Synology DS115j 2TB (1 x 2TB WD RED) 1 Bay Desktop NAS Unit

Amazing service! great product, easy to set up, works really well, doesn't look ugly, fast , would recommend,

I've had this for just over a year and it's been the most reliable bit of hardware I've had. Use for backing up all my photos and sharing documents locally and remotely and has never let me down. Have also recently set it up with surveillance station with my ipcams so don't have to sign up with cloud based camera devices. the only drawback being it only allows to add 2 cameras, other licenses need to be purchased which are quite expensive

Easy to plug in and set up with very user friendly software interfaces.Very slow upload times over WiFi though, currently chugging along at c3mb/s, so going to take a while to complete initial back ups. That might be user error though!

I bought this, on the recommendation from a friend, to hold all my media (music, films & photo's) and run iTunes from it and I have to say that it works perfectly! I can stream music & film, through iTunes, from the synology through my Apple TV or directly from the synology apps to my Hitachi smart TV.Although i would recommend that you check inside the casing, to check the size of the hard drive before you set it up. The reason I say this is because I ordered a 2TB but it had a 1TB inside the casing! But Amazon were brilliant, as usual, and exchanged it for a 2TB straight away!I would recommend this for anyone that wants to free up space on their computer and wants to be able to access their files remotely from anywhere with any internet enabled device (phone, tablet, laptop)

I was a bit nervous about this as after using an old Bufallo Link Station that was 9 years old and was super easy, I thought I might be going too technical for me. There is no software, which put me off but having a quick look at the leaflet and seeing the web page, after that it was easy to set up. Having said that it does loads that I don't really want and it has loads of space that I probably wont fill as I don't download films etc., so I probably have a Rolls Royce when all I needed was Smart Car.The only thing I don't like is the speed, not fast enough for me, but then I bought the lowest version. What I have noticed is that I save in small chunks it works fine, try saving the whole picture file, too long. So now that I have that sorted I'm happy. I've got WD drives that I've had for years so I'm hoping these will be just the same (the old NAS has them, they are still working fine but the NAS is in the EM mode and the update fix is a bit above my pay grade.I wouldn't have minded a RAID layout but it might have been a lot more expense for a Rolls Royce that I might not have got full use out of it. It's just nice to have access to the files on any pc I useThe old one was out of sight on the floor, this only has short cables so has to stand close by, which is a bind as this has further to fall if the cat decides to knock it over. Otherwise perfect.

Pros: It has almost all the functionality of a professional server. It can work like dropbox, (with versioning and automatic backups to/from your PC, Google Drive, professional backup servers, other Synology servers). You can set up your own VPN. You can host websites, Wordpress, Moodle and more. It can record TV programs.You can access all your files on your phone/tablet. You can share files with friends. It's not just a cut-down device for the mass market. If you *only* want a box you can copy files to then it's fairly easy to set up and use.Cons: For anything but the basics, the complexity expands to fill your time. The "manual" is clearly written by people who are expert in computing and don't see why anyone would need more than a simple reminder of how things work, so it really needs a technical mind and lots of time to set it up and maintain it. Basically, it's a tiny, reduced-capacity, professional server. If you work in IT, setting up servers for a major corporation (I do not!), you'll get along just fine. If you're not sure about buying this, take a look at your router's advanced settings. The synology server is of similar complexity.In the hope of not making things worse, I've listed a few things I learned while setting it up:- First of all, the server arrives with the hard drive already installed, so there's no need to open the server's case. However, if you ever do want to open it then it helps to know that the QuickStart guide neglects to mention that you have to unscrew two screws in the plastic case (top and bottom at the back) before you can slide the case apart.- After plugging the server (the DS115j) into your router (modem), you need to use your PC (I imagine Macs are similar...) to go to the Synology setup web address: find.synology.comThis lets you format the server's disk. You then need to install the operating system and various services (apps), except at that point I got a weird error about TELNET which I ignored and selected manual install, which worked ok.- After the install, the main thing to do is to run DiskStation - a web-based utility, i.e. it runs in your web browser and talks to the server. It looks a bit like a phone's home screen, with lots of app icons. (You can bookmark it and run it later, or just type the server's name into your browser's address bar.) (There are other installed apps not shown, use the topmost left button to see them.)- One of the apps in Diskstation is FileStation – a utility to look at the contents of the server’s disk. (You can also do this by just typing \\theserver'sname into Windows' file explorer's location bar).- In order to have continuous incremental backups (like Dropbox / Google Drive / Skydrive etc.) you have to use DiskStation to install the CloudStation app on the server. You also have to download and install the CloudStation client onto your PC, and move all your work to the CloudStation directory (or do some fancy setting up). This may look arduous, but it really is worth it to have your own personal dropbox.- If you want to access the server away from home, over the internet, you will probably have to set up port forwarding. Run the EZ-Internet app. If your router is listed then it's easy. If it's not, give your server a static IP address, like 192.168.1.12 and try forwarding ports 5000 and 5001 to it. You may well need to forward other ports, depending on what you want to do. You also need to register for a MyDS account (not essential, but makes things much easier) - use the Control Panel app and Quick Connect window.- To share a file with the world, right-click it in Windows or FileStation app and select Share, copy the Sharing link (it should start "http://gofile.me") and make sure you click OK. You can send this link to your friends and they can download the file directly. (I found this method hard to get working. Also, it doesn't stream media files, they have to wait for them to download.)- There's also a VPN app you may like to play with - I haven't tried it myself yet.Good luck!Notes on CloudStation:- Take a full backup of your data elsewhere before you start using CloudStation, even if it's just in a new folder on your desktop. Implementing a new backup system has the potential for causing data loss. Illogical, but true.- You have to individually allow users to access CloudStation (CloudStation app / Permissions)- Versioning in CloudStation is interesting. If you have versioning enabled for a top-level folder (i.e. Max Versions > 0) then when CloudStation copies a file to the server it creates two copies - the copy and an identical version. If you change the file, Cloudstation replaces the copy with a new one and also creates a new version (so you now have the copy and 2 versions, one of which is identical to the copy). This is very good for your data, because it ensures you always have a good previous version to go back to, even if you delete a file. The downside is that it's easy to fill up your storage! The default maximum versions is 32, which you may wish to reduce, or switch off versioning altogether (but then you have less copies if something goes wrong). See CloudStation app / Settings / [Select a top-level directory] / Maximum Versions.- If you rename a directory then CloudStation checks every file in that directory - this can take hours!- The green tick in the taskbar CloudStation icon does NOT mean everything is synchronised; it just means that it's not currently synchronising anything (it may be looking through the directories deciding what needs synchronising).- Overall, CloudStation is ok, but acts a bit weird, may fill up your storage and can be very slow. Another reviewer recommends BitTorrent as an alternative. There is a Bit Torrent app in the Synology store, and you can try it for free before you buy (£30/year). However, I tried it and it seemed to ignore some files, ignore file deletions, and on one occasion duplicated a file for no apparent reason. Maybe you would have better luck, but at least Cloud Station, for all its faults, does work.General tips:- Maintain top-level directories using Control Panel / File Services; everything else you can do with the FileStation app or over Windows networking.- Make sure you have Recycle Bin enabled for any important top-level directories because if you or a virus wipe something important then CloudStation will immediately wipe it from the server (I speak from experience here). You can probably get it back using the most recent (identical) version on the server, but there are bugs in the CloudStation app that make that difficult and the Recycle Bin is a surer way.- There's a long list of things that will prevent it from hibernating: https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/faq/568Basically, anything more than simple storage will probably stop it hibernating (CloudStation is ok provided it's not transferring anything.) I also have the problem that after installing, testing and uninstalling loads of stuff it no longer hibernates with the settings in which it used to hibernate. I may had to reinstall DSM :(- If you want to use a wired gigabit network you need to turn off SSL encryption for transfers, otherwise the little processor can't decrypt the incoming files at more than about 100Mb/sec. (For CloudStation, click on the cloud icon in the Windows taskbar and click on Main App; in Sync Tasks click on the "three blue lines and small triangle" (top right) and select Edit Connection, then untick Enable SSL data transmission encryption.)- To stream music / video to radios/TVs etc. you need one of the apps MediaServer or Plex running. In MediaServer app (not through Package Centre) you may need to turn off "Restrict access to Media Server for newly detected UPnP/DLNA devices". Actually, I haven't managed to get this to work, despite a lot of trying.- For a bit of security, set up new admin and non-admin users and disable Administrator and Guest; change the HTTP port number in Control panel / Network / DSM settings from 5000 to something quite high (remember to update any port forwarding on your router or rerun E-Z Internet).- The firewall is for blocking unused ports from being accessed by the internet (i.e. random hackers). If you're only using the server at home you can block everything. Otherwise, consider only allowing access from your own country (plus any you travel to) and blocking any ports you understand and don't use.- The antivirus app takes forever to do a scan - I have 500MB of data and it spent an hour "Initialising" and another 20+ checking the files.- The list of supported TV USB devices is out of date, so you may need to buy an older device. I'm experimenting with the unlisted PCTV nanoStick 292e DVB-T2 tripleStick HD TV Tuner (the 290e is listed). I found installing DBLink plus the TV plugin installs the drivers; you can then use VideoStation without having to actually buy DBLink, and you can record HD using either. *However*, there are problems. VideoStation seems to randomly restart recordings, resulting in multiple files or lost endings. The DVBLink app (which you have to pay 49 Euros for - I used the free 20 day trial) is a pile of spaghetti - only use if desperate. (If you must, you'll find http://xmltv.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/xmltv/xmltv/xmltv.dtd is a working address for installing the EPG, which you have to do yourself). I gave up and bought the really excellent August DVB400- HD Freeview Set Top PVR Box for £25.- I have a problem that the server has stopped responding to its name - I have to specify the IP address instead (I set a fixed IP address for the server on my local network (e.g. 192.168.1.99) using Control Panel / Network / Network Interface / Edit / Use manual configuration). I think I can't use its name because I don't have QuickConnect enabled (Control Panel / QuickConnect), but I'm not sure that's the whole story.Final note, after about three months I decided that this server is probably more trouble than it's worth and resold it (after taking out the disk and wiping it).

Ottimo prodotto

L'ho installato nello studio per archiviare le pratiche ed averle a disposizione su più postazioni nella rete locale. Molto veloce e facile da installare. Accessibile anche da remoto.

Imballaggio molto bello e solido, all'interno ci sono semplici istruzioni per il montaggio e installazione. Oltre al cavo di rete (RJ45) ci sono delle viti supplementari per l'hd ed l'alimentatore. Qui, per me, la nota negativa è che non c'è l'adattatore 220v per Italia ma solamente quello UK.

Ottimo acquisto, con tante funzioni. SPEDIZIONE RAPIDA. Costo contenuto, qualità oggetto ottima, facile da usare e da installare. Backup facile

Ormai è 2 anni che lo ho e mi sono trovato benissimo, non è velocissimo ma abbastanza considerando la fascia di prezzo. Consigliato