Network Attached Storage Devices
If you have multiple computers on your network, you're a candidate for a network-attached storage (NAS) device. Some NAS servers simply act as a shared volume for backing up and sharing files across your network, while others can do a lot more, such as sharing a printer among your networked PCs, acting as a media streamer or even a surveillance system by supporting IP cameras. You'll find NAS devices with a single drive and those with multiple drives that allow for greater data protection and higher capacities.
Here are two examples of some of the best rated network-attached storage devices available:
Synology Disk Station DS412+ is four-bay NAS (network-attached storage) server in a way is the follow-up to the award-winning DS410 that was released more than two years ago, and makes an excellent upgrade. It now offers an excellent drive bay design, much faster speeds, support for USB 3.0, and a lot more.
Running the Disk Station Manager (DSM) 4.0 operating system -- and upgradable to future versions, such as the upcoming DSM 4.1 -- the new server offers a vast number of features with a stellar Web interface that operates much like a native operating system.
Each of its four drive bays comes with a tray that you can easily pull out. After that, you'll need a standard screwdriver to attach or detach a standard SATA hard drive. The server supports both 2.5-inch (laptop) and 3.5-inch (desktop) hard drives, of any capacities. This means with all four bays occupied by 4TB hard drives -- the top capacity of 3.5-inch hard drives to date -- the server offers up to 16TB in RAID 0 or 12TB in RAID 5. RAID 0 is optimized for top performance and capacity. RAID 5, which is the most popular RAID setup for multiple-drive-bay NAS servers, balances performance and storage space while still guarding data against a single-hard-drive failure.
The bottom line: Synology DiskStation DS412+ makes an excellent NAS server for advanced home