Total Newbie - Apologies in Advance

[gnomus]

(11-05-2014 09:51)simoncn Wrote:  [quote='gnomus' pid='8989' dateline='1399794287']
....
... If this becomes an issue, you can put the TP-Link wireless access point in your listening room and create a separate audio wireless network on a different wi-fi channel than your main home wireless network. You can then connect your control point to your audio wireless network instead of your home wireless network.

Thanks David and Simon for your help. I hadn't considered using the TP-Link as a separate "audio-only" wi-fi setup. I am quite attracted to that idea. If I do this, would it be possible for the TP-Link to be set up so that it can talk to my BT-Home Hub for those occasions when an internet connection might be required (for example, to update the Linn firmware)? This seems to me to be what David is suggesting I do with the "Airport Extremes". I am prepared to do this (Airport Extreme, that is) if necessary, but if I already have enough gear to do this, then ....

(11-05-2014 09:51)simoncn Wrote:  NAS HDDs use a special format that isn't the same as backup HDDs, so you can't swap them like that. You can convert a backup HDD into a NAS HDD by deleting all its partitions and putting it in the NAS for reformatting.

I thought that might be the case. Once I convert the disc for the QNAP, could I remove it from the QNAP, slide it into my Icy Dock (and who thought I'd ever end up typing a phrase like that?) and copy files from my Synology to it?

As an aside, I noticed that after last night's back up, my back up HD had considerably more (~10GB) of data on it than was stored on the NAS. I think that I worked out what was happening, but wanted to check. Yesterday, I had to relabel a number of folders in my music library (because of another foul-up). I assume that when I did the "Copy To" command to do the backup, the new folders were transferred to the backup HD which added them to the previously wrongly-labelled folders.

If that is correct, then should I reformat the back up HD before copying files to it (in order to remove all of the wrongly-labelled folders)?

[simoncn]

(11-05-2014 10:18)gnomus Wrote:  Thanks David and Simon for your help. I hadn't considered using the TP-Link as a separate "audio-only" wi-fi setup. I am quite attracted to that idea. If I do this, would it be possible for the TP-Link to be set up so that it can talk to my BT-Home Hub for those occasions when an internet connection might be required (for example, to update the Linn firmware)? This seems to me to be what David is suggesting I do with the "Airport Extremes". I am prepared to do this (Airport Extreme, that is) if necessary, but if I already have enough gear to do this, then ....

You should be able to use Homeplugs to connect the audio switch to the HomeHub. As well as doing DS firmware updates, you will need this to install MinimServer updates on the audio NAS. These operations aren't time-critical, so using the Homeplugs should be OK.

Edit: changed "TP-Link" to "audio switch" in the above paragraph. The TP-Link would be connected to the audio switch, and the audio switch would be connected to a Homeplug.

Note: If the Homeplug connection were to fail part way through a MinimServer update, this shouldn't cause any serious problems. You might want to check with Linn that the same applies when doing a DS firmware update.

Quote:I thought that might be the case. Once I convert the disc for the QNAP, could I remove it from the QNAP, slide it into my Icy Dock (and who thought I'd ever end up typing a phrase like that?) and copy files from my Synology to it?

This might work. You will need to be careful you use the right partition on the HDD when copying your backup files.

Quote:As an aside, I noticed that after last night's back up, my back up HD had considerably more (~10GB) of data on it than was stored on the NAS. I think that I worked out what was happening, but wanted to check. Yesterday, I had to relabel a number of folders in my music library (because of another foul-up). I assume that when I did the "Copy To" command to do the backup, the new folders were transferred to the backup HD which added them to the previously wrongly-labelled folders.

If that is correct, then should I reformat the back up HD before copying files to it (in order to remove all of the wrongly-labelled folders)?

You don't need to reformat. It will be sufficient to delete the contents of the top-level directory that you're using as the destination folder for your backups.

[gnomus]

(11-05-2014 14:43)simoncn Wrote:  [quote='gnomus' pid='8993' dateline='1399799931']
....
You should be able to use Homeplugs to connect the audio switch to the HomeHub. As well as doing DS firmware updates, you will need this to install MinimServer updates on the audio NAS. These operations aren't time-critical, so using the Homeplugs should be OK.

Edit: changed "TP-Link" to "audio switch" in the above paragraph. The TP-Link would be connected to the audio switch, and the audio switch would be connected to a Homeplug.

Note: If the Homeplug connection were to fail part way through a MinimServer update, this shouldn't cause any serious problems. You might want to check with Linn that the same applies when doing a DS firmware update.

I have spent most of the afternoon trying to get the TP-Link to work in the correct mode. I think I have the TP-Link in the wrong location. The correct location is back in the Amazon warehouse facility; while I have my £30+ located back in my bank account.

In your paragraph above, I assume that "audio switch" = the Netgear switch that you recommended before. I think the best configuration will be Linn + NAS connected to the Netgear switch; Netgear switch connected to Homeplug. My Android tablet gets a 2-3 (out of 4) strength connection in the listening room and has never yet failed in controlling the Linn. Updates to the NAS and Linn can come down the Homeplug.

I may well consider getting that QNAP fanless for my listening room.

Thanks again.

[simoncn]

(11-05-2014 16:30)gnomus Wrote:  In your paragraph above, I assume that "audio switch" = the Netgear switch that you recommended before. I think the best configuration will be Linn + NAS connected to the Netgear switch; Netgear switch connected to Homeplug. My Android tablet gets a 2-3 (out of 4) strength connection in the listening room and has never yet failed in controlling the Linn. Updates to the NAS and Linn can come down the Homeplug.

Yes, that is the approach I was suggesting. It will be fine as long as the Homeplugs don't drop connectivity.

[gnomus]

(11-05-2014 18:27)simoncn Wrote:  

(11-05-2014 16:30)gnomus Wrote:  In your paragraph above, I assume that "audio switch" = the Netgear switch that you recommended before. I think the best configuration will be Linn + NAS connected to the Netgear switch; Netgear switch connected to Homeplug. My Android tablet gets a 2-3 (out of 4) strength connection in the listening room and has never yet failed in controlling the Linn. Updates to the NAS and Linn can come down the Homeplug.

Yes, that is the approach I was suggesting. It will be fine as long as the Homeplugs don't drop connectivity.

With regard to the set up of the QNAP, do you recommend disabling/removing the TWONKY and QNAP music servers that were installed by default?

[simoncn]

(15-05-2014 18:57)gnomus Wrote:  With regard to the set up of the QNAP, do you recommend disabling/removing the TWONKY and QNAP music servers that were installed by default?

I wasn't aware that QNAP now have their own music server in addition to Twonky.

MinimServer shouldn't be affected by these other servers being active. It's up to you whether you want to keep them running all the time. If you're not using them at present but think you might want to use them in the future, you could disable them rather than removing them.

[gnomus]

(15-05-2014 19:58)simoncn Wrote:  ...I wasn't aware that QNAP now have their own music server in addition to Twonky.

Perhaps I was mistaken. When I started Kinsky, I noticed that I had two Minimservers (synology & QNAP), a Twonky and some sort of (I assumed music) server labelled QNAP. I have disabled rather than removed them.

[simoncn]

(15-05-2014 20:35)gnomus Wrote:  Perhaps I was mistaken. When I started Kinsky, I noticed that I had two Minimservers (synology & QNAP), a Twonky and some sort of (I assumed music) server labelled QNAP. I have disabled rather than removed them.

You are probably not mistaken about this. I'm still on an older (and very reliable) level of the QNAP firmware that only has Twonky preinstalled. These days, it seems that every NAS manufacturer feels they need to include their own media server with the NAS.

[Peter@57m]

Yes QNAP have their own server on the latest releases.
There has been a lot of comment about excessive scanning being done by the QNAP server, so if you don't plan to use it, it's best to disable it.
I just disable it rather than trying to delete it.

[gnomus]

I'm having some problems copying the library from my Synology to the QNAP.

Via Windows Explorer, I selected and copied all of the relevant folders on my Synology. (I have 4 folders, which I have called: "24-Bit"; "Music"; "Classical Music"; and "Radio Streaming".)

I then navigated to the Music Folder on the QNAP and pasted them. All seemed fine last night and I toodled off to bed.

This morning, however, I found a message saying "File Has Properties That Cannot Be Copied". I am invited to copy the file without those properties. Rather alarmingly the dialogue box tells me that there are over 12,000 files that are similarly afflicted.

After I had dried my tears, I decided to accept Windows offer to copy the files without the un-copy-able "properties". I then had a look at them in mp3Tag, and in Windows Explorer. In mp3Tag the copied file looks identical to the source. I do not appear to have lost any of my metadata.

In the Windows Explorer 'Properties' dialogue, the files also look (almost) identical. File size is the same and track duration is the same. The only thing that I could see that was different was the "Created" property. On the copied file it was set to today's date.

So, I'm not entirely sure whether I can rely on this backup or not. Is there a better way of doing the transfer of files from Synology to QNAP? Should I abandon the current "backup" which still has several hours to go?

I should add that, because I am ripping new CDs every day, I have been backing up to an external HD almost every night. This has always gone smoothly and I have never had the "Properties Cannot Be Copied" message before.