Thanks again Chess. Sounds like you and I are doing things similarly..... My PC is my NAS. I don't use it all the time so it's in hibernation mode quite often. That makes access to my files pretty clunky if I need to get to them when I use the laptop or tablet. Kinda defeats the whole "convenient" aspect of having a home network with shared files..... I use my laptop to tune my car, and the tuning files are on the network. It's irritating to be sitting in the car, ready to flash the ECM and the network (PC) is asleep. Same with music files. I'm having a party and want to play a CD for the group, and I have to go wake up the PC.
I hate having my stuff on the "cloud". Just hate losing control of my stuff. Yes, it's convenient if I'm not at my home, but if I have a NAS set up correctly, it will then become my personal cloud. Problem solved.
I think I'll go forward and order one of the QNAP machines. Trying to keep total cost under a grand.
Many years ago I had one the HP Media servers. I sure loved that thing. It went up in smoke though, and I have missed how convenient it was ever since.
You should be able to wake on LAN with the hibernating PC, but otherwise don't let it hibernate (assuming it is plugged in all the time;
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/enable-wake-on-lan-windows-10/).
Consider Rlevs experience re: the QNAP. My info comes solely from reading some online reviews and the last one i saw was years ago when i was researching it. Synology is an equally good name. It's possible things have changed with Qnap over the years. It does happen.
They continue to make the 'best of' lists though.
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-nas-network-attached-storage-deviceshttps://www.techradar.com/news/the-10-best-nas-devices-reviewedActually maybe it was a Buffalo NAS that Peter had...
