I recently updated my private network with a NAS. I have now a real file/web/media server that runs 24/7 and that is accessible by any computer connected to the LAN. I chose the Qnap TS-221 for two main reasons: 1/ it was quickly available and 2/ I read some good feedbacks about it over the net.
Qnap TS-221 is a storage server that works under a customized version of Linux. Storage server is a global word because the TS-221 is at the same time a file server, a download server, a media server for your videos and images, a web server (Apache, MySQL), a print server and more…
The bundle is rather simple: the TS-221, a network cable, the PSU and the installation guide (a single page!):
Here are some picture of the TS-221:
The TS-221 runs very quietly so you can put it near your desktop, it won’t bother you.
The TS-221 supports two SATA2 HDDs (two bays). The model tested comes with two 2TB hard drives (Western Digital). Each HDD is hot-swappable and RAID 0/1 configurations are supported.
The TS-221 mainboard includes a Marvell 88F6282 CPU @ 2GHz and 1GB of DDR3 system memory.
Now the installation.
One word: easy!
Go to this page, download the QFinder application that will find the NAS on your network and will set it up!
Once tthe TS-221 is configured, just open a net browser and past the ip address or your NAS to connect to the QTS 4.0 admin panel:
From the admin panel, you can configure and manage every part of the TS-221: you can create new folders, new users with particular rights, enable or disable services like the web server. Very easy!
To upload and download files, I chose to use a FTP client like FileZilla. It’s perfect for me (FileZilla is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and FTP transactions with the TS-221 work very fine. There are other ways to access to your files like with network shortcuts in the Explorer or via a web interface.
More information and specifications of the TS-221 can be found here: Qnap TS-221 homepage.
Wow, it’s amazing :] UI is useful, nice and similar to Mac OS X dashboard 😀 Ok, but how performance in practice? Do you planning a some tests in the future? ;p
I will try to update the review with some perf test.
i hate this brand.
i had one before and it crashed, causing me to loose over 5 TB of data.
also Qnap is really slow, and it gets only slower when the drives start filling up.
mangavalk, how much did Synology pay you for that “fair and balanced” assessment of Qnap?