Easy to set up and manage, this two-bay NAS features hardware encryption, media streaming, remote access, useful apps, and solid data protection. It has one fewer USB port, but it adds another Gigabit Ethernet port for link aggregation, which can increase performance if you have a compatible router and multiple people use your NAS at once.
Since this model has two more bays than our top pick, you can use different storage configurations that offer better data protection and performance. This NAS is best suited for professionals or anyone who wants to expand their NAS system with more storage down the line.
He has set up more backup systems, from NAS to cloud storage, for family members and friends than he cares to count. Samara Lynn has worked with networked storage since the s, spending almost 20 years in IT. A network-attached storage device, or NAS, is a small always-on computer generally used for backing up computers and serving files to devices on your blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus network.
It includes at least one but usually two or more hard-drive bays, a usually Linux-based operating system optimized for network storage, and enough CPU power and RAM to do everything it needs to do while using far less power than a repurposed old computer. Unlike a USB drive or an external hard drive, a NAS with two or more hard drives can provide data redundancy, copying the contents of one drive over to the other automatically.
A NAS is great if you have a large media library, because you can store your files in one place and stream them locally to computers, phones, tablets, speakers, or media centers throughout your house or even outside it. The same goes for photographers storing photos, music producers archiving music files, designers stockpiling massive Photoshop files, and anyone else who needs needs to access large amounts of data from multiple computers.
You should consider a NAS if you have more than one computer at home, since you can back them all up to the NAS rather than connect an external backup drive to each computer.
And if you want to protect your data and backups from theft and natural disasters, a good NAS is capable of uploading files directly to a cloud backup servicetoo. When you use a NAS, your data remains in your home and does not go to the cloud unless you tell it to do so. Many NAS devices have even added photo-management tools and file-syncing services that attempt to replicate various cloud storage offerings.
A NAS is a computer, so it can do almost anything a Linux computer can do. While that flexibility is great, it can also make some NAS devices confusing to use. Each NAS has its own manufacturer-specific version of Linux, and some are more usable than others. If you want to share and store data on your network, you may not need a NAS. Windows, macOS, and Linux also have built-in file-sharing features that make it easy to use your computer as a file server.
But that approach takes up disk space on your computer and is more difficult to manage securely, and your computer has to be on all the time, which consumes more power than a NAS and might make the data inaccessible when your computer goes to sleep. Websites focused on enterprise network storage, such as Computer Weekly and StorageReview. Many NAS devices can also manage decent on-the-fly transcoding with their own apps, but Plex transcoding currently requires a lot of CPU power, and none of the models we tested were able to handle transcoding in Plex reliably.
You could make your own NAS with old computer hardware and free software such as FreeNAS or NAS4Freebut a dedicated NAS device uses far less power usually about as much as a couple of LED light bulbshas a better interface and more apps, and comes with a manufacturer warranty and technical support.
Back inwe surveyed 1, Wirecutter readers on what they wanted in a home NAS, and most of those requirements still hold true. When deciding which models to test, we paid attention to a number of key features that most home users needed:. First we set up each NAS following its included install guide, if it had one. We tested ease of use by configuring user and group accounts, as well as file and folder access permissions. We ran each test nine times in each direction: To simulate drive failure, we pulled a drive from the NAS while it was running.
A NAS should beep or flash an LED to alert you that something is wrong, and the interface should show a drive-failure notification. Next we replaced the pulled drive with one of equal or greater blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus. A NAS should detect a new drive and automatically re-create the mirrored array.
A good NAS has drive trays or slots blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus make the drives easy to remove but are sturdy enough to ensure that the drives fit tightly and securely, with no chance of getting disconnected by a random bump. We also connected a flash drive to one of the USB ports. A NAS interface should recognize a connected drive and display its make, model, and file system.
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 copywhen 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 blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus 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 softwarethe file browser, the control panel which includes all your settingsand 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 Stationthough 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 camerashas special configuration settings for uninterruptible power supplies, and supports SSDs. The good news is that you can install Plex manually. We followed these directions and had Plex up and running within a few minutes with no issues.
Make sure to download the version made for Synology devices with bit Intel processors. Unlike our main pick, the TSA can encrypt whole volumes, not just folders.
The audio ports include a mic input, which means you can turn your NAS into a karaoke machine. The TSA also supports volume encryption, which encrypts the entire drive; writing to a fully encrypted disk instead of to an encrypted folder is nearly as fast as writing to an unencrypted drive. Design-wise, QTS takes at least some of its inspiration from iOS, loading blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus all your add-on packages as icons on a desktop.
When we pulled out a drive and inserted a fresh one to simulate replacing a failed drive, it rebuilt its array without trouble. QNAP provides a two-year warranty and excellent support both over the phone and via an online forum, plus a knowledge base and tutorials. SmallNetBuilderTechHiveand Trusted Reviews all like it, though the reviewers say they had transcoding issues similar to ours.
A two-bay NAS is the best option for most people who blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus to use theirs for home backup, but if you need more capacity or data protection, get the Synology DiskStation DSplay.
For starters, you can blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus 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. Very few NAS blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus prompt you to change or reset the admin password—doing so, however, blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus 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 Seagatetemperature extremes are one of the top five causes of blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus failure. Data corruption is another big issue with hard drives. Otherwise, if something goes wrong with the NAS, you may have problems getting customer support—or worse, you may discover that you voided the warranty. The same rule applies to memory: WD engineers designed these drives blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus tolerate heat and vibration better than typical hard drives though not as much as enterprise-server drivesso these drives are ideal for multidrive NAS setups.
The My Cloud Home Duo needs to be connected to the Internet if you want to use all its features, even within your home network. And in our tests, reading and writing to a user folder was far slower than using the Public one: The TSP2, which traded places with the TSA on our read and write tests, includes hot-swappable drives and hardware encryption, but the TSA won out because of its additional ports. We also looked at the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo. Unfortunately, it lacks basic features and third-party app support, including stuff like Plex, which even the WD model has.
Its read and write tests were also extremely slow compared with the results from other NAS boxes we tested. When we reached out to Apollo for clarification on these results, representatives replied that the Cloud 2 Duo uses in-flight encryption by default and the user cannot disable it.
More media features than you can shake a stick at blockchain uk bank deposits disabled iphone 6s plus, TechHive, January 26, You can also install additional services like VPN on it. DS seems like a little of downgrade compared to in terms of usability.
Phenomenal product, especially for a home where all the computers are laptops. The web interface is great, and I appreciate the ability to connect other external drives via USB to make file transfers easy.
As with anything, if I had unlimited funds, I would purchase a non-j, when they come to market to make use of the SD slot on the front to quickly and easily transfer photos. I wonder if I could connect a card reader to my j?
The update paragraph is ambiguously worded. So which is quieter and cooler running? All else is the same and I can recommend the DS I lke the idea of the slim.
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