I have been thinking about adding a NAS to my home network for backups and Plex but after watching your video on Deadbolt I fear that getting attacked twice in one year shows that these devices are far too vulnerable to be useful.

Background:
I have a home network with PCs and Android and Roku devices. I am using Plex Server (running on my desktop) to access my thousands of music, photo and video files. I have been backing up all of our non-media data from PC to PC and also to a removable, external hard drive. I have been backing up all media to another removable, external hard drive.

I have been contemplating some sort of NAS to replace the external hard drive backup storage I’ve been using. Then my Tivo failed and I started using Plex as my DVR for over-the-air requiring me to leave my desktop on for many hours longer than I would like. I recently discovered your channel and through your excellent videos decided that either the Qnap TS-453E or TS-464 might be a good fit for me. Then I watched your video about the Deadbolt attacks happening twice in one year and I feel these NASes are way too vulnerable. Would you please comment?

Gary

I’m starting to realise that a NAS is much more than just a box to throw data at.
I’ve got a client that I want to replace their NAS, they run VMware. I have previously tried backup devices like Datto that allow the virtualised backup to be run on the backup device when the primary server fails, pretty clever!
I am trying to find a NAS that will provide that solution.
VM back up from VMware and the potential for a reasonably smooth restoration/DR option.

Rather annoyingly I just bought a TS-431XeU and discovered that the boxafe 365 backup software won’t run on 32-bit ARM.
I was planning on running it in my rack in the workshop and provide backup for my clients 365, I bought it in June before they changed boxafe licensing, then when I went to set up last week I discovered that the licensing model has changed, kind of irrelevant because it won’t even run on my NAS :-(
Any thoughts on 365 back up in this scenario?
Looks like I need to sell the Ts-431 and buy something different!

By the way, great article and you covered all the aspects very well but I’m sure you have some more specific advice based on just these two usage requirements.
I’m not concerned about surveillance or other features.

The client with the VMware requirement won’t be using it for 365 back up, only a VM backup solution. Their 365 is backed up elsewhere, using barracuda for mail filtering and 365 back up

Cheers Robert

Hi Guys!

First of all - thank you so much for all your effort and work that you put in sharing knowledge about all things related to NAS. You really did tremendous job but you probably heard that already!

After watching your YouTube channel and reading plenty of reviews, comparisons etc. I have some idea of what may work for me but would be really happy to hear what you guys think about that.

We (me and my wife) are running interior design studio based in Poznan, Poland.
Our everyday operation goes with CAD files (up to 100 MB), Sketchup files (300-2000 MB) and a lot of .jpg, .png, .bmp etc.
Currently we have 6 workstations working at the same time, probably will get up to 8 some time soon.
We got to the point where we see that 2-3 TB on each workstation is not enough and at the same time we have copies of copies of copies.

Therefore we would like to move to one NAS of approx. 10 TB and keep and work directly from there with current projects.
Of course we will unify library of models and keep some archive projects as well.

All of current hardware (switch, cables, workstations) can easily handle 1000 MB/s.

After some reading and watching I ended up with idea of buying Qnap TS-453D + 2x WD Gold 10 TB (RAID 1/mirror).
Will that work fast enough when connected by both 2.5 GbE ports to switch?
Should I go straight for SSD as a cache or/and maybe expand DDR4 to 8/16 GB?
Do you see any other setup that may suit our needs better?

Best regards
Dawid Robaszkiewicz

Hello,

First off want to thank you for your awesome YouTube videos. I have learned so much via your channel and just love watching along.

Just got my first NAS and decided to purchase the new 1522+ w/ the 10Gb add-on card.

I was originally getting 3x Seagate Iron Wolf 12Tb drives. Looks like it’s supported and not to pricey.

BUT........ Now what I hope to roll with is 3x Seagate Exos X16 14Tb drives. Not only more storage, cheaper at 199.99 on newegg vs 229.99 for the IWs on Amazon, and a better drive right? My only concern is that it’s not officially supported via Synology. From what I have gathered they will work just fine but Synology is just gonna bother me in the system with pop up “warnings”.

Do you have any reasons to not recommend these Exos drives in my system OTHER than the small annoyance of Synology pestering me within DSM 7.1?

Also if you have another drive please keep in mind I'm now somewhat sold on the "Enterprise" drive type and really not looking to pay a ton more markup via "Synology's" rebranded drives.

Thanks for your time and advice,

Josh,

Nashville, TN

First thank you for all the testing you have done as i have watched a lot of your You tube videos and this has not only saved me time but hopefully money as well.

I am after a 16TB NAS mainly for my Plex media server streaming up to two 4K streams with a bit of space for files as at the moment I have Plex on my HP Z800 Workstation with 8TB RAID (4*2TB WD Red's).

I was hoping for a NAS with an SPF+ port so I can connect it straight to the 10GB port on my switch but the QNAP is a bit on the expensive side just for that feature.

The Synology by the looks of it will do the job but no SPF and limited models with Intel Processors. I can combine the two 1GB ports to help with the bandwidth, hopefully one port per stream if needed.

The HDD comparison was very good and even though i normally go for WD Red's the Synology HDD's did look like a good choice even with the high price tag.

It looks like i have little choice but to buy the DS920+ with 4 Iron Wolf Pro 4TB HDD's or Synology one's, 4GB RAM and the addition of the 400GB M.2 SSD Drive.

Can you suggest any alternatives or even waiting till the new Synology NAS comes out hopefully soon with an Intel processor?

Thanks
Gordon

Are you sure this is quad core, as you say here: https://nascompares.com/news/terramaster-f4-223-4-bay-2-5gbe-nas/

The digit after the dash generally designates the core count. This looks like dual-core.

--
Chris

Hi

Just wanted to say what your doing is amazing - really helps noobs out like me.

So I have watched a few videos of yours I have come to the conclusion I would like to go with a QNAP raid system.

My original workflow/storage system was using dropbox

I would upload all of my project files to dropbox (this would be my backup) and I would then use an SSD to edit the project
Use a separate SSD with proxies of the raw footage to edit from
and then host the RAW footage files on an external HDD

I would then reconnect the footage (by this I mean toggling the proxy button in premiere) to export and colour grade.

This system would also allow me to share folders with remote editors so they could sync using the dropbox app just the files they needed. I could also share files with clients too.

This system has seen me well but I am needing more space than 5TB with dropbox and this is costing a lot of money each year. I would like to move away from dropbox whilst trying to keep some of the functionality - like folder sharing, the ability for syncing the files on my local machine if needed and also the ability for my freelance editor to sync the files they only need (like dropbox's files on demand)

I will be using the system locally to mainly edit 4K footage in Premiere Pro and secondary create Motions GFX in After Effects

For my video editing, I do create proxies and edit using them and only use the 4K footage to colour grade and export.

For the NAS I was thinking it would be great to get a least 4 bay system with SSD caching - I will be connecting it via 10GbE with a thunderbolt adapter

I have been looking at 3 QNAP raid systems and this is where I get confused and not sure which way to go

QNAP TS-464 4-Bay Desktop NAS - £587.99
QNAP TS-673A-8G 6-Bay Desktop NAS - £829.99
QNAP TS-h973AX 9-Bay Desktop NAS - £967.49

I know with the 464 and 673 I would need to purchase a PCI card for the 10GbE

Ideally, I think the 9 bay would be better as I have the scope to easily add more drives as needed and also by the time I have purchased the added PCI cards it would be the same amount of money. But the 464 seems to have great reviews and I'm not sure if this would be faster and cheaper than the 9 bay even after the added PCI card.

So my question is which of the above would be best for my case use or are there any alternatives?

Thanks Brad

HI

I have a DS1819 which I have set up as direct connection to MAC Mini M1. This was in the hope of managing our large (many TB) Lightroom Catalog directly on the NAS.

Basically Mac M1 connected via Sabrent 10 Gbe Adaptor to the E10G18-T1 expansion card. I have also tried via the Sabrent 2.5Gbe adaptor.

The SMB network shares are regularly dropping out 4 or 5 time a day. It is at the point where I am questioning this setup for my needs and looking at DAS.

I can't seem to find a iscsi Initiator for m1 and I am not sure if to us AFP rather than SMB. (AFP unsupported by apple)

Anyone have any suggestions? I have invested a lot of money in this setup.

Thanks
Jon

Hi,

I have pulled the plug on replacing my Drobo 5D with a DS1522+. It will be here later today. At present I can backup the 5D with BackBlaze. This won't be an option with the NAS. As I will have 5x 3TB drives spare from the Drobo 5d I was wondering if you could recommend a unit that could house these drives and be used to backup the 1522+. I don't need to backup everything on the 1522+

Sorry I was looking at the wrong info. Hi. I reckon ive watched all you videos. Thanks again for the reviews. I do have a query You did a YouTube video on the TS-873AU which has been superseded with the TS-873AeU which now has the M2 Slots etc. I was wondering if you plan to do a back to back or a review on the newer model as im considering purchasing one for my home setup and would love your input on what they are like. Kind Regards. Anthony