[Chester LUG] Home NAS device

[Roger Gibson]

Hi folks.  Forgive me if I'm asking daft or impossible questions, but I 
don't really know what I am talking about.

I have a couple of security cameras at home, which have the option of 
storing images on an internal SD card, or externally via Wifi to a 
Network Attached Storage Device.  The cameras have their own IP address 
which I can access (via password etc) from anywhere on the web.  They 
are connected via Wifi to my home router or to switches connected to my 
home router.  Using the internal 128GB SD card has its limitations as 
these last for about 3 weeks of operation, after which the storage 
continues by overwriting the oldest files.

It seems that I can not just connect the cameras to a redundant laptop 
with an attached USB 4TB drive.  Camera software does not seem to have 
this option.  I have to have a NAS device.  I can switch to/from 
internal SD card storage by simply logging into the camera remotely

I have a separate continuous feed which I can view in a browser, either 
at home or elsewhere by logging in the camera using its IP address.  I 
can also download files from the SD card for individual viewing.  A 
further feature is that the cameras email me following a trigger by 
motion detection.

Question is - is it fairly simple and reliable to reconfigure a 
redundant laptop as a NAS device using an attached USB 4TB drive for 
storage?   I've read a few posts about this, but not found anything 
really straight forward or definitive.

My router (Plusnet Hub One - rebadged BT?) has a USB socket, but I think 
this is limited to much less than 1TB.  Not sure if this would be 
recognised as NAS anyway.

Any help, or pointers to related on-line information will be most 
gratefully accepted.

Roger.