Is NAS the right approach for what I'd like to do

[enigmothy]

Currently, I create/edit videos with Adobe Premiere, and then upload them to Citrix ShareFile for clients to download securely. I'm curious if NAS would allow me to have the same functionality (secure link to client via email), without having to take the tedious time to upload these video files to the cloud. Could an NAS be set up simply as a file sharing service for clients, with secure login required before being allowed to download files (and only having access to the files that I want them to be able to download)? And would setting up an NAS server be cheaper or roughly equivalent to paying $11/month to ShareFile for something like this? The main thing I'm wanting to solve, though, is not having to upload these 10-12 GB files to the cloud, but still providing secure download access to specific files for clients. Thank you in advance for helping me navigate through this decision.

 

[sabi-tech]

you could run freenas box and then enable sftp?

 

[MikeyG]

You could run Nextcloud in conjunction with FreeNAS and then have your clients download straight from your NAS that way. However, if you are paying $11 per month now, or $132 per year, your break even on getting a FreeNAS box and running that instead will take a while. Have you priced out any of the hardware yet? Once you do that the numbers should be fairly easy to calculate if it's worth it for you.

 

[Jessep]

Looks like Synology has what you are looking for built in for free
https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/Tutorial/cloud_set_up_quickconnect

 

[blanchet]

If you host your videos on an on-premise NAS without a super fast internet connection, your clients will waste their time to download their files. If you create large videos for paying customers, you have rather to stay with a cloud offer to distribute your work.

 

[enigmothy]

If you host your videos on an on-premise NAS without a super fast internet connection, your clients will waste their time to download their files. If you create large videos for paying customers, you have rather to stay with a cloud offer to distribute your work.

I currently have 100 Mbps upload speed, and can increase it to 200 Mbps for just a little more money.

 

[enigmothy]

You could run Nextcloud in conjunction with FreeNAS and then have your clients download straight from your NAS that way. However, if you are paying $11 per month now, or $132 per year, your break even on getting a FreeNAS box and running that instead will take a while. Have you priced out any of the hardware yet? Once you do that the numbers should be fairly easy to calculate if it's worth it for you.

I haven't priced out the hardware yet. Price is a factor, but not having to upload videos is worth something to me, so I'm willing to pay a little premium for that convenience.

 

[blanchet]

With a 100 Mbps upload speed, you can host the file on a on-premise NAS. I suggest to use NextCloud for the file sharing, and FreeNAS for the storage.
You still have to upload the videos to your NextCloud server (you can automate this task in different way) but it will run very fast because the data stays on the local network.

Last tips:

• Never use the FreeNAS plugins, they tend to have upgrade issues
• Use only your own jail to keep the control of the software version you wish to use.
• For a professional usage, a certified hardware like the FreeNAS Mini E is preferable to avoid any compatibility issue.

 

[danb35]

Never use the FreeNAS plugins

...especially for Nextcloud.

Use only your own jail

I'm obviously biased, but this seems to work pretty well:

Scripted installation of Nextcloud 23 in an iocage jail

I’ve written a script to install Nextcloud 23 in an iocage jail under FreeNAS 11.3/TrueNAS 12.0. This script uses the Caddy web server, which will manage Let’s Encrypt TLS certificates for you automatically. It creates the jail, installs and configures the web server, the database server...

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