said by unknvoip:said by Nightfall:You will have to excuse me, but I really don't feel like typing 4-5 paragraphs since it seems like it will fall on deaf ears. Sounds like you have your plan in mind and that isn't a bad thing. Good luck!
While the OP may or may not have their mind made up, some of us lurking in this thread might benefit from your information. I had never heard of the Synology solution. I have a WHS V1 and have started to wonder what might be next for me. Your input would certainly not fall on deaf ears.
Fair enough.
Let me start by saying that I have Windows Home Server 2011 and a Synology DS412. All the synology solutions are the same for the most part when it comes to what apps they support and so on. It doesn't matter if you have a DS213+ or a DS414. The only difference is the amount of drive bays they have or hardware related improvements.
Now, lets explain what I like about the Synology solution over Windows Home server.
First off, the apps that the synology have are awesome. For those of you who have Windows and Android devices, there are a lot of apps you can install that can stream video and audio off your synology and to your phone. Then you have a file browser that can grab files off the synology. There is also a picture application as well that can view pictures from your synology to your phone.
Connecting to the synology using Quickconnect or their native DDNS is seamless as well. Many already have DDNS of some kind, so I won't bore you with the details. The apps on the phone and such all use quickconnect which make it easy to connect to the synology no matter where you are.
Another thing I like about the synology is the ease of expansion. Even if you have a 2 bay synology and run RAID 0 for redundancy, you can easily expand your storage by replacing a drive, allowing it to resync, and then replacing the second drive when you are done.
You also have the price factor to consider. Even if you decide you want a 4 bay NAS, the cost of the computer plus Windows Server Essentials is going to be more than the cost of the NAS + 4 drives. I personally believe that the 2 bay NAS is probably the best bang for the buck unless you have 4-6 terrabytes of info to store. Then you also have to consider how you are going to back it up.
Another thing I love about the synology solution is the seemless backup and restore from one synology to another. I bought a small 1 bay synology and every night it backs up and compresses the backup to the 1 bay synology. You can even store this off site if you have the internet speed.
Then you have all the synology apps you can install on the synology itself. Want a torrent download manager? Synology has it. Want a Wordpress site? Synology has it. How about 3rd party apps? Synology has a great database of those as well.
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www.synology.com/en-us/d ··· packagesThe one thing that Synology lacks is a true client backup solution. The Windows Home Server 2011 system is so nice when it comes to backups for the client PCs. It can keep multiple backups and you can restore seemlessly with the client restore CD.
With the synology, you can do full backups to the synology from the client, but they are not as user friendly.
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www.synology.com/en-us/s ··· ials/454Another thing I like about the synology is the user community. Very large and robust. Their tech support is also excellent as well. I have only phoned in once for a support incident, and when I did it was a very easy process with a human being that I actually understood easily.
Finally, the cost to run the Synology solution is going to be much cheaper in the long run. A computer or server is going to cost more in power than the Synology will over its lifetime. You probably will be able to pay for a new Synology in a 4 year span in the electricity you will save over running a bulky/noisy server.
Combine with this some of the irritations of Windows Home Server 2011 and the Synology is much better. I had instances of the database of my client backups on the server go south and I had to remove all my backups and start over again. Then I had issues with the windows home server and making it accessible over the internet through the website. I was constantly getting an error and finding the solution isn't easy because the community just isn't that popular. Sure, you have technet and other online resources, but finding actual solutions is a little frustrating.
I really hope this helps you out.