Recommendations for a beginner

[Spekkio]

Hi everyone!

 

Obligatory "first time poster, long time lurker (of the youtube channel)" disclaimer first. Also please consider that English is not my first language (I'm living in Switzerland), so there's that.

Now to the meat of the post. I am considering installing a NAS in my apartment (only two persons in the household), for light backups of our computers and (mainly) because I ran out of space in my google drive/photos (17GB) and I do not want to pay the monthly fee attached to the increased storage capacity. I understand that the fee is cheaper than buying an entry-level NAS, but (as a side note) I'm getting increasingly concerned about the data hoarding of tech-giants, so this comes at the right time for me to just get rid of google storage altogether (if it makes sense). I'm hooked up to a relatively good internet provider and I will have wired connection between the router and the NAS.

My use case would be to backup our computers every now and then, and to sync our gallery in our phones in the same way as it is done by google photo (i.e. automatically either only when we are connected with wifi at home or, if possible, via data connection when we are on the go). We are not photographers, nor do we own large collections of audio/video file that we want to stream, but since the data would be only stored locally, I do believe that a dual-bay NAS (at least) would be required, in a RAID1 configuration. Having an own email server would also be welcome, but not a deal breaker if there isn't.

Lastly, I'm almost a complete beginner in this things, so it should be easy to setup, access and potentially upgrade down the line.

I did some research, and what I came up with is the following:

Synology DS220j as the NAS itself. It's coming out now as far as I understand and it's the upgrade of the widely popular DS218j of a couple of years ago. I'd also be willing to wait until the DS220+ is out, if you guys think that it would make sense.

WD RED HDDs. My thinking at the moment is to go for 2 times 2TB, but also open to bigger capacities are needed.

Lastly, I'd also invest in a cheap small UPS just in case, but I did not understand if all the UPSs can communicate with the NAS in case of a power failure to let it know that it should switch off safely. This is what I was considering.

If you have any advice it would be most appreciated, and if I did not give enough information, or if what I said is not clear, please let me know!

 

thanks a lot

 

[homeap5]

For me it's extravagance - for store photos you need NAS? I would consider buying big hard drive and add to your current configuration. Or maybe two drives and use second one as backup (and keep it outside PC) if you're afraid that you may lose your data. And you can access your hard drive from any other device in your home - you don't need NAS for that.

 

Also - if you want to have access to your data from outside, you don't need NAS either. Simply FTP server and computer that you can turn on by WOL (basically any normal computer except maybe some prebuild old crap) plus good application on your phone to send photos directly to your computer and second app for controlling your computer remotely. Plus TP-Link router or any other that has built-in ARP binding.

 

 

[Spekkio]

52 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

For me it's extravagance - for store photos you need NAS? I would consider buying big hard drive and add to your current configuration. Or maybe two drives and use second one as backup (and keep it outside PC) if you're afraid that you may lose your data. And you can access your hard drive from any other device in your home - you don't need NAS for that.

 

Also - if you want to have access to your data from outside, you don't need NAS either. Simply FTP server and computer that you can turn on by WOL (basically any normal computer except maybe some prebuild old crap) plus good application on your phone to send photos directly to your computer and second app for controlling your computer remotely. Plus TP-Link router or any other that has built-in ARP binding.

 

 

Thanks for your feedback!

I take your point that a NAS may be an overkill for my use case. On the other hand (did I mention I am not the most tech-savvy person?) I had to google half of what you suggested, just to know what it meant... It seemed to me that a pre-built NAS would be a more "plug and play" solution for me, where I can spend a few hours (?) to set it up once, and forget it for the next few years. In addition, I do not have a spare computer to dedicate to storing data:I have an old MS Surface (personal) and a MacBook pro (from work).

Also I am not aware of any good app (except the ones from the NAS OSs?) that would achieve what I would like, i.e. to upload the photos and videos as I take them like with google photos and render them available on demand on my phone. But please, correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[homeap5]

No matter NAS or just your PC, you still must have external IP to access your computer from outside. But that is much easier if you have NAS working 24/7 than if you want to save some energy and remotely turn on your PC which requires router with special functionality. Of course you may try to buy some extremely cheap Core2Duo computer, replace some coolers and PSU to made it almost dead silent, but in your case NAS may be the same cheap option (which mean better in this case). I just forget that some people don't use desktops and have no space for 6 internal 3.5 drives in pc like me.

 

 

[Mihle]

I have a desktop and I decided to get NAS instead of just adding disks to my desktop. Didn't want to have my desktop always on, also wanted my next computer (that I have just bought) to be smalle (mATX) and therefore less space for stuff.

 

Of you want to access it from the outside, do not do FTP server, I have read that it's not safe.

Either set up a VPN to it, or use something like Nextcloud or similar with reverse proxy. (There might be alternatives I don't know about that you can use on the Synology/Qnap or other NASes)

 

I would recommend you to decide what size storage you want for the next 3 years and then at least do 2x that in the minimum, don't know if you have already done that when you mention 2x2TB, but if you haven't get 2x8.

My reason is that if you need more than what you first get it's not the simplest thing in the world to switch them out later without risk.

[Spekkio]

3 hours ago, Mihle said:

I have a desktop and I decided to get NAS instead of just adding disks to my desktop. Didn't want to have my desktop always on, also wanted my next computer (that I have just bought) to be smalle (mATX) and therefore less space for stuff.

 

Of you want to access it from the outside, do not do FTP server, I have read that it's not safe.

Either set up a VPN to it, or use something like Nextcloud or similar with reverse proxy. (There might be alternatives I don't know about that you can use on the Synology/Qnap or other NASes)

 

I would recommend you to decide what size storage you want for the next 3 years and then at least do 2x that in the minimum, don't know if you have already done that when you mention 2x2TB, but if you haven't get 2x8.

My reason is that if you need more than what you first get it's not the simplest thing in the world to switch them out later without risk.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did in fact consider my needs, but of course I cannot be really sure about what will happen in the next few years. My reasoning so far was that 17 GB have been enough for the past few years, so 2 TB should last a long time. On the other hand, once you have something, you start using it more and more so maybe I should reconsider the size of the hdd. Any idea about the rest of the hardware?