NAS Purchase and Sync over Internet Question?

Greetings,

I recently (last night) found your YouTube channel and watched some of your videos. I have used the Synology software at work to recover employees files, but not much beyond that. I currently back up to USB drives connected to my desktop, but I am interested in purchasing several NAS's to backup to instead. My thought is to maybe connect one at my mom's house and maybe a friend's house to have multiple backups are different locations. Do I have earth shattering data to backup? No. But, I have years of files and tax documents and photos, and probably a ton of garbage, and I want to do this to accomplish "doing the right thing" with my data, possibly sharing the option to use my drives for my college-age children with their own login, if not set them up with their own at some point, etc. I am interested in using either the NAS or something like Home Assistant in the future for surveillance, but I currently have no cameras set up. I did recently purchase a doorbell with a camera that does not require a subscription, but have not set it up yet.

So, I watched your video on using RSYNC between Synology and TerrraMaster. But, this was done over your network. Is it just as easy to sync over the internet, like to my mom's house? Will I have to get into her service provided modem/router to route ports to sync to a station at her house? Will I have to install a router behind her modem/router to accomplish this? Or, will it just work?

I saw this 4-bay TerraMaster on sale at Newegg for $150, and I thought could I should use it for the remote locations: https://www.newegg.com/terramaster-f4-210/p/14P-006A-00028

I thought I would start with 2 drives in RAID 1, with the option to upgrade should I require more space in the future. I did read about the 2-bay Synology for a similar price, and I am just not sure which way I am better off going. The remote units would be strictly for backup, at this point, but at my house, I would like to eventually play with some of the other utilities, including containers, Next Cloud, arcade (MAME), torrent, VPN, WireGuard, VMs, surveillance etc. I am not big on paying for services, but I would consider Plex if the other options end up being a PIA, like trying to keep up with all the changes with the free Kodi movie sites. We mostly use Netflix currently. I am fairly certain there is a fee with Synology's surveillance software beyond a few cameras. I would rather not pay if I did not have to, unless it is totally worth it. Currently, I am happy watching movies at 720p. I actually prefer not to have the highest quality because it is too clear to me. I do not need to see actors' pores. Yet, animated movies are great in high def. Anyway....

So, there's a lot to choose from Auster, Synology, QNAP, TerraMaster.... I should mention that I enjoy using Linux and am curious about BTRFS and snapshots, although I do not currently have a complete understanding of them. I did consider making a TrueNAS box to learn ZFS, but, it seems more complicated than what I am looking for. I have been putting this off for years because I did not want to regret my purchase decision.

Thank you in advance,
Rob

Sounds like you could really enjoy Synology NAS. The backup NAS does not need to be the same model, but I would still recommend the same brand. You could have DS920+ as a main NAS and J series or Value Series Synology NAS for backups. It is easier to set up and as this is an internal way of connecting it get improvements with DSM updates. Mixing different brands will work, but I would only recommend this if you happen to have already some other brand NAS.Setting up a remote backup is going to be more complicated than a local connection because you need to open a port in your remote location. You will need to log into your router in a backup location and enable port forwarding. If the IP is changing often then you could enable DDNS https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/AdminCenter/connection_ddnsWith a Plus series models you will not be limited and be able to install all apps you desire and have little projects/experiments with things like VMs and surveillance.I hope this helps.