Advice please: mobile internet / wireless router / NAS

Ltomclancy on 17/05/2013 - 21:10

To my fellow bargain-hunters,

I am looking for some advice on a new mobile internet / wireless router / NAS setup for my small office. I know there are hundreds of experts in this space on OzB so hopefully you can guide me.

At the moment I work out of a 3-man office in a shared office space in suburban Sydney which runs a wired LAN between all 3 computers and the firewall being the access point to ADSL. All of the equipment (firewall, router and cabling) is provided by the shared office space provider for $50/month plus the internet connection on top which costs $50/month for each 10GB we use. Right now we use approximately 8GB internet data per month and growing so very soon it will start costing us $150 per month! We don't have a networked HDD on the LAN so we use Dropbox for our shared files, which is causing much of the data usage because when one person updates a file it gets synced across 3 computers via our internet connection.

Our offices are located on the top floor of a shopping centre and we get excellent 3G mobile reception on Telstra, Vodafone and Optus. I have confirmed with our shared office provider that we are not tied into a contract with the current setup.

I do not want to be paying $150/month just to have an internet connection so I thought of a solution:
* a wireless router (all three computers can connect to 802.11n);
* 4G mobile internet USB stick
* a cheap NAS or 64GB USB drive (we only need < 25GB of network data storage)

Two requirements of any solution must be:
1. the files on the NAS/USB drive need to be accessible when we are home/away so we can work from anywhere. Does that mean we need a static IP? Can you even get a static IP through mobile internet?
2. We have an old network printer in the office and it would need to be connected to the router so we can all print to it.

Is there a better solution? Is my solution flawed? Can anyone suggest hardware?

Sorry for the long-winded noob question, and thanks in advance to you all.

Computing

Comments

  • Proculeius on 17/05/2013 - 22:19

    Mobile internet is still wayyy overpriced. Why not a cheap ADSL2 plan? You can setup the NAS so that's it's accessible from outside the LAN.

    • tomclancy on 17/05/2013 - 22:21

      Can't do ADSL because it is a shared office space and we are not allowed to get lines installed. Anything I do would have to be mobile/wireless.

      • Proculeius on 17/05/2013 - 22:30
        +1

        Then your solution sounds just about right, don't think you can get a static IP using mobile internet though. I'm sure there'd be a way to access the LAN using that setup, see what some more geeks have to offer.

      • geforce2003 on 18/05/2013 - 00:23

        How about Vivid Wireless Network, unlimited DATA and you don't need telephone line, just a Wireless Router?

  • geforce2003 on 18/05/2013 - 00:21

    You don't need static IP, just use DDNS, should be work well. Because my dad face same situation with you.

    Here's my idea, I would go for FTP server, (e.g. laptop or netbook runing FTP service, Filezilla FTP Server is good choice), then with DDNS, you can access anywhere. And you don't have to sync file everytime.

    And just connect printer with the netbook or laptop, share print service, then all of you can access print service.

                          PC - \

    FTP and Printer <-(Share) PC - - > Router -> ADSL -> Internet
    PC - /

    so, if you need access your FTP service from outside(Home), you need set Port Forwarding on you ADSL or Router
    (I just set on ADSL modem, because I don't have router)

    Sorry for my main language is not English, hope you can understan what I am talking about…Orz.

  • baronseng on 18/05/2013 - 00:52
    +2

    I think you're pretty much on the mark but I will set it up like this.

    mybook live to sync your files locally and on the cloud http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/98098
    Get a router that support dd-wrt e.g. http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/97732
    4g internet from iinet http://www.iinet.net.au/internet/broadband/mobile/

    Set up the mybook as your office nas so everyone get files to/from there, then you sync it to the cloud provided by my book, access the files on the cloud when you're outside of the office.
    router act as your local network gateway and dd-wrt is bridge the local network with the 4g internet.

    so for $40 a month + $168 for the nas + $50 for the router you're pretty well set.

  • tomclancy on 18/05/2013 - 08:54
    +1

    Thanks baronseng, I didn't even think of syncing a mybook live to the cloud for remote access purposes - I like that idea. It also provides an additional benefit being a backup should the NAS eve fail (or vice versa).

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