hi there I am wanting to set up a NAS home so that we can use our laptops (2 Macs and 2 PCs) and have extra storage using the NAS as a network drive for all the computers and where we will store all of our data and only have stuff that we are working on the lap tops.

My plan is to use 3 drives using SHR for this network drive and the 4th drive as a drive to back up the laptops and their hard drives so if they fail that is not lost.

Is this possible I looking at using a Synology DiskStation DS418 and 4 x 4TB WD Red + drives

Hi Robbie/Ed,

So..... me again! Right, I had a bit of Black Friday madness and found a QNAP TS-464 for a ridiculous price, so I jumped on it. (Not sure why really - as 4 bay wasn't big enough.) Now however (before I even took it out of the box), I've come across a million articles about just how bad QNAP really is with security! (particularly the YT channel from Lawrence Systems - who really slates QNAP - although he is not alone.) We briefly touched on this before, where it was mentioned that with the right security settings, QNAP was supposedly ok and no worse/better off than the likes of Synology. However..... I've done some more digging and it seems like there is some merit to the concept that QNAP is really really quite bad. Synology (being more software focused - as you say Robbie "at least 60/40&quot seem to do a better job at reacting to vulnerabilities and developing patches. Way ahead of QNAP.

Anyway, aside from security issues, I (ahem) slightly overlooked that the TS-464 only offers Ext4 - with no zfs. Then I started thinking about Synology and their offering of BTRFS - not to mention SHR which would be more beneficial to me in the long run, so now I'm leaning more towards Synology again (not for the first time) and sending the TS-464 back. The conundrum........

The likes of the Synology DS1621+ etc, all come with the Ryzen (which is fine) but may struggle with Plex etc, owning to no onboard gpu. Whilst there is a PCI-e expansion slot on said device, it seems to be more geared towards improved networking - as opposed to adding a low profile gpu which I know it will not accept. So to the (long-winded) question...

Will the likes of the DS1621+ (or 1821+) handle Plex for the most part? (Not necessarily 4k I know, but will it crap itself with x265 (as you suggest on the Plex testing video)?

I did look at the DS1621XS+, but it's overkill for my needs.

In a nutshell, I am still looking for a 6-8 bay NAS mostly (predominantly actually) for media and with the ability to handle (mostly) 1080p x264 (but some x265 1080p and 4k - without insane bitrates). Mostly this will be via LAN (so I know that limits some security issues if I was to remove internet access), but ideally - who wants to invest £££ into a NAS in (alomst) 2023 and not have the benefits of it being connected to the internet so that you can access content or add content remotely?

Then another YT video put me onto TrueNAS, but I'm not sure I really want (or have the time) to get into all of that learning curve. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a 6-8 bay NAS that was secure while online, geared towards media, could easily handle x265 and 4K media files and was relatively plug & play, easy to set-up and forget about, knowing it would just work.... and without it costing thousands? Am I dreaming??

I've watched so many of your videos now, I think I've grown to hate seagulls too...

Hi, I'm looking to rip all my 200 plus cds to storage that can then be played on my cambridge audio ax100d. Can you suggest a way to do this that allows for search and select of the music files locally. I'm looking to maintain quality - ripping flac format and directly connecting the storage unit to the amp/receiver. Many thanks

hello 
It has been strongly recommended that I buy a UPS (in addition to the £1,000 I have paid for the 923+ and HDD :/ ) ... There are literally thousands online ... I don't want one like a PC tower which most are. I have found an Eaton3S 550B - 3s550b , which has a USB to connect to the NAS ... I am struggling to find out if it will work ... any thoughts ?

I've binge-watched many of your videos and they have helped a lot. Thank you!
After a devastating data loss, it's become blindingly obvious that I need a better backup and archive solution. I like the Synology systems because of their SHR and the ability to mix drives of different sizes which would allow me to use drives I already own. The DS920+ seems the obvious choice but I feel it may be complete overkill for my needs - I'm a single user whose needs I don't consider especially demanding. I don't need to stream media to TV although I would probably be accessing and editing a lot of video files (occasionally 4K) for content creation from the NAS on a daily basis. Virtual environments are not something I use.
I considered the DS720+ but by the time I factor in the price of the drives it brings it up to over the price of some 4 bay solutions which are far more extensible. Also, if in the future I needed to increase the capacity, it's going to be easier and cheaper with a 4 bay.
Thanks for any help and advice you can offer.

Hello,
I already watched a couple of your videos. Thank you very much for this! :-)
Unfortunately one question remained: Is it possible to incremental backup iSCSI LUNs using QNAP NAS to ...whatever (another NAS, USB-HDD,...)? I just found the export function which is not able to backup incrementally as well as in versions to get a verison back from before crypto encryption virus destroyed all data. :-)

Thank you and kind regards,
Mario from lovely Austria

Hello,

I truly enjoy watching your video and reading your articles published in your web site. Care to enlighten on said subject.

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Eddie Loh
Singapore

New Synology NAS user here. I have configured everything I've seen I have to do to be able to acces via DDSM using https. DSM 7.2

- I can accés via quickconnect and via the smartphone APPs that use quickconnect. It works with my local network and on the internet. In my local network, the https appears crossed out and Chrome says the certificate isn't valid.

- In the DDNS tab, I have a line with Synology as service provider and my URL (as an example: my-nas.synology-me). It appears with my public IP adress (i do NOT have CGNAT, so that's okay), and "Normal" as status.

- For testing purposes, i have UPnP IGd enabled in my router so the NAS can create all the portforwarding it needs. I intend to close it and manually port forward when I make it work.

- In the routing config tab of DSM, i have the usual quickconnect port forward (443, 80, 6690 to random routing ports) and i have added 5000 and 5001. If I test connection everythings goes as OK.

- When I try to acces via my-nas.synology-me, or https://my-nas.synology-me, or my-nas.synology-me:5001, or my-nas.synology-me:5000, nothing happens. It keeps charging until it time outs.

- I have 3 certificates in the Certificate tab of my DSM: Synology, my-nas.direct.quickconnect.to, and my-nas.synology.me (RSA/ECC) Synology DDNS Certificate. In config, the my-nas.synology.me certificate is set by default in every service except quickconnect, where it has the quickconnect certificate (and there's no dropdown list).

- I have a plex server working properly in the local and external network if that can be of any help understanding what's happening.

Can anyone see something I am not seeing?

Hello, I am searching for an 2 bay NAS what will be able to transcode at least 1080p h265 (at normal streaming bitrates) into my 1080p TV with an Plex client on it. Second use case will be just occasional backups of important photos/videos with automatic sync task into cloud storage. So it is at max 3 tasks that I need to run together without Plex lagging. Can I get something like that for that money? Or I need something more pricey?

How can I use my existing mapped network drives and my Netback Replicator when working remotely (not on my LAN)?