These
platform-agnostic network-attached storage (NAS) devices can work with almost
any gadget you connect to your wireless network at office or home
WD My
Cloud Personal
WD has
achieved a considerable success with its consumerfriendly My Cloud products and
can be accessed via mobile apps for iOS and Android. Labelled as a ‘personal
cloud’, it’s a NAS box by any other measure and starts at 2TB of storage (you
can also get it in 3 or 4TB).
Capacity:
2TB, 3TB or 4TB
Interface:
USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet
Features:
Remote file access, DLNA, iTunes Server.
Seagate
Personal Cloud 2-Bay
Picking up
on the ‘personal cloud’ theme, this unit from Seagate takes its lead from My
Cloud, but it offers far larger capacities. The Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay
NAS device can mirror the files on one hard drive to a second one, giving you
protection in case one of those drives fails.
Capacity:
4TB, 6TB or 8TB
Interface:
Gigabit Ethernet
Features:
Remote file access, media server software, RAID support.
NAP
TS-251A
The QNAP
TS-251A is a great NAS device that comes with many features. It has got dual
Ethernet ports, a HDMI out for connecting it up to a TV and beefy hardware
including a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Celeron CPU and 4 GB of RAM (that can be
expanded to 8 GB) for hardware transcoding media files. You’ll need to buy the
hard drives separately.
Features:
Dual bay, WebAccess apps, Apple Time Machine support. Capacity: NA
Interface:
2 x Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0
Features:
Remote file access, HDMI out, 4K media transcoding, DLNA.
Buffalo
LinkStation LS220D
The key
selling point of the 2TB dualbay NAS (it’s also available in 4, 6, and 8 TB
capacities) model is that it can integrate directly with BitTorrent, meaning it
can download stuff for you even when your PC is turned off. You can also stream
to it via various devices.
Capacity:
2TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB
Interface:
Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0
Features:
Dual bay, WebAccess apps, Apple Time Machine support.
Synology
DiskStation DS416+
If you
want a flexible and featurerich NAS that performs well, then the Synology
DiskStation DS416+ is definitely worth considering. It comes with four bays,
each able to hold hard drives with capacities up to 10 TB for a combined total
of 40 TB of storage space.
Capacity:
Up to 40TB |
Interface:
2 x Gigabit Et her net , USB 3.0, eSATA |
Features:
Quad bay, can be expanded, wake on LAN.
Western
Digital DL4100
One of the
coolest features of the DL4100 is its web dashboard that offers options for
backing up to cloud services such as Dropbox and Box. It comes with four drive
bays in your choice of four configurations. It has a 1.7GHz dual-core Atom
processor and 2GB of RAM (configurable up to 6GB).
Capacity:
8TB, 16TB, 24TB
Interface:
2x Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 3.0, USB 2.0
Features:
Dual LAN, 2GB RAM (expandable up to 6GB), NTP Client.
Apple
AirPort Time Capsule
While the
Time Capsule offers a seamless option for Mac users, its 2 and 3 TB storage
options are expensive compared to other alternatives. As with many of the other
devices here, you can use the USB port on the rear to share a USB printer or
external hard drive.
Capacity:
2TB, 3TB
Interface:
3x Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0
Features:
Automatic wireless backup, easy setup, printer and hard drive sharing.
Source:THE TIMES OF INDIA-5th November,2017
