Synology DS120j
Question about Synology DS120j
Hello, seriously a question, everyone is talking about NAS. Is this safe at all? Since it also runs over the internet, I'm not so sure it's a good thing. I.e. if I use an external hard drive, I think it depends on the same thing. The security settings for NAS also have to be configured first, just like with Windows. In short, I have to reconsider this matter. Maybe there is someone who would be of the same opinion as me. So, can someone tell me the positive sides, apart from the fact that NAS is perhaps a little faster than via an external hard drive?
Yes a NAS is secure, it is only visible on its own network. However, you can also connect it to the internet via the secure connection offered by Synology, but I wouldn't do that. In principle, a NAS is a backup for personal data and a very good solution for home and I don't need to access the data from anywhere (you could, but you don't have to).
However, I would not recommend a NAS with 1 or 2 drive bays. I only recommend ones with 4. 1 drive has no failsafe, 2 drives that is failsafe but you lose half the storage capacity. Expanding is tedious and expensive.
With a 4-drive NAS you have somewhat higher costs at the beginning, but you save that later when equipping with disks, you don't need to buy such large disks because you lose a third with 3 disks or a quarter with 4 disks and still get a large storage area.
An external hard disk can also be used as a backup, but of course you don't have the advantage of having the data available in the home network, e.g. to play music from the NAS via a wireless speaker solution. Hard drives can only be used by one device at a time.
The security settings are already configured on the NAS, you don't have to tinker with them and you shouldn't. They are safe out of the box. They are safe out of the box.
And yes, the NAS solution can be faster than external hard drives, especially if you can configure several drives for reading and writing, but the network speed restricts access, but if you work alone on the NAS, you do not suffer any significant losses, and in companies with many people there are also ways to cushion this.
My recommendation:
Synology DS418
And then you can equip it with 2TB, 3TB or 4TB disks, but I would choose 4TB, because the price differences between 2TB and 4TB are small. Of course, you can also install any hard disks you already have lying around at home and start with them.
WD Red Plus (4 TB, 3.5", CMR)
With 3 x 4 TB you also get a gross of 8TB data storage and have a hardware failsafe thanks to RAID5 (RAID1 would be mirrored, you lose 50% space and in RAID5 the capacity of one disk is used for redundancy, but writing and reading is done with 3 or more disks).
And don't forget, a proper backup concept only works if you follow the 3-2-1 rule, 3 copies at least, spread over 2 devices and keep 1 copy in a different place.