed jumping in feet first and embracing the rtorrent command line. I've only been using for about the past 3 months and I've found it to be everybit as powerful as all of the GUI's. After installing it you'll need to edit the .rtorrent.rc (note the leading period, it's there to hide the file). Mostly what you'll need to define is the directory to store your downloads, and where you will put your torrent files (a queue). There are more options, must they are mostly documented.

After editing the .rtorrent.rc file and putting it in your home directory simply issue the rtorrent command. Once the program starts running you can hit the enter key and browse to a torrent manually. Hit the numbers 1 ~~ 7 and it takes you to different screens (main, downloading, completed, hashing, etc).

You'll probably want to embrace another cool tool called screen. What that will allow you to do is keep rtorrent running and then "detach" from your screen. Once detached you can logoff your SSH session and it keeps running. If you have remote access setup you can check updates while away from the house and then detach again. Screen is also a cool tool for the irc client I use on the DNS 323, bitchx. Like rtorrent it's all text based.

Hope this helps.