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Published: November 16, 2010 | Source: Synology | Author: Milind Chidrawar

Synology NAS DS211 & DS411j Review

Synology NAS DSx11j Shoot Out

 

Introduction

The rise of the digital household is a strange thing. It was less than a decade ago when many homes had one, perhaps two desktop computers or laptops. General media was on USB Flash Drives, CD, DVD and for the oldies, the floppy drive. Indeed we have moved on from those days; the average household often has a 1:1 ratio of people to computers, all of which are connected to a high speed broadband connection. Ever growing music and video libraries have removed all emphasis from the CD/DVD format and as of late, even our Televisions and Media Devices are beginning to leverage the power of internal and external networks.

Naturally these days, the sensible thing to do is to store files to a central location which can be accessed on multiple devices. Now not everyone has the space, budget or ability to justify a standalone desktop for the purpose of file storage so this is the next best thing – NAS.

Forgive us, we fully appreciate that the concept of network attached storage is nothing new, but regardless we are keen to show you all two new products from Synology – the DS211 and DS411j. Having already been impressed by their previous products we were keen to find out more.

The full details of the two NAS Servers are as follows.

Hardware

DS211

• CPU Frequency: 1.6GHz
• Memory Bus: [email protected]
• Memory: 256MB
• Internal HDD1: 3.5” SATA(II) X2 or 2.5” SATA/SSD X2
• Max Internal Capacity: 4TB
• Size (HxWxD): 161mm X 88mm X 218mm
• External HDD Interface: USB 2.0 port X 3
• Weight: 0.98Kg

DS411j

• CPU Clock Rate: 1.2GHz, [email protected]
• RAM Size: DDR2 128MB
• Internal HDD1 : 4X 3.5” or 4X 2.5” SATA(II)
• External HDD Interface: 2X USB ports
• Size: 168mm X 184mm X 230mm
• LAN: 1X Gigabit
• Hardware Encryption Engine
• Wireless Support2
• Max Internal Capacity: 8TB (4X 2TB hard drives)
• Weight: 2.23kg

RAID

DS211

Volume Type: Basic, JBOD, RAID0, RAID1

DS411j

Volume Type: Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6

Networking Protocols

  • CIFS
  • AFP (3.1)
  • FTP
  • NFS
  • Telnet/SSH

Windows ADS Domain Integration

  • ADS Support
  • Domain users login via Samba/AFP/FTP
  • Synology Data Replicator 3 for Domain Users

Security

  • Firewall
  • FTP Auto-Block
  • FTP over SSL/TLS (explicit)
  • Encrypted Network Backup
  • Encrypted rsync
  • HTTPS Connection

File System

EXT4
EXT3
FAT (External Disk Only)
NTFS (External Disk Only)

File Sharing

  • Max User Accounts: 1,024 (DS411j) | 2,048 (DS211)
  • Max Groups: 256
  • Max Shared Folder: 256
  • Max Concurrent Connections: 128


Utilities

  • Synology Assistant
  • Synology Data Replicator 3
  • Synology Download Redirector
  • Add printer wizard

Applications

  • Surveillance Station 3
  • Photo Station 3
  • File Station 2
  • Audio Station
  • Web Station
  • PHP/MySQL
  • Download Station 2
  • iTunes Server

iPhone Applications

  • DS photo
  • DS audio

Packages

  • Mail Station
  • phpMyAdmin
  • SqueezeCenter
  • Webalizer

DLNA/UPnP Media Server Support

  • DLNA Certified :
  • Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox360
  • Audio Format: AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless
  • Video Format: 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD
  • Image Format: BMP, JPG, GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF, UFO
  • Playlist Format: WPL, M3U

iTunes Server Support
Audio Format: MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF
Video Format: M4V, MOV, MP4
Playlist Format: M3U, WPL
Audio Station Support

Backup Solutions
Network Backup
Local Backup
Desktop Backup (using Synology Data Replicator 3)
Time Machine Backup (Mac)
3rd-Party Backup Support

Supported Clients

  • Windows 2000 onward
  • Mac OS X 10.3 onward
  • Linux

Supported Browsers

  • Internet Explorer 6, 7
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Firefox 3
  • Firefox 3.5
  • Safari 3 (Mac)
  • Safari 4 (Mac)

Supported Mobile Devices

  • iPhone OS 2.2.1+
  • Windows Mobile 6.0
  • Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd Edition

The two units sport near enough the same feature set. It is very interesting to note that the dearer 411j features an inferior processor with less onboard memory. Time will tell if this will hurt the NAS device’s performance.

Let the unboxing begin!