internet attach computer memory . Does n’t fathom very exciting , does it ? Yet these boxes of tricks can perform so many dissimilar labor that everyone should at least count tally one to their dwelling house or billet connection .
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What is a NAS?
A NAS can be a back - up location , a place to store medicine or picture program library and share them across your local web , a gimmick for hooking up to a security television camera , or somewhere to mechanically download files from BitTorrent . Some manufacturer also have iOS apps to appropriate you to stream music and telecasting stored on them to your iPhone or iPad . And many act upon as a host for DLNA adaptors connected to your television or hi - fi system . [ translate : ripe extraneous storage for iPad and iPhone ]
Which NAS to buy
When choosing which NAS to buy , it ’s important to first draw up a list of what you want to do with it . Most NAS boxes need to be connect to a router via an Ethernet cable . While WiFi connected NAS box are uncommitted , they are far less common than the pumped up diverseness , and for good reason . Most wideband modems come with routers these days and connecting a NAS with an Ethernet cable provides a faster and more unchanging ( and fast ) link .
Do you require the option to add more store ? Look for a NAS with a USB port wine . How about transcript files directly from an SD card ? If so , count for a NAS with an Mount Rushmore State bill slot .
How many drive bays?
The other liberal decision to make is how many drive bays you want . you could have from one bay tree up . For home or belittled office manipulation , one or two is ok .
Why pick out a unit with two or more movement bay tree ? For one of two reason : either so you’re able to mirror all the data point on one driving on the other with a foray 1 set up , or so you’re able to optimise the operation of the drive by striping them in a RAID 0 set up . If neither mirroring nor fast accession is crucial , go for a individual embayment NAS box and put in it the biggest drive you’re able to .
With or without drives?
The last conclusion is whether to buy the NAS loge and drives one by one or to grease one’s palms a unit with the drives already fitted . Both approach have advantages . The former allows you to denounce around for hard disk and will probably be less expensive , the latter is simpler because you do n’t have to add the drive yourself . It should be said , however , that NAS boxes are designed to allow wanton access to the drive bay , so fitting disks yourself is very straightforward .
How to set up your NAS
Once you ’ve unpacked your new NAS boxful . The first step is to establish the disks if they are not already fitted . With that done , you could connect it to your router , plug away it in and switch it on . The router will allocate it an IP reference so it can be found on your internet .
Once it ’s power up and complete its cycle per second of symptomatic checks , you should see it drink down up inthe sidebar in a Finder windowpane under ‘ shared . ’
It ’s not ready to employ yet , though . You ’ll have to get at its control panel and set up at least one exploiter with admin privileges so you may configure it . Most NAS boxes guide their own operating system . Synology , for exercise has one call DSM . To access it , you ’ll either have to open up a World Wide Web web browser app and case in an address supply in the NAS ’ support , or install software system on your Mac . That will either be issue on saucer or , more likely , available to download fromthe producer ’s site .
The web app or native app will normally notice the NAS box automatically and allow you to configure it . If it does n’t , tick that the NAS is connected to your router , power on and not displaying any warning light . Go to your router ’s admin webpage – by typing its IP address into a web browser app or using AirPort Utility if it ’s an Apple router – and looking at the list of connected equipment . If you’re able to distinguish which is the NAS , observe its IP address and type that into a browser app .
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The first stone’s throw in configuring a NAS is to rig up users and sharepoints ( deal folders ) . Most NAS boxes come with booklet already created for music and picture and you’re able to peg down which users can access them from the ascendance panel . Some also add up with a leaflet for back - up . Western Digital ’s My Cloud NAS boxes , for example , have a folder call ‘ TimeMachineBackup ’ which is designed to be used with OS X ’s Time Machine . On other NAS boxes , you ’ll have to make a folder and designate it as the terminus for backups in your Mac ’s backup software .
On the shape web varlet , orthe primary subdivision of the operating system of rules , expect for a setting called Control Panel or interchangeable . Within that , there will be a setting prognosticate exploiter , and that ’s where you add new user and deed over privileges . You involve to make at least one admin exploiter who can access and alter everything .
Once you ’ve set up the users you want to add , you’re able to make shared folders , also from the Control Panel . It ’s important to note , however , that if you want the NAS to properly discover and index photo , music , and television files and make them usable for cyclosis , they must be store in the folders already created for each media eccentric .
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Once you ’ve set up user , shared folder , and privileges , you may start to add other features like file transfer protocol upload , a download manager , and even install a CMS like WordPress or Drupal so you may host a blog on your NAS . This is commonly done by download ‘ package ’ or apps to the NAS and configure them .
eventually , if you require to access your NAS from outside your local web , you could set that up in the Control Panel too . look on your router , this may be simply a typeface of checking a few box in the NAS ’ configurations . If that does n’t work , the documentation for your NAS and your router should be able-bodied to help you change the configurations on the router to enable it .
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