REMOVE

Web/LAN Management

Web Station, PHP & MySQL

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The Synology DS211 and 411j are capable of acting as basic website hosts. Web Station in a nutshell allows users to create websites directly from the NAS devices. Administrators are also able to choose the users who are permitted to do so. As shown about it is also possible to enable MySQL database and PHP functionality.

Firewall & IP Block

As you would expect, a firewall has also been implemented in order to restrict unauthorised access to the device. Moreover, you may manually select specified ports to block as well as choose from a list of applications to protect as well.

    

Following on the subject of unauthorised access, Synology has also implemented an “IP Block” function. If for example a client attempts to log in to the NAS device repeatedly with no success, the 211 and 411j can block that given IP address for a specified period of time. An email notification is sent to the administrator to make them aware.

DDNS & SNMP

As the title suggests, both boxes offer DDNS support so that they can be accessed via a given hostname URL. This is a priceless option for those with a domain and the need to access their files away from home.

    

The 211 and 411j also support SNMP, which allows network management software to access and monitor the servers.

Conclusion

Thoughts? From our point of view we were impressed. From start to finish it seemed as though both the DS211 and DS411j had plenty to offer and to a high standard. Indeed the digital household is storage hungry and always in demand for more power and flexibility. Understandably almost no one would ever consider a central desktop server in a conventional home but these devices really are the next best thing.

The installation process is effortless and as already shown, the Synology software interface is fast and incredibly intuitive. You can expect to be able to leverage all of the conventional hardware NAS diagnostic features but also enjoy additions such as DLNA Media Streaming compliance, DDNS capability, FTP, Automated Backup, embedded Download facilities and much more. There is no doubt that both products are as impressive as they initialled appeared on paper.

That said, everything in life comes at a price. The pricing for both NAS devices are unconfirmed at this stage however once would expect them to be replacing the previous 210 and 410j models which were priced at ~£150 and ~£250 respectively. At these prices, Synology aren’t ripping anyone off however they are not bargains either. In our opinion however, the conveniences of owning network attached storage very quickly outweighs the initial investment.

So which of the two would we buy? Quite frankly for most, the DS211 is likely to represent the greatest value for money. Aside more sophisticated RAID formats, the 211 sports almost all of the features found in its rotund sibling. While our testing revealed a minor difference in performance, we would not expect there to be a noticeable real world difference. On the other hand, many of you are likely to prefer the greater potential for storage expansion on the DS411j; if obsene amounts of storage is your directive then buy all means opt for the full fat 4 bay NAS.

All in all we would like to comment Synology’s efforts yet again.

The Good

– Strong Feature Sets
– Quiet despite active cooling
– Reasonable performance
– Intuitive Interface

The Mediocre

– White colour scheme can be marmite

 

General Media

Photo Station

Photo Station offers a basic web interface to access shared photographs. Once enabled, all photographs in the target folder become visible from http://**NAS IP**/**Folder Name**.

Media Server

As I hinted earlier, Music and Video tends to be a popular reason to consider such centralised storage options. A particular perk of the 211 and 411j NAS systems is that they offer a sizeable amount of flexibility with media.

The most notable feature is DLNA Media Server capability. This will allow users to stream music and video from the NAS box to certified media players, which range from games consoles (XBOX360, PS3) to Wi-Fi equipped Televisions.

Download Station

Don’t lie. Many of you are likely to be hefty Torrent users. Synology NAS systems are equipped with an e-mule based application where your server can be left to download independently of other machines.

Performance

For the purpose of testing, we used a Dummy File application, which (obviously) generates random files of specified size. Given a batch of ~3GB worth of files of varied size, ranging from 1kB to 1GB we then set about ascertaining these NAS boxes data transfer rates.

Here it appears as though the DS411j has the edge, although it didn’t seem particularly noticeable. The transfer of 3GB worth of content took just under 3 minutes for both devices, which is a respectable enough effort for a single drive setup. With this in mind we wouldn’t expect either to be a significant slouch under applications such as Music and Video streaming.

Let’s wrap this up.

Conclusion

Thoughts? From our point of view we were impressed. From start to finish it seemed as though both the DS211 and DS411j had plenty to offer and to a high standard. Indeed the digital household is storage hungry and always in demand for more power and flexibility. Understandably almost no one would ever consider a central desktop server in a conventional home but these devices really are the next best thing.

The installation process is effortless and as already shown, the Synology software interface is fast and incredibly intuitive. You can expect to be able to leverage all of the conventional hardware NAS diagnostic features but also enjoy additions such as DLNA Media Streaming compliance, DDNS capability, FTP, Automated Backup, embedded Download facilities and much more. There is no doubt that both products are as impressive as they initialled appeared on paper.

That said, everything in life comes at a price. The pricing for both NAS devices are unconfirmed at this stage however once would expect them to be replacing the previous 210 and 410j models which were priced at ~£150 and ~£250 respectively. At these prices, Synology aren’t ripping anyone off however they are not bargains either. In our opinion however, the conveniences of owning network attached storage very quickly outweighs the initial investment.

So which of the two would we buy? Quite frankly for most, the DS211 is likely to represent the greatest value for money. Aside more sophisticated RAID formats, the 211 sports almost all of the features found in its rotund sibling. While our testing revealed a minor difference in performance, we would not expect there to be a noticeable real world difference. On the other hand, many of you are likely to prefer the greater potential for storage expansion on the DS411j; if obsene amounts of storage is your directive then buy all means opt for the full fat 4 bay NAS.

All in all we would like to comment Synology’s efforts yet again.

The Good

– Strong Feature Sets
– Quiet despite active cooling
– Reasonable performance
– Intuitive Interface

The Mediocre

– White colour scheme can be marmite