Synology NAS advice

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

tigerstyle

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I've narrowed down a DS212J as the NAS for me, I think?! Just have a few questions about it, an probably generic Synology questions too. I've read lots of guides and you tube vids in them, but a lot of the reviews are full of bumpf like 'oh the plastics nice' 'I like the logo' and they kind of skip the whole ins and outs of the software as to what it perhaps can't do or how you would use it.

But I do like the idea of it scheduling to turn on/off, web access into it, doing torrents for me (but still not sure on the easiest way for it to automatically load them up after I click on the links whilst on my laptop, I've read about mirroring a folder that it'll automatically pickup)

Questions:
  • I'm upgrading my Router in a few months, will the Synology mind being swapped to a whole new router/SSID, 100Base>Gigabit upgrade etc? I guess I want to avoid redoing any setup that might format the drives by mistake!
  • No problems setting it up with one HDD now and adding another later
  • The tool built into Win7 will easily backup a recovery image over the network to the NAS that can be installed if I need to later boot my laptop from a Win7 USB thumbstick? (Thinking if the SSD dies)
  • It can handle storing these Win7 backup images for 3 Laptops without mixing them up?
  • I'd like some of the space to mirror my current docs folder on my laptop/SSD for backup purposes + being able to browse them from anywhere
  • I then want the rest of the space in the NAS to just act as an external HDD (will be putting an SSD in my laptop, so will 'work' from some Docs/MP3's/Photos etc stored on the NAS) that must be easy to do right?
  • I guess I'm not sure how the space is partitioned up inside the NAS!

Cheers!
 
Hi

Answers:
1. No you just plug the unti into the new router and away you go making better use of speeds.
2. Not at all. Expanding the volume is easy and synology have plenty of guides to help.
3. Yes. I have an ssd for os/apps and a hd for storage. You just create a folder for them, point the backup app at it and you're away.
4. Yes, just make 3 folders titled appropriately for ease of reference.
5. Your nas creates space. Entirely up to you how to use it. It creates default 'shares' (music/docs/photo/video' and then you can make as many additional folders as you like.
6. See answer 5
7. Space is partitioned up however you like. It is not much diffrenet from having a hd in your pc.

I have done a review of the DS212j, and many other synology units HERE
 
hi guys, sorry to hijack the thread but i'm thinking of getting one of these. All my ports on my router are in use - is it simply a case of buying a switch? Which switch should i get?
 
I have a 411J and although the software is great it is very slow.

I wish I hadn't gone for the J (slow) version as I use it for quite a few things and it a crawl sometimes.
 
rs1800 said:
I have a 411J and although the software is great it is very slow.

I wish I hadn't gone for the J (slow) version as I use it for quite a few things and it a crawl sometimes.
Click to expand...

Yeah but the $$$ man! Anything but the cheap ones ( and I see a single bay as pretty pointless) are pretty pricey things.

Man I'm dumb, I forgot to ask: the Nas will easily see the 2nd HDD when added as a raid device, and not just increase storage space right? Again my googling shows people explaining how easily drives screw in but not then setting up the software for it.

Also then I guess is DS212J the one to go for? My second choice is the Netgear ReadyNas Duo, but heard they are a bit more chalk and cheese than synology.
 
I have a DS212J and love it. Its fast enough to steam HD video to my RPi. To answer your question about torrents (and general downloading). You can get browser plugins (i have one for chome (also firefox)) that allow you in two clicks to send a download link to the NAS. Some stuff like youtube vids have buttons placed below to click and d/l :)

I also run a weekly backup to mine over the network using the windows 7 backup tool.

They are great pieces of kit, love mine to bits.
 
with regards to torrent downloads - if the synology disks are seen as one volume on your pc/mac, can you simply point your torrent client to download the file to a folder on that volume (just as you would with a hard drive on your actual pc?). This is probably a silly question, but i just want to confirm that i can continue using uTorrent as usual from within my OS and just download files to my NAS volume.

I've had a busy (work wise) couple of months and i'm considering treating myself to an 8 bay synology disk station with at least 6 3tb drives but want to be sure it's the thing for me! :)

edit: also, i'm assuming it would be a bad idea to stick this in a cupboard (or would it be ok if i drilled some ventilation holes)?
 
snow patrol said:
This is probably a silly question, but i just want to confirm that i can continue using uTorrent as usual from within my OS and just download files to my NAS volume.
?
Click to expand...

Assume you can, but the point is to be able to turn your main machine off, let the NAS do the work torrenting
 
Yes you can use it as a network volume, but by downloading on the actual unit, you won't need to have your PC on.
 
snow patrol said:
with regards to torrent downloads - if the synology disks are seen as one volume on your pc/mac, can you simply point your torrent client to download the file to a folder on that volume (just as you would with a hard drive on your actual pc?). This is probably a silly question, but i just want to confirm that i can continue using uTorrent as usual from within my OS and just download files to my NAS volume.

Yes you can. It becomes storage just as if you were downloading straight to your pc.

I've had a busy (work wise) couple of months and i'm considering treating myself to an 8 bay synology disk station with at least 6 3tb drives but want to be sure it's the thing for me! :)

Unless it has to be exactly 8 bays you could get something like a DS712+ if it is in budget then add one of the 5 bay expansion modules.

edit: also, i'm assuming it would be a bad idea to stick this in a cupboard (or would it be ok if i drilled some ventilation holes)?
Yes, if you stick it in a cupboard it'll need ventilation to keep the discs cool.
Click to expand...

Edit: any unmanaged switch should be fine. If you are hooking the nas to the switch make sure you get a gigabit one.
 
rs1800 said:
I have a 411J and although the software is great it is very slow.

I wish I hadn't gone for the J (slow) version as I use it for quite a few things and it a crawl sometimes.
Click to expand...

In a situation where you have multiple clients accessing at once and maybe multiple HD streams plus other stuff going on it may be worth getting a beefier model. For the average home user who might use it to stream say 1 or 2 movies simultaneously it should be more than fine. Weigh up intended use though
 
tigerstyle said:
But I do like the idea of it scheduling to turn on/off, web access into it, doing torrents for me (but still not sure on the easiest way for it to automatically load them up after I click on the links whilst on my laptop, I've read about mirroring a folder that it'll automatically pickup)
Click to expand...

2 options:

1 - Get the Synology Download plugin for Chrome, which adds right click download menus for torrents, youtube, files etc remotely. You also get a tracker at the top of Chrome to update you on progress.

2 - Remote into the synology box via XXX.synology.me and you have a cut down linux operating system where you can search and download anything you want remotely.
 
NAS ordered,

Now what HDDs do people recommend?
I know the Synology website has a page of approved HDDs but that just about as every HDD currently on sale listed, so not a great help, a lot of people seem to say steer clear of the WD Green drives, but a lot of people also reporting no problems with them and greens are there top choice?

I've made on a thread on the WD red drives, but they are pretty new so doubt people have much experience with those yet, hopefully more on those soon!

And on NAS setup: Taking this from the Synology forum, it seems like a clever way to do it, perhaps the 2nd HDD gets less wear and tear too as it'll only be 'on' for an hour a day rather than the full 24?
That is if the NAS does fail, it really is that easy to read the data from the HDD removed from it and then that put in a SUB enclosure? It's not all in a Synology propriety format is it? noob?!?!

stevech wrote:
with my DS212, I elected to not use RAID1. I setup mine as two volumes. One drive has shares seen on the network. The other volume (drive) gets a daily backup of the main drive, and a daily time machine backup to be able to get any old file version. The backups are automatic.

My thinking is that I need protection from a human error (oops undelete that folder), or a corrupt file system, more than protection from a drive failure. With two volumes I'm protected from both. And either volume can be removed and read on a PC with a Windows driver, or under a linux boot on a PC - in case the NAS power supply or controller board fails.
Click to expand...
 
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I have green drives in raid0 in my pc backed up to the NAS in raid0 too, sort if a network raid 10? Lol I don't know, but it works for me, get max speeds out of the gigaswitch
 
eeek, well i too have just bitten the bullet. Thought i'd go for broke using my 12 month interest free credit card:

1 x Synology DS1812+ 8-bay NAS
8 x 3tb seagate drives
1 x 8 port 10/100/1000 netgear switch

I'm hoping it'll be as easy to set up and manage as everyone says it is :D

P.s - is going with one disk redundancy enough? I'm figuring that it's super extremely unlikely that two disks would fail at once and if one failed i could just shut the system down, order another one and reboot/rebuild...right?

Or should i really go for 2 disk option? (if i do go for the two disk option, can i change it to the one disk at a later date?)

Can't wait to get this up and running. Then in a year or so i can just add the 5 bay expansion unit with 5 4tb drives (hopefully nice and cheap by then) to more or less double the storage :D
 
Depends how important your data is.

I have a DS1511+ and have setup 3 volumes - one with redundancy and the other two without. I keep my important data on Volume 1.

3x2TB (Volume 1) 1 disk redundancy (SHR)
1x1.5TB (Volume 2)
1x1.5TB (Volume 3)
 
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