Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Initially, I was reluctant to purchase another "inexpensive" NAS device, as the previous purchase I made for one years ago (still PATA interfaced) provided a very slow I/O device that had no robust feature set, and a very proprietary disk configuration.
I have been using the DS-111 the past few days to see what it's made of, and it hasn't disappointed.
Embedded Software-
The Synology DS-111 runs it's own operating environment, called DSM. I am reviewing this running the 3.1 release, which is slightly newer than the 3.0 release that it was shipped with. Updating the device was as easy as downloading the update file from synology's website, logging into the device with a browser, and pointing it at the file.
Installation--------
Installing the hard disk was very simple, though they didn't provide the correct screws to put a drive in, so have some on hand if you want it put together properly.
Construction-------
The unit has a USB and ESATA port on the front, 2 USB ports on the back, and a minimalist design with lights on the front for power, lan, disk, OS status, and ESATA I/O. It does have a cooling fan in the back that appears to be a standard size (20mm). If you've worked around these type of devices before, you know that is the first thing to go - and it seems to be standard enough that it can easily be replaced or upgraded to something with better bearings or less noise. The unit is all plastic except for the backbone of the device.
Noise-------------
It is quiet. You can hear when the disk spins up, and the obvious head movement motions of a hard drive, but no louder than if they were in a computer case. The fan doesnt make much noise, and the power supply is external, so no humming or fans to rattle.
Operation----------
You can set up disks, volumes, areas, as an iSCSI target. I have confirmed this works with vmWare ESX 4i, and I/O is about what you'd expect. You probably COULD run a Virtual Machine from here, but only in a home lab. File sharing works with internal file permissions you can define. Users, passwords, and password strength are customizable. You can enable guest type access to file shares as well.
You can set up the device as an NFS target.
Windows file service, as well as apple file service are supported.
LDAP and domain connectivity are supported.
SNMP connection is supported.
Account lockout on subsequent login failures is supported, as is auto-blocking offending IP addresses. You can receive email alerts or SMS alerts to your mobile phone when either happens. While I like this alerting, it is noteworthy that when you change a password, it emails you the password, unencrypted, across the internet.
There are photo, audio, and file sharing sub-applications that allow you to view your photos, or stream audio to your iphone/ipad with free applications. The update speed of the photo software is slow - but it is a very nice interface, and allows port pinning so you can target this device from the internet without exposing it outside your firewall on any un-essential ports.
iTunes sharing is supported, but I've not successfully gotten the apple-tv to see the shares. I suspect you probably need a computer running itunes to point at the storage locations for their material in order to share the media.
There is an underlying SSH/Telnet Connection available to manage the device. The interface is all browser based. SSL is supported.
The device has email alerting, where you can specify the email addresses you want notified of any failures or changes.
The device can be configured to power on automatically after a power outage.
Performance---------
Using a 7200RPM 3MB SATA disk, it takes about 19 seconds to copy a 1.05GB avi file from my Macbook to the DS-111. It takes about 22 seconds to pull the same file back down. Figure about 50mb average file speed on a 1000mb network connection. Not remarkable, but not bad for a cheap NAS.
Multiple file copy up, speed holds true at about the same 50MB/s
Copying 2gb up while copying 1gb down, it slows down noticeably to more like 20MB/s both ways.
That said, it seems to be about 4x faster than copying to the same hard disk in a Windows XP share on the same network.
Overall-------------
If you consider all the other features value-added, and you just want something on your home network for picture, movie, and document storage - you'll be pleased. All the other plugins are value added features that may or may not work well, but are nice to have. I believe this replaces my need to have a home server, and cuts the electric consumption into about 1/10th of what the computer acting in this fashion was using, while actually gaining some features over the server.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Synology DiskStation 1-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage DS111 1100 (White)
Synology DiskStation DS111, bundled with 1x1TB HDDs, is an affordable and full-featured 1-bay NAS server designed to increase productivity for office workgroups. Cross platform file sharing, office oriented applications, data backup and security are easily achieved in a flexible solution. Running on DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) operating system, it delivers ease of use and variety of features.
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