Features:

  • Versatile 2-bay NAS for small offices and home users
  • 64-bit quad-core processor delivering sequential throughput at over 112 MB/s reading and 112 MB/s writing
  • 2 GB DDR4 memory, 4 times the capacity than its predecessor
  • 4K 10-bit H.265 video transcoding on the fly. Supported client- Windows 7 and 10, Mac OS X 10.11 onwards. Supported browser- Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 onwards, Safari 10 onwards; Safari (iOS 10 onwards), Chrome (Android 6.0 onwards)
  • Running on Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM).Maximum Single Volume Size:108 TB
Solid product. Couldn't be happier.

I had tried a few different storage solutions for my Home and family's small business, but no solution I tried seemed to work the way that it was advertised or meet my needs. In all honesty it was because of my choice to try to find a budget solution because $400 for a NAS and then another 4-500, at least, for drives to put in it is a lot of money. I can't begin to describe how happy I am I did it though. This is a solid product. I can't speak to the uses for a media server, because I haven't gotten around to testing those features yet, but for a storage solution I can. This NAS makes back ups, data storage, and file sharing extremely easy and not just because I'm a computer science major. Even for people who may not be the best with computers, set up is super easy and the web interface is simple and very intuitive. Set up on a local network is extremely easy. Set up for remote access for multiple users though, while still much simpler than something like an Ubuntu server, still will probably require a little more than average technical and networking knowledge. Especially if running an antivirus and/or firewall as you will have to make exceptions for the remote IP address. For creating a remote network drive, you will also need either a static IP address or a domain name and a DDNS service. Overall though so far, I couldn't be happier with the product and am glad I decided to spend some extra money and get something that works great, is easy to manage, and meets all my needs. I will try to come back and update once I have the opportunity to text some of the media server features. UPDATE: So I have now had the opportunity to test some of the features using this as a media server. I have put some movies on it and and was able to stream them. My conclusion is I have some good news and some bad news. Lets get the bad news out of the way first. Bad News: If you are a fan of Plex you may be out of luck. Synology seems to have discontinued support for Plex for all model NAS servers aside from those using an intel processor. According to the Plex forums, some of the older DS418 models do have the intel chips but almost all of the new ones have the Realtek quad cores in them. Fear not though, I did find an alternate solution I will share in the good news. One other thing I did find is if there are some other services running while you are trying to stream HD video you may get some stuttering occasionally while there is other uploading or downloading going on in the background. I'm not sure if this is related to the processor or the limited amount of RAM but I plan to add more RAM in the near future I have also recently enabled the ethernet port aggregation and will test to see if that makes any difference as well. **Note: True Port aggregation will only work if you have a router that supports it. They do have a Load balance bonding but it is not the same as port aggregation. Will retest after these modifications and report back again with another update. Good News: The good news I found is, though there is some stuttering it is pretty easy to work around it by pausing some of the back up services you may have running while tyring to streaming video, which, while its not ideal, I don't find to be that big of a deal given the price point compared to other solutions. The port aggregation I enabled recently along with my plan to increase the RAM may even resolve this issue. The other good news is, for those of you who don't have your heart set on Plex, there is an application for the Amazon FireStick called Archos that seems to work very well in my opinion. You can browse all your folders on the server look at pictures, play music, and stream video. So far I have only tested this while streaming on my local network and have not yet tested remote streaming using this application. Once I have had the opportunity I will again report back with another update.

Very Happy

I've been using the Western Digital MyCloud products for TimeMachine backups on our Macs - The WD products were never particularly stable as a network backup target. When one of the WD's died, I decided to invest in the (admittedly more expensive) Synology DS418, and I'm very happy that I did. Set up was easy, and TimeMachine backups from multiple Macs are working very smoothly (Tips: SHR volume. One shared TM folder. One "user" per Mac with a quota. Do the first backups one at a time!). The only thing to be aware of is that adding/replacing a disk is not fast - adding a third 4TB disk to my config, took the DS418 a couple of days to merge it in, but it did so without difficulty. Overall I'm *very* pleased at how little I have to fiddle around with this server. It just works.

Simple to set-up and use but some things to know as a MAC user

First off, I'm a MAC user running Mojave 10.14.2. I was looking for my own "cloud" for home use. This unit came highly recommended from friends at work as a very easy to set-up and use unit. It was indeed very easy to set-up and get running on a MAC but there are a few things to know. Let me first say I'm no IT Expert, don't pretend to be, not even a home computer hobbyist. The primary use of my MAC is video editing who wanted a way to store the large number of images and videos I have without going to an external cloud service like "icloud". I'm sure if there is a better way I'm sure someone will chime in. The following is what I found when searching the 'net on how to accomplish a few things; 1) I use my NAS for Time Machine. Synology has a really good knowledge base that walks you through the process of creating a separate Time Machine user and a separate volume for the actual Time Machine backup. 2) If you want to store your Itunes library on your NAS, its' not quite as simple as moving the Itunes music folder onto the NAS. Synology doesn't support the use of Itunes. There are a few good videos on youtube that explain how to go about moving the itunes library to the NAS. For me it was a bit complicated but doable. 3) The same situation kinda applies for the "Photos" library, in that you can't just simply move the folder to the Pictures volume on the NAS. I haven't looked up if the same process needed for the Itunes library is the same for Photo. I used this as an opportunity to go through my Photo pics and clean house. A very manual process, but it worked. Thing is with my method I've got photos store on Photo (Mac) and in Photo Station.... Overall I'm very pleased with the Diskstation and it's capabilities!

I'm only scratching the surface on this but I am incredibly impressed so far.

How have I never had a NAS before? I mean, I did once but it was a LaCie and I stopped using it because it wouldn't back up to the cloud... then I tried PogoPlug and that was a disaster..... This is amazing. I have OneDrive through Office365, Dropbox free, and Amazon Drive (1TB option for now). All my videos in my iTunes library are on Amazon drive and my Windows files are on OneDrive. The critical files are on Dropbox because it has been the most reliable. With the CloudSync app that I could install on this, I can sync all those files offline onto my NAS, add new files to it from my desktop PCs, and they all back up to the cloud as a secondary source. I have 100Mb down and upload speeds so using a 100Mb connection from the PC sends it to the cloud almost as fast as I can write it there. Plus, I can turn my PC off after loading my videos and the NAS takes care of it all. Now, I also installed Emby on this and linked my Amazon Drive folder where the iTunes movies are and now I can watch my movies and TV shows (non-DRM ones, though) to my XBOX One. It's like Plex since Plex doesn't work with this device, but it didn't take long to set up. I just had to assign Read Only permission to the network so everyone can read the videos at home which let the XBOX see it. (it's still hidden on the internet, so that's a plus). Virus scans are done on the NAS and many, many other things I haven't fully explored yet. BUT my main reason for buying it was that I saw it on Know How on TWIT.tv and just had to have it for everything. Now it only has 1 bay for a 3.5" hard disk, so I put in my existing 2TB drive which is more data than I have now, so that will do for now. I'll figure out what to do later on when that fills up. But this is a really impressive device that syncs to the cloud services I have to give me an off-site backup, I can back my PC up to the NAS which backs it up to the cloud, and now I have a home media server. I only wish I paid the extra $100 to get the 2 drive array to do a RAID 0 (which isn't recommended but the offsite backup saves me if the drive fails). And for those of you who probably can't figure out how to set this up, it was incredibly easy to do. I put in a drive and turned it on. Took about 2 minutes. Once on, it blinked for a bit and then came up with a web page on my PC once I found the IP address through my router. I answered the on-screen prompts and started from there. Watch the Know How episode on twit.tv to get more information on shares and other things as they explain it well. So, I'm only scratching the surface on this but I am incredibly impressed so far.

Effective and very easy to use

I got this primarily to function as a media server for my extensive movie and TV series collection. I'm technically-oriented and considered building my own HTPC or NAS, but I don't have any old parts lying around and when I considered shopping around for parts and then having to maintain the system myself, I decided to go with a pre-made solution. I opted for the 4 bay design for future expandability, to maintain a central repository rather than just buying more and more external drives as I have in the past. Setup was dead simple. Pull a tray out of a bay, snap the drive in, and slide the tray back in, hardware installed. To set it up on your network, you simply surf to a URL on your computer device of choice and follow the wizard to get everything setup. I already used Emby on my PC, so I set that up on the drive and everything was good to go. (Side note: I like Emby because it's free and I've found it to work better than Kodi. My library was already organized closely to it's preferred configuration so it was easy for me. I find the app for my smart TV is painfully slow but the web UI is responsive so I think that performance hit is more a factor of the TV/app). Overall, it's a bit pricey for a personal/home install, but the setup/maintenance convenience is definitely a selling point. Using Synology's hybrid RAID, I've already maxed out the capacity of the first two bays, but still have 2 bays available. I'm trying to minimize my needs until the high capacity drives (10TB+) come down in price more, but once they do I could easily double my current capacity which should last me a good time into the future. I would absolutely recommend this for: small businesses or individuals with a bit of extra cash who just want a solution that works. For drives, I recommend "Seagate IronWolf NAS 7200RPM Internal SATA Hard Drive" in the size of your choice.

Great Product / Fantastic Support Site and Support Representatives

First-time NAS implementor. It's very nice when you have a centralized location to store personal content safely and be able to access it on any device, from anywhere. It's also wonderful to know, in a RAID1 configuration, if one of the drives fails, the data is not lost. I purchased two 4TB Seagate IronWolf drives for this product and I'm really happy. Synology's support site is good, with lots of helpful information. I recommend going there to see say, the differences between the DS218, DS218play, DS218j. One thing that is tough to beat, and a real treat, if you need to chat with a NAS expert, no problem, they are there. You can also submit a ticket, right from within the control panel of the NAS. Initial setup was very easy - perhaps too easy. I ended up with a redundancy configuration that works well for beginners (shr) when I really wanted RAID1. Before placing any data on the drive, a quick chat with support, and I learned what I would need to do to switch it to RAID1. Then I inquired as to what would be required to map a drive letter from a Win10 client to the NAS. Chat saved the day. I very much like the ease of downloading some Android Apps to use on my cell phone to access the NAS. Functionality? A ton of it in a very small enclosure. Just days after getting it set up, I am wondering how I lived this long without a NAS in my home for my network....

Convenience won me over!

I feel so secure having this product. I had considered building my own, but when I thought about struggling to get VPN's to work or not having easy access across multiple devices, I decided to go for this. So far, I'm very happy with it. I do wish I had sprung for one with the ability to upgrade ram and I do have issues here and there with the Synology DSM Operating System. At times you might wish for some added functionality or the ability to tweak something to your liking. I mean, I'm a Linux fanboy and you can change literally anything you want in a Linux system, so I guess when I come across even the slightest thing I can't tweak, I'm annoyed. Regardless, the ease of use is a huge bonus, the fact that I could plug this in and do some minor setup to have myself a great NAS is great. I mean, this thing wins in convenience points alone. Also, I can rest easy with my 4 6TB drives setup as a RAID 10 that my data is safe. Along with it, I bought a UPS, so it's nicely setup that if there is a power outage, the NAS will safely shutdown.In the future, I will consider buying another and having it located offsite whether at my parents or my siblings home so that I'll always have a backup in case of any situation. A lot of people would highly recommend teaming it with a cloud option, but with 3TB of data, I hate waiting 6 months for my data to be finished uploading to the cloud. I'm pretty happy knowing that I can have a drive go down and still have my data while I replace it.

Goodbye Crashplan

I bought this with one simple purpose in mind: back my stuff up. I don’t use anything it offers other than storage and the included backup software. With that context established, I’m happy with the purchase. Having multiple devices and lots of data (large video files, etc), I needed a reliable backup solution. My previous cloud backup (crashplan) solution was letting me down. After many years of use, crashplan abandoned their home use market with little notice. Forcing personal subscribers to migrate to much costlier business plan (priced per device), combined with the service no longer managing to ever actually complete a full backup, I needed another solution. I didn’t want the hassle of deploying a home server, so this NAS fits the bill. The cost is on par with a couple years of a cloud backup service (for me anyway with several devices and lots of data to backup). Being my first NAS, it took me a bit to learn how to set up the storage permissions, but it’s otherwise set it and forget it. All backups (many terabytes) completed in a couple hours. If I so much as touch a file, it immediately enters the back up queue and processes in seconds. It’s small, quiet, low power, and the features are great. There are a ton I’ve not yet explored, so I may buy another smaller unit for primary storage and to play with additional supported apps, retaining this unit as a dedicated backup storage device. In short, if you want cloud features under your own roof, look no further. Satisfied.

Cheaper to go 4-bay than 2-bay

I have been an avid Synology fan since my first ds211j. I quickly outgrew the first unit and upgraded to a ds215j a few years later for more processing power and speed. After just three years I was running out of space again at 4 TB. It would cost over $500 to upgrade to a pair of 8 TB hard drives. The cheaper option was to upgrade to a 4-bay model and add a third 4TB drive. Synology Hybrid Raid configures the three drives to provide 8 TB of storage with protection. Plus, I still have another free bay in case I need to add more storage cheaply. It is tempting to go with the more affordable 2-bay option but you need to upgrade your hard drives in the future to add storage and larger drives are more expensive than lower capacity drives. A pair of 4 TB drives will cost less than a single 8 TB drive. Ultimately, a 4-bay costs you more upfront but will save you money in the long run. I learned that the hard way. I love my new ds418. It is noticeably faster and more responsive than our old ds215j. I also prefer the quad-core ARM processor over the dual-core Intel CPU in the ds418play. Plex and VM support is tempting on the ds418play but I already have a separate HTPC that runs Plex media server better than the ds418play would. The ds418 has room to grow and should last me a lot longer than previous NASes.

Nothing but good things to say

Purchased this device to replace a cheap alternative (Mediasonic ProRAID) that I bought, trying to save money. Boy was this a foolish mistake. I have loaded the NAS with 4x8TB in a RAID5-like setup. It is not truly RAID5, as it uses Synology's proprietary software to achieve the same purpose. Setup is very straightforward, and just involves plug & play--what could be easier? The ability to use the QuickConnect interface to access my files remotely has been a lifesaver, and has allowed me to consolidate all my data here, instead of having files on each of my 4 different computers, plus Dropbox and other cloud storage applications. My only complaint, which is my fault, is that the device is not strong enough to support Plex Media Server on its own. I currently have the NAS hosting movie files that my desktop reads and runs PMS. Would be more convenient if I did not need to the computer, but hey, there's another purchase for another day. The NAS is currently on the network via an Orbi satellite, and does not seem to have any issues--speeds are just as fast and when it was hardwired to the main router and desktop computers. The LAN / backhaul speed easily dwarfs the bandwidth from my ISP, so there is no issue on that front.

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