I'm looking to pickup some hard drives and setup a local NAS and start to archive information. I have seen too many things disappear recently and my internet has been getting worse - I am sensing that my ISP is starting to exfiltrate for the government and I have noticed some websites don't load via my ISP but they do via my cell phone and it's consistently dropping out a couple times a day and taking 3-5s for pings.....that is insane..... Anyone have some good suggestions for combinations and good quality at decent prices. Looking for robustness, no subscriptions, and ideally open source where available.
I want expandable options ideally that I can upgrade over time without replacing too much.
The internet has died....i need to gather what I can and back it up. I cannot trust the future any more. I need the data.
Tips appreciated
Internet is not a storage, it is an access to storages. Internet still provide access, it is storages that failed.
To just store your data you need classic 1-2Tb HDDs without SMR (avoid SSDs, they will lose data being unpowered for only few months) and any computer with linux you have around. Always mirror critical data at least on two HDDs for redundancy. Classic HDDs could store data for centuries if they are in a working condition. Check data integrity on your HDDs periodically and replace suspicious HDDs with new ones if in doubt. If HDD is completely failed, restore data from its mirror.
If you want to make your data accessible for others, you need a decent internet channel (fiber/wired Ethernet from closes provider will be OK) and a few cheap VPSes ($15 a year) around the world. You rise a http server on your linux box and VPSes. You establish VPN between your local box and VPSes. You point local box http server to your files and set up VPS http servers as caching proxies. When a user access a file that is not cached yet on VPS, VPS will ask for it from your local box via VPN and cache it for sequential requests. That way you will create a stable and redundant network that will share your files with minimum and secure local trafic, so even if your local ISP is a total shit, that will not significantly harm users access to your data, since most bandwidth load will be on VPSes and not on your local box. Also, it will effectively hide your local box from users behind proxy VPSes, so even if VPSes will be attacked or shut down, or become too busy with user trafic, you could always set up few more additional VPSes (or instead of failed ones) immidiately, without any need to copy huge amounts of data for few bucks.
Also, you could add i2p and other p2p networks to your system, making it resistant to government information bans and other stuff.
In any case, it is a cheap and simple solution, everything you need is just a desire to read and understand the manuals and spend some insignificant sum money on your system.
Do you have suggestions for models of HDDs that are good?
I'm not shure about modern manufacturers, at least avoid ones with Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology.
I have few 25-years old IDE Hitachi and Seagate HDDs that still works perfectly and didn't lose a bit after a dosen years forgotten in a cabinet.
Check apropriate hardware forums about current models and manufacturers. WD,HGST, Seagate and Toshiba is main manufacturers, but you should carefully select specific model, since all of them use cost reducing technologies (like SMR) in their devices now.
Do SSDs actually lose data when off? I read that was a misinterpretation and that only becomes true if an SSD is at end of life and already dying.
Yes. And more dense SSD lose data faster. It's just physics. Charge from isolated gates of flash memory leak due to non-ideal isolation and tunnel effects, so, earlier or later all charges will disappear. And smaller structures on crystal makes things worse. To be shure data will be OK you need to connect SSDs to power every week for few hours, SSD will run charge maintaining process.
It is about powered SSDs. Leak currents become larger with usage, and at some moment even powered SSD charge restoring process will not be able to mitigate that leaks. But even completely new SSD will lose data without power in relatively short time, from few years for old, low capacity SSDs made with process with high nm and months for new, current SSDs made with modern few nm process.
Same with USB sticks. Some old USB sticks may be could withstand many years, but I will not bet that new ones will last a year on a shelf.
In any case flash based storage is vulnerable to data loss and should not be used for critical data. HDDs, tapes and one-time recordable CDs/DVDs (not rewriteable ones) orders of magnitude more reliable for that task.
External hd. Almost anything will work.
offline home server with 10tb of storage size. i use it as my tv show, media, music server ;) no internet needed.
Yeah that's what I want alongside data. What kind of setup are you using. Just a computer, or do you have a rack? Or NAS?
He needs the data, please give the man some tips.
Good call with veracrypt. I always forget about it
Wire shark can help you track their illegal activities
How? Wouldn't that only help on my local lan? I imagine they are exfiltrating from their switches
Would rule out packet loss and lan issues / document the occurrences
Makes sense
Amazon cloud services :)