Gadget Reviews: Synology DiskStation DS218+

Network attached storage (NAS) devices aren’t just for small businesses alone. If you have large amounts of media and photos you want to store locally on your home network and still have access to it no matter where you are, picking up a NAS like the Synology DiskStation DS218+ is a future-proof solution.

This model gives you a two-bay NAS powered by an Intel dual-core Celeron J3355 chip and 2GB of memory that can be upgraded via the second memory slot. In each of its bays can sit a SATA hard drive or SSD up to 14TB each, with further expansion possible via expansion bays should you run out in the future. It’s fairly compact, design wise and there’s easy access to the 3 USB 3.0 ports, one in front and two in the rear. Once you procure and fit the drives in and connect the NAS to your router using the bundled Ethernet cable, installation is easy via the setup process.

What you’re essentially setting up is the DiskStation Manager (DSM) operating system which can then be accessed via a web browser or through a host of Synology apps on iOS and Android, not to mention apps for smart TV platforms like Android and Apple TV.

Slightly savvier folks can set up access for your content and media over the Internet as well. What works well is the ability to transcode and stream content in 4K and the rich collection of Synology packages for a wide variety of applications — music, videos, security camera content and the like.