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Our modern life is all about data -and- our computer’s main hard drive isn’t enough to hold it all.
Furthermore, most of us have more than one computer per household so sharing data can become something of a challenge without a network-attached storage (NAS) device that basically makes centralized data available to all connected computers (clients).
This being said, not all NAS devices are created equal and since you’re probably not inclined onto spending your money on the wrong device, you’ll be happy to know a company named Synology all but reinvented what a NAS should do for you, the end user.
Let’s look at their smallest NAS appliance, the DS207+ which is a high performance “networked hard drive enclosure” that goes beyond simple network storage. It stores your data (and it does that very well) but it can also replace traditional PC servers and act as a stand-alone file server, web host, back up for your home/office data and get this, it’s fully compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux networks so everybody in the house will be happy.
To achieve all this, the DS207+ comes with its own 500 MHz processor accompanied by 128 MB of RAM memory but you’ll need to supply (up to) two hard drives, on your own. It’s probably better that way since you can make the device as spacey as you need it to be.
With a 1,000 Mbps ethernet transfer rate, your data and built-in network services will fly. Among the services you’ll eventually want to use are FTP, HTTP (using Apache, with PHP and MySQL Server), SMB, AFP, CIFS, Windows ADS and even and iTunes server!
The AJAX-based web interface is a snap to master so you’ll be productive in no time, especially compared to other NAS devices which don’t have such a quality interface to play with. The fan could’ve been quieter but it’s not a deal breaker. This RAID 0/1-capable NAS device is generally performs very well and looks nice.
If you’re new to NAS devices, this is a bit pricier than the “low cost” alternatives but at around $300 for the DS207+ and 200$ for two 1 GB hard drives, it’s not enough to break your bank, especially considering all the bells and whistles that come “standard” with it.
Tags: synology, ds207+, nas, network hard drive, hd, external hard drive, back up data, home office data, extra hard drive, raid hd, raid 0, raid 1, web server, networked data sharing
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