Sorry that this s so long but as I was typing it I kept thinking of more requirements and questions and wanted to give as much information as possible.
I want to get off a cloud backup subscription service and implement a home personal cloud via a NAS. I currently use iDrive, but with Comcast's ridiculously slow upload speeds, cloud backups and restorations are not feasible. I can do local backups using iDrive but I don't see any reason to pay for a service to do local backups. Yes, it provides offsite storage but I can easily do that myself.
My environment is pretty simple. I have a Comcast modem/router. Devices connected wirelessly are two windows laptops, two iPhones, an iPad, an LG TV, a printer. There is also a printer connected via ethernet. This is a home environment, there are no business needs.
I know what a NAS is, I know the different components involved, I know about RAID levels. What I need help with is choosing the best NAS configuration to do what I want and verification that a NAS can do everything I want and how to configure it, especially for file sharing and remote access.
For hardware I'm looking at the Synology DS220J and the DS420j, mostly because Synology seems to be a favorite here. I am leaning towards the DS420J because I like the idea of RAID 5. Initially I would populate it with three 4TB Seagate Ironwolf HDDs. That gives me 8GB of storage which is more than enough right now with the option to expand if needed.
○ Any opinions, on the choice of hardware? Are there better options?
This is the functionality I want:
Backups
I once had the expensive experience of bringing a dead drive to a data recovery company to recover photos. I don’t want to do that again. I want to do a full image backup of both laptops and then do scheduled incremental backups with periodic repeats of the full image backups. I will also do full image backups to external USB drives that will be kept off site. I also want to be able to back up the iPhones and iPad to the NAS, though if that is an issue, I can use iCloud. Whether it is the laptops or ios devices, I am hoping that local backup and recovery will be much faster than the cloud.
File sharing
Right now there is a lot of duplication of data on the two laptops - photos, documents etc. I want to have easily accessible central, sharable storage for all our data so that multiple copies are not needed and when data is saved it is accessible to all devices.
Remote data access
I spend part of the year in a different location. I'd like to be able to access the NAS remotely for both access to the data, file sharing, and to do incremental / full backups to the NAS from offsite locations.
Media sharing / streaming
I don't expect to do a lot of multimedia streaming but I do have a lot of music files. I want to be able to put my iTunes on the NAS and be able to access it from the phones and iPad. I don't know if this is possible or makes the most sense.
I will want to store video. For example, a friend of my MMA fighter nephew is making his UFC debut today. I want to record the broadcast and store it on the NAS (as well as all my nephew's bouts, interviews etc.). I will want to give remote access to these files to select other people. If this is possible than how to configure it and maintain data security is another note.
If you have made it this far, that is why I am looking into a NAS and what I want it to do. Any and all comments on choice of hardware, expectations, best backup strategy and anything else that's relevant to help figure this out are appreciated.
Thanks
I want to get off a cloud backup subscription service and implement a home personal cloud via a NAS. I currently use iDrive, but with Comcast's ridiculously slow upload speeds, cloud backups and restorations are not feasible. I can do local backups using iDrive but I don't see any reason to pay for a service to do local backups. Yes, it provides offsite storage but I can easily do that myself.
My environment is pretty simple. I have a Comcast modem/router. Devices connected wirelessly are two windows laptops, two iPhones, an iPad, an LG TV, a printer. There is also a printer connected via ethernet. This is a home environment, there are no business needs.
I know what a NAS is, I know the different components involved, I know about RAID levels. What I need help with is choosing the best NAS configuration to do what I want and verification that a NAS can do everything I want and how to configure it, especially for file sharing and remote access.
For hardware I'm looking at the Synology DS220J and the DS420j, mostly because Synology seems to be a favorite here. I am leaning towards the DS420J because I like the idea of RAID 5. Initially I would populate it with three 4TB Seagate Ironwolf HDDs. That gives me 8GB of storage which is more than enough right now with the option to expand if needed.
○ Any opinions, on the choice of hardware? Are there better options?
This is the functionality I want:
Backups
I once had the expensive experience of bringing a dead drive to a data recovery company to recover photos. I don’t want to do that again. I want to do a full image backup of both laptops and then do scheduled incremental backups with periodic repeats of the full image backups. I will also do full image backups to external USB drives that will be kept off site. I also want to be able to back up the iPhones and iPad to the NAS, though if that is an issue, I can use iCloud. Whether it is the laptops or ios devices, I am hoping that local backup and recovery will be much faster than the cloud.
File sharing
Right now there is a lot of duplication of data on the two laptops - photos, documents etc. I want to have easily accessible central, sharable storage for all our data so that multiple copies are not needed and when data is saved it is accessible to all devices.
Remote data access
I spend part of the year in a different location. I'd like to be able to access the NAS remotely for both access to the data, file sharing, and to do incremental / full backups to the NAS from offsite locations.
Media sharing / streaming
I don't expect to do a lot of multimedia streaming but I do have a lot of music files. I want to be able to put my iTunes on the NAS and be able to access it from the phones and iPad. I don't know if this is possible or makes the most sense.
I will want to store video. For example, a friend of my MMA fighter nephew is making his UFC debut today. I want to record the broadcast and store it on the NAS (as well as all my nephew's bouts, interviews etc.). I will want to give remote access to these files to select other people. If this is possible than how to configure it and maintain data security is another note.
If you have made it this far, that is why I am looking into a NAS and what I want it to do. Any and all comments on choice of hardware, expectations, best backup strategy and anything else that's relevant to help figure this out are appreciated.
Thanks