Table of Content
If yours are not on the list, it doesn't mean they won't work, but if you are buying drives new, it's best to stick with the NAS maker's recommendations. It supports HTTPS for remote access, TLS or SSL secure connections, and two-factor authentication. This process also allowed us to test the quality of each NAS device's drive bays. A good NAS has drive trays or slots that 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. The benefit of a DIY NAS is customization; you can choose where you spend money and upgrade things basically forever.
If you buy the machine with disks populated by ioSafe itself, then the NAS comes with a 2-year data recovery service that’s upgradeable to 5 years after you register the machine. This service means ioSafe will attempt to recover your data for free for any reason, from old-fashioned disk failure to human error to simple accidental deletion. IoSafe builds NAS boxes inside boxes that are, essentially, safes. They also weigh a ton and are rock solid, so , you can prevent them from walking away. As a bonus, the ioSafe machines use Synology's DSM software, making them very easy to use.
Network Attached Storage
In this article, we will discuss the "Safe" methods and some of the "unsafe" ones. The underpowered specifications are not suitable for high-resolution transcoding. The specifications may not be the best suited for high-resolution transcoding. Multiple RAID implementation gives you the choice of data redundancy. Underpowered RAM may require you to upgrade it to a higher capacity. This Synology NAS device also allows you to transcode H.265/H.264 4K videos to 1080p resolution.
In-flight encryption protects your files during the transfer process, so it's not something you need to worry about if you're on your home network the whole time. As cloud services and data storage continue to increase their demands on hard drives, the need for speed has become even more critical. Today, most of the NAS storage devices available in the market are built with an enclosure that can handle up to 100 TB of storage.
Best mid-tier NAS
The devices support 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives; this offers customizability. If you are looking for an inexpensive NAS to set up a media server for your home, the DS220j is the best option. It offers one of the cheapest options on the market that will allow you to set up basic streaming with Plex. You get only one Gigabit Ethernet port (with 112 MBps read/write speed) and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the rear panel. So, you will have to reach around the back each time you want to back up your flash drive.
Like its more affordable sibling we already mentioned, the device can connect to smartphones and tablets via a dedicated app. The drive works with PC or Mac computers, and it can connect to Android or iOS devices via a free mobile app. RAID 5 is a replication scheme that allows multiple drives to be accessed by a single master.
Easiest to manage RAID, but barely any server features
Coming into this year, Apple had won our PCMag Readers' Choice Award every year since 2005; starting in 2012, Asus shared the award with Apple each year. This year, Asus stands alone as our sole winner of the 2017 PCMag Readers' Choice Award for home networking routers. There’s also VPNPlus if you’re using the VPN server functions, DS Note if you use Synology’s notes app, and MailPlus if you use your NAS as an email server. REMOTE MANAGEMENT SERVICE - Save time and resources by managing multiple NAS from a single console. Being what supplies electricity to all the various components, the power supply is an incredibly important component. We’d always recommend spending a little more on a reputable branded PSU to ensure you won’t encounter any issues, especially with a NAS that will typically run continuously.
Websites focused on enterprise network storage, such as Computer Weekly and StorageReview.com, can help in those cases. Most NAS devices can also act as email, database, and virtual private network servers. You can use them for BitTorrent, to host CMS, CRM, and e-commerce software, or as DVRs for networked security cameras. A NAS is a computer, so it can do almost anything a Linux computer can do.
Synology DiskStation DS918+
That, after all, is the fundamental purpose of a RAID -- protecting your data when a drive fails. Even with smaller-capacity drives, and less than a terabyte of sample files, it took almost three weeks just to run the failure and rebuild tests across the entire set of seven candidate servers. The router forms the foundation of your wired and wireless network—it may be the most critical piece of technology in your home you don't think about, save your broadband modem. When your router is down, none of your devices can talk to one another or to the outside world. You can't browse the web, stream movies, listen to music, update social media, connect to your office, or pretty much anything else. About the only thing you can do is work on a spreadsheet and play Solitaire.
Western Digital has a pretty broad selection of NAS devices, but we realized we hadn't provided you with a lower-cost entry-level unit. At under $200 , the EX2 can add considerable value to your network, provide you with some fault tolerance, and help protect your data. So where does this fit in our overall pantheon of recommendations? This can serve up containers and VMs, making it quite possibly the core of a small business or department.
You don’t get many I/O ports with the DiskStation DS220j, but you do get speedy file transfer performance, multiple RAID options, and quad-core processing power for just under $170. This two-bay NAS uses a sleek, glossy white enclosure and is equipped with a single 1Gbps LAN port and two USB 3.0 ports. You’ll have to remove a couple of screws to install the drives, which you’ll have to supply yourself as they are not included. Low-cost NAS devices are great for home use, but if you’re a small-business owner, you’ll want a NAS that offers speedy performance, multi-gig LAN connectivity, and high-speed expansion options.
A top performer, this two-bay NAS is equipped with four M.2 slots for speedy caching (using M.2 solid-state drives), two 2.5Gbps LAN ports, and two high-speed USB ports for device sharing. Most NAS devices in this price range use slower ARM-based processors from Realtek, Alpine, or Marvell, or older-generation Celeron processors. The DS218+ has a modern dual-core 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron processor and 2 GB of RAM, which you can expand to 6 GB. The Linux-based DiskStation Manager software isn't complicated; if you've used a Windows or Mac computer, you'll be able to find your way around DSM and figure out how it works pretty quickly.
NAS boxes that can manage 1080p on-the-fly transcoding through Plex are too expensive for most people—you're better off running Plex Media Server on a computer or on an Nvidia Shield TV and using the NAS for media storage. In addition to backing up PCs and other devices, several respondents told us they use their NAS along with the Plex media server to view their videos and listen to music on any device from anywhere. Serious photo enthusiasts turn to NAS to store all their photos including large, lossless RAW files. Many NAS devices also let you share your photos with others outside your network without first uploading them to a service.
Many NAS units also support a JBOD mode ("Just a Bunch of Disks"), which lets you address each drive as a separate drive letter and save data to discrete drives within the NAS box. This is no safer than just basic striping; any data you save to a given drive is still vulnerable to the failure of that specific mechanism. To mitigate this, some JBOD NAS management software allows users to combine disks into one or more logical volumes and even apply redundancy measures across volumes. This is usually entirely dependent upon the software used to manage the NAS, however, so be sure to understand your NAS drive's software capabilities before purchase, particularly if you're a small-business buyer. Usually, the user has the option to reconfigure the drives to gain the capacity of the second drive, if desired.
ZDNET independently tests and researches products to bring you our best recommendations and advice. It’s easy to use and includes 8TB of storage, but the EX4100 is available in models that run up to 24TB if you need that extra capacity. We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission. In my early career, I worked as an editor of scholarly science books, and as an editor of "Dummies"-style computer guidebooks for Brady Books .
The company receives excellent marks for their ease of setup and reliability. Apple's rating of 9.2 for satisfaction with reliability did edge out Asus, which scored 9.1, but both are excellent ratings and slight improvements over last year. Asus and TP-Link tied for top marks for satisfaction with setup (9.1). This question is only asked to respondents whose routers are less than a year old. Asus had the best overall satisfaction rating among new routers by far, earning a score of 9.1.
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