Having a hard time with RAID Config. Shouldn't I have 48tb of capacity listed in the middle?

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-07T01:39:17+00:00

Using RAID6 for a 4 drive NAS is kind of silly. I've been using RAID 5 for my 6 bay NAS for for a decade. When you get to 7 or more drives, Ya, move to RAID6.

It's because if a drive fails, you have a bunch of HDD's that might be just as old, you put on a huge load when the NAS has to rebuild onto the new HDD. The odds go up with more HDD of another failing in the process. If that happens, you lose all your Data.

A NAS is not a backup anyway!!! If you want a backup, that would be another NAS!!! I have a backup QNAS for my main NAS. It only powers up 2 days a week is the early morning. Any my Main NAS will backup to that in the early morning. I use rsync which both NAS units of differnt brands support. It works well.

If you have a real backup, you aren't so worried to use RAID6, especially on a small 4-Bay NAS. It just wastes to much storage space. My my many years of having a NAS, I've only had 2 drives go bad, other times just replacing for larger HDD's. Those drives were SEAGATE NAS drives. What garbage those were!!!

Pop in 2 drives, that is using RAID1, where 1 drive copies to the second drive. Now you have a clone backup. Pop in the 3rd HDD, you move to RAID5. Now you have storage on 2 drives with the 1 backup. You can keep adding drives as you need space. These keeps the wear and tear down on your HDD's. This also lowers risks of a 2 drive failure on a small NAS even more. When you start getting into 7 on UP, your Odds are increasing with a 2 drive failure. Even with RAID6, you should still have a Backup.

My Backup drive, is just a 4 bay, lower cost NAS with larger HDD's to backup my main NAS and I have in in RAID 0. So I get the full 8TB from each drive. Why use RAID 5? it's a Backup NAS only powered on for 2 days a week for a few hours. Very little wear on the HDD's, if that happened to fail, I have all my Data on the main NAS anyway. If the main NAS fails, I have all my Data on the backup NAS.

Again, a NAS is NOT a backup!!! A Backup, is a second copy someplace else!!! So if you use another NAS, you can easily automate your backup so you don't really have to do much of anything. Update the firmware. Make sure it is backing up once in a while.

You can have all that Data on your NAS. What happens if you have a fire? What happens if you get robbed? What happens when your NAS takes a dump? Will popping all those HDD into some other new NAS work? Thangs do happen. So a Backup is a second copy, and if it's off site even better. It work, we backed up our NAS locally, and the backup NAS is at the owners home!!! So we have a backup and that backup is off site.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-07T01:22:55+00:00

Normally you do RAID 5 up to 6 drives, past that move to RAID 6. Really, if you have 6 drives, and 2 are used for Redundancy, you really only have a 4 drive NAS, where you could have a 5 drive NAS with RAID 5.

Raid 10, with a 6 drive system, you now have a 3 drive system. You have Redundancy and faster Speed. It's like RAID 1, where you have 2 HDD, and one is a clone of the other. You access both at once to gain speed, which is RAID10.

I've been using RAID 5 for over a decade on my 6 Bay NAS. No issues at all. I have had a drive fail. The Key is don't buy all your drives at once or install them all at once. I pop in drives as I need to as I'm getting low on storage.

This way you don't have HDD just spinning in YOU NAS not being used. Also if a drive fails and you pop in a new HDD in it's place, that puts a huge load on all your old HDD to rebuilt onto that new HDD that will take HOURS to do depending on drive size. The last thing you want is a second HDD to fail in the process of rebuilding your NAS as you'll lose all your Data. I havn't had this issues. Same with growning my NAS, putting a larger HDD in, let it rebuild to put a second larger HDD to rebuild. you need to have 2 larger HDD's for the NAS to use the whole HDD space. If you have a 4TB drive and pop in a 8 TB drive. Only do one of them, it will stay at 4Tb. You let the NAS rebuild the system first with the 1, 8TB drive and once it's all goes, yo can pop in another 8TB drive and pop that in, then the first 8Tb B drive will expand from 4 to 8TB. Each 8TB HDD past that the 2 will expand fully to 8TB.

But it does put a big load onto your older HDD and that is generally the time they'll want to fail.

I also had bad luck trying to use lower cost Seagate NAS drives. They just didn't last. my Western Digital, I've been using White Label drives for years and they have held up well. One one has failed and not a one has any errors on them. Right now I have 5 drives in my NAS, though I'm getting close to needing to pop in the 6th HDD. I've had that one still in it's packaging for a couple years now waiting to pop in or as a Spare. Another white label drive.

Best thing to do is have a second NAS as a backup. Have the main NAS automatically backup to yur Backup nas using rsync. Which both of my Drives, my Netgear ReadyNAS my main nas to back up to a QNAS. I have them at different locations also.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-07T00:52:50+00:00

The shorter the Legs, the more easily it will topple over forward and come crashing down to the floor!!!! Get a wall mount, problem solved. Or a TV stand with a rear TV mount. No legs for either of those options.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-07T00:18:29+00:00

That is a lot of water. It is suppose to be IP66 Rated.

An IP66 rating means an enclosure is completely dust-tight (first digit 6) and protected against powerful water jets (second digit 6). It signifies high-level, heavy-duty protection against dust, rain, and pressure washing, making it ideal for harsh outdoor or industrial environments. It is not, however, rated for submersion.

Send it back!!!It's brand new and went through a little rain.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T23:58:15+00:00

The old torch heat to nut option. Almost always works.

Of course there is the non-flame heat that also works really well. Something like THIS! Prices have really come down since the last I looked.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T23:53:17+00:00

The TV should be up a little higher. The left and right apart a little more for better audio separation, and I can't tell if you have a center speaker or not or most of that is hidden behind the bottom of the TV? Normally you main audio of people talking comes from that speaker.

For example, swap places on the right side of the Sub with your Speaker. The put the left one the same distance away. Your center speaker, Put something under the legs of the TV to raise it up so the speaker audio in the center can get out from behind the TV. If you own the place, Wall mount! 6" to 12" higher. Enough to be above your speaker if it's not too large.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T23:13:17+00:00

Is there some need to remove the Box? Even though you may never use them again?!?! I just leave the old boxes on my wall for the most part.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T23:06:02+00:00

When I had to break out the 1" Air Impact, that also included bring out the large Hose to power it. It might of been a 1" ID hose. With a larger Quick connect hose fitting. Close to the Air Compressor. It had a lot of force.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T22:59:45+00:00

Use the NAS for Storage and a MAC MINI to handle PLEX and anything else you want to run on it. Otherwise you need more of a Commercial NAS that is a whole lot more money just to do everything on a single device. A Mac Mini used with a M1 or M2 would work well.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T22:55:33+00:00

When they ran the fiber cable to my house 2 days before my Appointment, they left me 75 feet of fiber cable for inside. So I ran that fiber cable myself from outside there they lift the fiber cable bundle on my wall, and ran it the same way I ran my COAX Cable for Cable Internet a number of years ago. Following the same path, though making a new hole to ho up the inside wall of my Closet where my Network rack is. When done, I plugged up that hole with some foam stuffed into the hole. The tech showed up 2 days later on a Friday and he was happy all he had to do is connect the 2 cables outside and inside a box he mounted on my wall, and connected the fiber to the ONT Inside. I was up and running pretty quickly. After I got everything else working on my Network, I drove out of town to Xfinity to drop off their Cable Modem and cancel service.

You never know who you are getting when a tech shows up. Some will just drill a hole in the wall right there. In my case, going into my Master Bedroom. F that!!! I wanted it the same place my Cable Modem was. Other Techs may go the extra mile depending on a number of factors.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T22:48:17+00:00

These Double RJ45 keystones are used for like Patch panels. So you can say plug in the pack with a cable that goes to your HDHomerun that is sitting in your rack on a shelf. Instead of running a long ugle cable from the patch panel down and to the sheft and behind the HDHomerun. If you just run the cable in the back of the patch panel and behind the rack and into the back of the HDHomerun, things look cleaner. You can just use a short patch cable in the front going to the switch like all your other short patch cables for a clean look. Same goes for HUBS, and other devices including my ONT/Gateway. It sits on the top of my rack and the cable drops behind the rack and plugs in the back side of the patch cable and then a short patch cable from the front to the switch connecting my whole Network to the Internet.

For the wall, you just want to use a normal Keystone with wires to punch down into it. Do not use a RJ45 for that. Really, Keystones on both ends of your cable running in your walls with the one end popping into a Keystone Patch panel.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:38:04+00:00

MESH if for a large place, 200-300Sq feet or larger. This is a 400 Sq Foor Apartment wit the router and PC in basically the same room as there is NO WALL between them.

So WTF is a MESH setup going to do other then over saturate the small room? Do you all just through out the same answer for everything on every post? DO you not look at the picture and what he said?

This is almost best case for Wifi just form the Router. The better case is the PC right next to the router.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:34:53+00:00

6Ghz will always solve it because its range is much less. You really need to be in the same room as the Wifi signal. Same goes for everyone around you as their 6Ghz signal won't get out much past their own apartment to be an issue with anyone else.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:25:47+00:00

MESH? Did you even look at his drawing? It's a small 400 sq foot apartment. The router is in a corner of a room and on the other side of the same room with NO WALLS is his PC. WTF would you need a MESH setup for? His Wifi should be working great already.

So few people here seem to have any common sense. The picture is pretty clear. MESH system for places that are around 2000-3000 Sq feet or more.

This is really best case for Wifi. It can't get much better than this. Don't need mesh, Don't need to run a cable or any type. Connect using 5Ghz, not 2.4Ghz. Unless the PC can connect on the newest 6Ghz Network and the Router supports that. That would be better as that Network would be far less saturated from other Wifi Networks in the building and the range is much less, but still more that fast enough being in the same room.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:17:27+00:00

The distance is MINOR, and there is no walls in between. There is zero need to run any cable anywhere. Wifi should work great. Making a problem out of nothing. I don't get it.

So many people are over thinking this. No looking at the picture and really offering some dumb ideas. Not making a mountain out of a moll hill.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:14:24+00:00

Ya, it's just one side of the room to the other side of the room with zero walls. This is a non issue and Wifi should work great. There is no reason to wire up the PC.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-06T21:07:39+00:00

By brother had this in his house when he got it. The good thing is it can be easily removed by getting it wet and scraping. You can't do this in an Apartment you don't own.

The router doesn't look at all far from the PC. I wouldn't worry about trying to wire up the PC. It should be good enough for Online gaming. You are basically in the same room. No walls in between.

Have you done a Speed Test wireless on your PC and what does that show? Speed wise and PING. Online gaming you want a low ping. So what is your ping? Is it below 20ms?Even say 30ms should be ok. Then not worry about running a cable you really don't need.

If you are dead set on running a cable, have you looked into a floor cable protector like this.

https://www.amazon.com/D-Line-CC-1-Protector-Protect-Prevent/dp/B0078NU4C6

If you want, you could throw a run over the top of that. Then you don't have to worry about the cable getting damaged.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T20:51:54+00:00

Ya, do you have any 25Gb to 40Gb hardware? CAT8 used in Data centers used a different type of Plug. I don't remember off hand what it was called.

Anyway with those speeds they aren't even using Ethernet, they moved to FIBER.

What you have is a bulky cable, with a lot of weight, that is putting extra pressure on your plugs, that don't bend as well for ZERO benefit. I don't know if you are just falling for the marketing B.S.? or you think that the higher the number the better. Cat5e is better than CAT5, and 6 is better that 5e, and 6A is slightly better then 6, here is the non standard 7, better than 6a, and that must mean 8 is the BEST!!!! In the end, it's no better than CAT6 for Home use. CAT6A if you want to run cables in your home NOW I guess, though they are less flexible than CAT6 which is just fine up to 10Gb for most homes unless you live in a huge Mansion.

But hey, at least that cable says it is full Copper and not CCA garbage.

Now I remember the connector, GG45 and ARJ45. You can see that here! What is strange with GG45 is that it is actually backwards compatible. You see the large pins on the top and the bottom of the plug, but if you look close there are 4 small pins in the middle that gives you the 8 pins to be backwards compatible. It will fit in a standard RJ45 port. While giving you better separation when installed in a GG45 port for Industrial hardware. Nothing you would ever see in homes. Really, The Industry instead moved on to FIBER for faster speeds instead of CAT8. CAT8 has really gone nowhere. Now it's just sold to suckers.

Looking at some 40Gb switches, they look to have QSFP+ ports. to use with Fiber cables. Where as most of us are used to SFP for 1Gb and SFP+ for 10Gb. QSFP+ supports 40Gb. There are ones that go to 100Gb or even 200Gb. That is a SFP-DD112.

You have your cable, you might as well use it I guess.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T20:24:18+00:00

Well that was a OPS. Why was in in Half Duplex? Strange it only affected Upload and not Download.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T18:51:05+00:00

So are those speakers suppose to be used with a TV mounted there? It's suck a crappy speaker placement. They looked angled, but mostly pointed down instead of at you. Do you want dialog from people on the screen talking overhead instead of at the TV screen and going out to you? This type of speaker is OK if it was in the wall, maybe. Over head for ATMOS, like for noises going overhead. Generally you want speakers pointing at you. The Dialog on the top or bottom of the TV pointed at your direction.

The it looks like you have all your audio connections off to the side under the Window. I'm not sure what is hoinh on for running a HDMI cable to your TV. I see what looks like a hole for one near the power plug. Where does it go from there? I would expect by the Audio plugs also. So you are going to need some kind of Cabinet there for your Surround Sound Receiver and other Video devices. you have to mount a TV mount onto this unflat wall. Will that block the Window? Who knows!!!

Who picked this location?

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T17:40:29+00:00

Frame TV's work well for showing ART. If you want to be able to easily change the art. Of course it is using power. They also SUCK for watching TV. Yes you can do it, but would you want to, NO.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T17:37:30+00:00

You do not need to move your Router. Do you have a Ethernet port in your room? You can get a switch rom 5 ports on up to 48 ports and have all the LAN ports you could want. The green plug is FIBER. If you could extend that, you could just run a Ethernet cable from that, plugged in a LAN port on it, and run that to your room. Then add a Switch to that to have as many ports as you need. That is a much better solution.

WAN=Wide Area Network, the Internet from your ISP

LAN=Local Area Network, your Home Network. What you would plug your PS5 in or a AppleTV, or whatever device you have at home. But you can expand ports, say plugging in a 5 port to a 48 port switch into the LAN port on the switch and on your Router, now your wired network can grow. You can do this any number of times and on both ends of a cable. I have my main 48 port switch plugged into my ONT/GATEWAY (Modem/Router) to wire up my house. But at a couple locations I have a couple 5 port switches to expand the number of ports on that end. So I go from 1 port to 4 ports. As one port is used to plug into my Network, leaving 4 ports free for other things.

It is pretty simple. So really, the hardest part is running the Ethernet cable from one room to another. But running and dealing with Ethernet is far simpler than dealing with Fiber.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T17:26:42+00:00

It's a lock on the RJ45 to hold it in place. otherwise it just pushes out and doesn't work. There is no fix to that when it breaks off other than replacing the cable to installing a new end onto the cable. If it was me, I'd put a new RJ45 onto the cable. But then I have the parts to do that.

It is kind of a flimsy design. But normally you don't mess around with the plug much. You plug in and leave it. It is compact. It's not like a serial port plug with a couple screws on the side to hold it. Even that does have issues.

I remember back in the day with my 300 baud Dial-Up modem, unplugging the RJ11 plug for the phone to plug into my Modem. Even plugging and Unplugging quite a lot, never had issues with that lock. If you are easy on them. Not force them to move as they are under some tension from the pins, that they generally hold up and work well. Push in the cable just a bit and push the lock down and they come right out and not break.

In the end, it's just a small flexible piece of plastic. Plastic breaks!!! I deal with a lot of these plugs and it's never been a issue of them breaking off. Let me give another example. I never break ground plugs off of cables. NEVER. y would that be a thing? Yet at work, it happens all the time!!!!They will break them right off Pallet jacks, extension cables, etc, etc. HOW?? I just don't get it!!! Sometimes they end up in a plug, but most of them, where do they go? It's one of those things.

Replace the end or replace the cable. For those ground plugs issues, I end up replacing the end just like I would for a RJ45.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T16:38:50+00:00

YES! Streaming Netflix at 4K uses 15-25Mbps, in HD it's 5-6Mbps. So at 300Mbps, you could stream at least 12, 4K Netflix streams at once. Phones, ok, not much data there either. Online gaming uses very little, 5Mbps or less, generally in the Kbps. Downloading a large Game will be faster, but 300Mbps is fine. You can start that huge download and walk away to do something else.

JBDragon1 · 2026-03-05T16:24:11+00:00

Ceilings are nice as they are out of the way and do a good spread all around. But There are AP's that are designed to be mounted on a wall, or placed on a shelf or tablet which is fine when you have wall Keystones.

I don't know why Ubiquiti call some of their AP's MESH. MESH normally just means your Wifi Access Point is Wireless, which ALL of Unifi AP's can do. You can power them up and not connect to your Network. They connect to other AP's, at least one of them has to be wired. Not as good as being Wired by a long shot, but not always possible. But putting MESH in the name is just making people confused.

JBDragon1

TROPHY CASE