NAS - Network Attached Storage

Network Attached Storage

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In short - this is a fantastic NAS device, though you'll need to buy the hard drives separately, so factor that in to the overall cost. Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2. The key selling point of this model is that it can integrate directly with BitTorrent, meaning it can download stuff for you even when your PC is turned off. Like many of the other devices here, you can also stream to it via various devices, it's platform agnostic and you can use it as an iTunes server. Once in a while, a product comes around that challenges the conventions of their product category.

The DS is one such product.

Unfettered File Access From Anywhere

Read the full review: Automatic backup, two hard drives, My Cloud mobile app. This two-bay unit can create a mirrored backup of your stuff duplicating your data on both drives , using RAID configuration.

That's quite an advanced feature for a consumer box and you do pay quite a lot for that capability and WD's user-friendly presentation, including an easy-to-master, browser-based control screen. This is a 4TB unit 6, 8, and 16TB units are also available. For extra peace of mind, you can also back the contents up to Dropbox. Anyone looking at purely technical aspects will instantly fall in love with the Synology DiskStation DS Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3. All our NAS picks have some sort of energy-saving feature.

We used a Kill A Watt EZ to test the power consumption on each NAS when it was performing a task such as a file copy , when it was idle, and with its energy-saving options enabled. The playing field was much more level when we tested using our folder containing two large files: Btrfs also features near-instant server-side copying, data integrity checks, and metadata mirroring, which supposedly helps with data recovery in the case of hard-drive damage. The interface in DiskStation Manager offers an overlay for system health as well as easy access to all the settings you need.

You can quickly find and install new applications in Package Center. In our tests, file transfer in encrypted folders was around 60 percent of the speed of transfer in nonencrypted folders. DSM has a toolbar on the top where you can access the main menu, notifications, and login options, search for files, and check on system health.

Below that toolbar, you have a desktop where you can access Package Center a store of sorts filled with add-on software , the file browser, the control panel which includes all your settings , and a support area offering video tutorials, FAQs, and more.

You can also customize the dashboard to include storage, connected users, and more. DSM has an optional cloud service called Cloud Station Server that allows you to access your files remotely. You can set those backups to happen on a schedule and optionally encrypt them before you upload them to another service. DSM packs in a number security measures. For better or worse, instead of having one big app with tons of features, Synology takes a piecemeal approach to its mobile apps.

We also had issues with any 4K video using the DTS audio codec, in which no sound would play. We recommend transcoding your video files ahead of time if you plan on using your NAS as a media server. You can do this with the Offline Transcoding feature in Video Station , though unfortunately you need to manually choose individual videos to convert. Logging in to DSM, we found another notification as well as instructions for how to rebuild the drive array in the Storage Manager once we replaced it. Or you can set it to export, say, only video files from a specific folder.

This unit also supports more than 5, different IP cameras , has special configuration settings for uninterruptible power supplies, and supports SSDs. A two-bay NAS is the best option for most people who want to use theirs for home backup, but if you need more capacity or data protection, get the Synology DiskStation DSplay. For starters, you can opt for RAID 5, 6, or 10; those data storage configurations require three or more disks but provide better data protection and depending on which RAID configuration you choose can offer better performance.

A four-bay NAS also lets you expand your storage capacity more easily since you can start with two drives and add more as needed, whereas the only way to expand the storage space on a two-bay NAS is to replace first one drive and then the other with higher-capacity drives. Four-drive NAS devices are typically more suited to professional settings—and if you want to use one, having a good understanding of RAID storage management will help.

Synology 4 bay NAS DiskStation DS918+ (Diskless)

Very few NAS devices prompt you to change or reset the admin password—doing so, however, is a crucial security step, because the NAS connects to the Internet and is thus a ripe target for threats. So the first thing to do with any new NAS is to change the password on the admin account both Synology and QNAP prompt you to do this during the initial setup. Creating a unique user account for each person who accesses your NAS is a good idea. You can do so on any of the NAS devices we tested by going into the user settings in the interface.

If you want to give someone the ability to upload files to the NAS, give that user write permissions as well as read permissions. If someone should only download files, make them a read-only user.

When something goes wrong with a NAS, the culprit is usually drive failure, and according to this infographic from Seagate , temperature extremes are one of the top five causes of hard-drive failure. Plex automatically includes content descriptions, plot summaries, posters and album covers before streaming to other devices within your home. My Cloud OS delivers a suite of tools and apps that empower you to easily take control of the content that matters to you most. From setting up the device to file sharing and collaboration, the Linux-based My Cloud OS makes setting up and using a NAS solution easier than you expect.

Get up and running in minutes with the intuitive, web-guided setup. WD's software will auto-detect your drive to get you going quickly.

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The web-based interface enables easy file sharing, access management, and a beautiful photo gallery view. During setup, easily and quickly move all your files to your My Cloud device. Start, pause and stop file transfers for a rich management experience. What You Need to Know. What are my storage needs now?

The Best NAS (Network Attached Storage) Devices of 2018

What do I want to store? Is this my first NAS? How much support will I want with setup?

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