Hi there,

I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable can help me out with some questions about using NAS and wireless networks.

I need to know if it's possible to have a NAS connected to a wireless router so that the users on that wireless network can access files on the NAS, and have some kind of security scheme to restrict access of particular files to particular users. The issue is that the computers on that network also belong to a wired network at the same time, connected to a domain in the network.

Basically, a subset of the wired network would also have access to the wireless network, but trying to keep the networks separate so they can be administered by a different person and keep them autonomous. Any insight on if this is possible would be appreciated.

Also any recommendations for different NAS units (with and without RAID) would be appreciated.

Pedro Marques

If you've got an old machine laying around that you can put a bunch of drives into, you can load a free NAS OS like www.openfiler.com

Either FreeNAS or Openfiler allow you set up user accounts and assign shares.

If you build your own NAS rather than buying a pre-built, just put a supported wireless NIC in for wireless connectivity. Regardless if the NAS is hard wired to the router/switch or connected via a wireless NIC, and regardless if the clients are hard wired to the router/switch or are wireless, as long as they all belond to the same sub-net all the clients will be able to access the NAS.

I've been running FreeNAS for 2 months now with no issues, can't beat it for free!

Thanks for the response. I guess my indecision boils down to having a computer accessing two networks at the same time, one wireless and one wired with a domain. Keeping these two independent while some computers belong to both is what is confusing me.