Newbie NAS questions

[Craig Hope-Johnstone]

Hello all

I'm a newbie to this forum and to NAS. I want to set up a NAS for home use, generally for downloading and watch video's, photo sharing, remote device access etc and I want to do that with having to have any additional Andriod boxes. A friend of my suggest I look at QNAP NAS, also have Plex and another said Synology NAS. Trouble is I'm not the best with this level of technology and as I said I'm a newbie.

I've been trying to find some help, however this is a liitle diffcult where I'm located.

So a couple of questions, are there any decent publications on setting up a NAS for dummies like me. Also I've seen the WD My Cloud Pro which obviously can come already set up with hard disks. Are these any good as they look easier to set up than pulling all the bits togther myself, will it do what I want it to do and or has anyone had any experience of these?

Thanks in advance.

Craig

 

[Klueless]

Right up front ... I know less than you! That said I simply plugged a flash drive into the USB 3 port of my router and I now have a low end NAS to play with (I call it my SANbox : -)

If the family uses it I may go further, if not I had some fun and saved a bunch of beer money.

 

[thiggins]

Today's NASes are easy to set up. Instructions are clear and "wizard" programs guide you through the process.

Synology and QNAP NASes have more of the features you are looking for than WD.

 

[Craig Hope-Johnstone]

Thanks for the replies. yes reading some articles QNAP and Synology are the top picks especially for the software. However the WD my cloud Pro comes with Hdd installed and ready to go. Prices are not too dissimilar.
I guess I will do some more research.

Thanks again Craig

 

[whsbuss]

Thanks for the replies. yes reading some articles QNAP and Synology are the top picks especially for the software. However the WD my cloud Pro comes with Hdd installed and ready to go. Prices are not too dissimilar.
I guess I will do some more research.

Thanks again Craig

Some retailers, like B&H Photo, sell Synology and QNAP with hard drives already installed. But even the diskless ones are very simple to install, both hardware and software. As a former My Cloud owner I found their features very rudimentary.

 

[sfx2000]

I try to recommend to folks interested in higher end NAS units to check with the pre-sales teams - QNAP and Synology both have great products, and the pre-sales teams want to make sure that the product is suited for the prospective customers needs and requirements - e.g. not over or under spec the NAS.

Also helps to check the official support forums - QNAP and Synology have good user groups...