Need NAS advice, please

[Green George]

I currently use a WD My Cloud to back up my Mac and our laptops, PC, iPads and phones. Due to the age of my ‘My Cloud’, WD are no longer going to provide updates from April 2022. I am purely an end user looking for a set up and forget solution.
None of our devices have a LAN socket. The reason I mention this is I bought a Synology DS220+ as it appeared to be the perfect solution and apparently worked with Macs and had great reviews. Unfortunately, when I tried to install it the lack of LAN became an issue and Synology support was lacking; infact they stated this model NAS does not work with a Mac.

So what should I go for?

Ideal spec:
Intuitive (user friendly) operating system which works on Mac, PC’s and mobile devices.
Good technical support.
Can be set up set up over WiFi, as no option to connect devices to the NAS / Router with a LAN cable; or
Advice on how to set it up without a LAN cable.
2 bay
Recent model

Budget: up to £800

[Onespeeder]

It would help to know what capacity you need.

I recently bought a Synology 220+; this cost about £500 including two 4GB discs. I think that I wasted some of my money as the machine is capable of much more than I can deal with or need but it does what I want very well. The equivalent capacity is available in their 220j for, I think, about £375. This is less powerful but I think it would still have been OK for me as at the moment I do not need to stream hi-res video or simila. I think that for £800 you will get.you substantially more capacity if that is what you need. You will need to think about RAID though; I have used RAID which means that the useful capacity is 4GB and not 8GB but allows one disc to fail without loss of your data.

While not completely useless, I am far from an IT expert and had little trouble setting it up over Wi-Fi using my normal browser (Firefox) with the Synology system. I believe that it will connect to any of the normal operating systems without difficulty.

I also have a Netgear Stora, basic NAS, which has been retired now; this ran for over 10 years with no trouble except one disc needed replacing which proved quite simple to do.

My recommendation is a Synology of the simplest type but with a capacity of quite a bit more than you think you need at the moment.

There is a Youtube channel (which I came across after buying mine) called NASCompares https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyP17HoU-vpxhIpG... that can give some helpful information.
I am sure that any of the major brands will be satisfactory for the sort of domestic use that I infer from your post.

[Green George]

Thanks onespeeder. I am looking for 8TB but with mirrored drives so actually 16TB.

[sociopath]

Just wondering why you can't connect your NAS to your router. Its the easiest way.

I have a couple of western digital Nas devices, after replacing my old obsolete one, which sounds like the one you have.

Easy to use, and easy to set up.

Then can be completely managed from your wireless devices via your browser

Edited by sociopath on Wednesday 15th December 23:15

[Green George]

I connected the NAS to the router but Synology required the Mac to be connected by LAN cable to the router to set it up. I was unable to do so, as my MAC doesn’t have the LAN socket. Sought help from Synology and the ‘technician’ advised me that the DS220+ was not compatible.

[sparkyhx]

In all the years using Synology and being on forums etc, the only issues I've heard reported and been difficult/impossible to resolve is working with Apple.

That doesnt mean they dont, but if they dont, theres usually apple in there somewhere

I've found synology support fantastic, user forums knowledgeable and the KB articles generally clear

[sparkyhx]

Green George said:

I connected the NAS to the router but Synology required the Mac to be connected by LAN cable to the router to set it up. I was unable to do so, as my MAC doesn’t have the LAN socket. Sought help from Synology and the ‘technician’ advised me that the DS220+ was not compatible.

have you tried getting the USB to lan converter thingy, what kinda backward st doesnt have a lan socket jeez Apple join the 21st century :-)

[Captain_Morgan]

Interesting I’m not sure why you would have an issue if your wired and wireless connections are on the same subnet as is the norm for most home networks

[Bodo]

Green George said:

I connected the NAS to the router but Synology required the Mac to be connected by LAN cable to the router to set it up. I was unable to do so, as my MAC doesn’t have the LAN socket. Sought help from Synology and the ‘technician’ advised me that the DS220+ was not compatible.

Strange - I've set up my Synology with Linux running on a macbook air wirelessly. Can you please link to the manual where it says that your Macintosh needs to be connected via a LAN cable? All documentation is available online.

[timmybob]

Bodo said:

Green George said:

I connected the NAS to the router but Synology required the Mac to be connected by LAN cable to the router to set it up. I was unable to do so, as my MAC doesn’t have the LAN socket. Sought help from Synology and the ‘technician’ advised me that the DS220+ was not compatible.

Strange - I've set up my Synology with Linux running on a macbook air wirelessly. Can you please link to the manual where it says that your Macintosh needs to be connected via a LAN cable? All documentation is available online.

I'm running a DS218+ which replaced a DS209 - both of which worked well with my iMAC. Which is only connected wirelessly

[eeLee]

Does Synology Assistant not run on MacOS?
https://global.download.synology.com/download/Util...

That will do everything for an unprepped unit.

I would also install TailScale on the NAS and your devices which means it becomes accessible everywhere, no firewall rules or port forwarding necessary.

[Green George]

Captain_Morgan said:

Interesting I’m not sure why you would have an issue if your wired and wireless connections are on the same subnet as is the norm for most home networks

Agreed, but the Synology software ‘find.Synology repeatedly failed to detect the device.

[Green George]

As a result of the problems I sent the DS200+ back and am now looking for alternative options which work with Mac and PC’s without the need for a LAN cable connection to set it up.

[Road2Ruin]

My synology also was set up wirelessly. Possibly an issue with your router rather than the NAS.

[Green George]

Road2Ruin said:

My synology also was set up wirelessly. Possibly an issue with your router rather than the NAS.

Synology were unable to assist so it has been returned and I am looking for alternative recommendations.

[OldGermanHeaps]

sparkyhx said:

have you tried getting the USB to lan converter thingy, what kinda backward st doesnt have a lan socket jeez Apple join the 21st century :-)

They have, pretty much all laptops now dont have onboard lan in favour of dongles. Its ste I use a lan port every day and dongles dont last very long in industrial environments. I sue an older toughbook sometimes but its getting a bit too slow and new ones are too expensive.

[RizzoTheRat]

For NAS housing you put your own drives in, Synology and QNAP seem to be the big two. When I was looking all the reviews seemed to reckon the hardware was similar performance but I went with Synology as the software's supposed to be easier to use, although QNAP have some nice additional features like built in media players and HDMI out. I think the TS231 series is thier equivalent of the DS220+, but no idea on Mac compatibility, there's bound to be a video on youtube of someone setting one up

[Captain_Morgan]

When you say works wirelessly with a Mac

What specifically are you aiming to achieve, I expect time machine backups to be one task, what else?

[Green George]

It is the ability to set up wirelessly as none of our devices have LAN sockets. I appreciate that once set up most if not all devices will allow you to connect via WiFi.
I am looking to be able to:
1. Have a user profile for each person and back up their devices
2. Store photos and videos

Does anyone have experience of the WD EX2 Ultra? Spec seems good but it appears to have been around a long time so may be due for replacing with a new model and I want to avoid a solution with a short life expectancy.

[dundarach]

QNAP all the way