Synology DS210+ Network Attached Storage

Introduction:

Do you remember the ONE big thing you wanted every year? You saw commercials about it and told your friends about all of its features, and how you were going to use it. I just got mine, the Synology Disk Station 210+, and I’m not the only one, Synology is so excited about it, it’s the first item on their homepage.

Synology Disk Station 210+

From The Site:  “Synology^® DiskStation DS210+ offers a high-performance, secure, and full-featured network attached storage solution that helps small and medium-sized businesses centralize backup, protect critical assets and share files quickly and efficiently. Synology protects your investment in the DS210+ with a 2-year limited warranty.”

At it’s base level a NAS (or Network Attached Storage) is an external hard drive connected through an Ethernet port to your entire network. On its own that has amazing possibilities, but Synology has taken it above and beyond. The box has the slogan A “New NAS Experience”. Join me as we see exactly what that means.

A Closer Look:

You can see it has a very small footprint to fit on virtually any desk

The matte black metal exterior is going to hold up against abuse too, no greasy fingerprints to clean off.

Specifications:

Hardware
CPU Frequency: 1.06GHz Floating Point Memory Bus: 64bit@DDR533 Memory: 512MB Internal HDD1: 3.5″ SATA(II) X2 or 2.5″ SATA/SSD X2 (with the Disk Holder) Max Internal Capacity: 4TB (2x 2TB hard drives)9 (See All Supported HDD) Size (HxWxD): 161mm X 88mm X 218mm External HDD Interface: USB 2.0 port X3, eSATA port X1 Weight: 0.98kg LAN: Gigabit X1 Wireless Support11	Fan: X1(70mmX70mm) Wake on LAN/WAN Noise Level (fan-only):2 24dB(A) Power Recovery AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V Power Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, Single Phase Power Consumption3: 30W(Access); 14.4W(HDD Hibernation) Operating Temperature: 5°C to 35°C (40°F to 95°F) Storage Temperature: -10°C to 70°C (15°F to 155°F) Relative Humidity: 5% to 95%RH Maximum Operating Altitude: 10,000 feet Certification: FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B
Applications
File Station 3 FTP Server Bandwidth Control Custom FTP Passive Port Range Anonymous FTP Transfer Log Web Station Virtual Host (up to 30 websites) PHP/MySQL Alternative HTTP Error Page 3rd-Party Applications Support Surveillance Station 4 Default IP cam #: 1 MAX IP cam # (licenses required): 124 (See All Supported IP Cameras) Photo Station 4 Supported Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f) Supported Video Format5: 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM, RMVB, VOB, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 Download Station 2 Supported Download Protocols: BT/HTTP/FTP/NZB/eMule Custom BitTorrent Port Range BitTorrent / eMule Bandwidth Control Audio Station 2 Supported Audio Format: (USB Mode) AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, WMA VBR; (Streaming Mode) MP3, M4A, M4B Supported Playlist Format: M3U, WPL Internet Radio: SHOUTcast, Radioio	DLNA/UPnP Media Server PS3/Xbox 360 Support Supported Audio Format: AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless Supported Video Format: 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, DVR-MS, ISO, M2T, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MP4, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MTS, MOV, QT, SWF, TP, TRP, TS, VOB, WMV, XviD, RV30, RV40, AC3, AMR, WMA3 Supported Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO, RAW (arw, srf, sr2, dcr, k25, kdc, cr2, crw, nef, mrw, ptx, pef, raf, 3fr, erf, mef, mos, orf, rw2, dng, x3f) Supported Subtitles Format: srt, psb, smi, ass, ssa, sub, idx, ifo iTunes Server Supported Audio Format6: MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV, AIF Supported Video Format: M4V, MOV, MP4 Supported Playlist Format: M3U, WPL Printer Server7 Max Printer #: 2 Printing Protocols: LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk Synology Packages SqueezeCenter Mail Station Webalizer phpMyAdmin iPhone Applications DS photo DS audio DS cam
General Specifications
Networking Protocols CIFS AFP FTP iSCSI Telnet SSH NFS SNMP File System EXT3 FAT32 (External Disk Only)8 NTFS (External Disk Only)8 Volume Management Synology Hybrid RAID iSCSI Target (Max size: 16TB):10 Volume Type: Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 RAID Migration: from Basic to RAID 1 Expand RAID 1 volume with Larger Hard Drives File Sharing Capability Max User Accounts: 2,048 Max Groups: 256 Max Shared Folder: 256 Max Concurrent Connections(SAMBA, FTP, AFP): 256 Windows ADS Domain Integration Domain Users login via Samba/AFP/FTP/File Station Backup Solutions Network Backup Local Backup Desktop Backup (using Synology Data Replicator 3 or Apple Time Machine backup application) USB Copy 3rd-Party Backup Support Management DSM Upgrade Email Notification SMS Notification Customized User Quota DDNS Support PPPoE Resource Monitor UPS Management Scheduled Power On/Off Custom Management UI HTTP/HTTPS Ports System Temperature Display	Security FTP over SSL/TLS IP Auto-Block Firewall Encrypted Network Backup over Rsync HTTPS Connection HDD Management HDD Hibernation S.M.A.R.T. Dynamic Bad Sector Mapping Utilities Synology Assistant Synology Download Redirector Synology Data Replicator 3 Supported Clients Windows 2000 onward Mac OSX 10.3 onward Ubuntu 9.04 onward Supported Browsers Internet Explorer 7 Internet Explorer 8 Firefox 3 Firefox 3.5 Safari 3 (Mac) Safari 4 (Mac) Supported Mobile Devices (Photo Station, File Station) iPhone OS 2.2.1 onward Windows Mobile (IE Mobile or Opera 9.0 onward) Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd Edition onward Language Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese European, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish
Enviroment And Packaging
Environment RoHS Compliant Package Content DS210+ Main Unit Installation CD Assembling Kit AC Power Adapter 2M RJ-45 LAN Cable	Optional Accessories Remote Camera License Pack
1.  Hard drive not included. 2.  FAN only. Measured at 2300~6200RPM, varied among models. More details about dB(A) value, check http://www.quietnoise.com/facts.htm 5.  User can click and download the file, but not play it in Photo Station as compressed Flash video. 6.  The music can be streamed, but the metadata (ex: title, album) may not be indexed on the iTunes. 7.  For Mac users, DS210+ supports PostScript USB printers only. 8.  Primary partion only.

The sheer amount of information presented here requires a second read. Go ahead I’ll wait. I am dumbfounded by the amount of functionality they have packed into a device that only uses thirty watts of power. This Single device will act as a print server, a network video recorder, a Secure FTP, a web server, a streaming media server, and that’s just scratching the surface.

Out of the Box:

Analysis:

Our DS210+ is equipped with two 1tb drives configured in raid 1. You can see on the front and back the expansion ports that you can use to connect up to two USB printers, three USB drives, or and eSATA drive (or array). The network interface is full Gigabit capable, you could even use one of the USB ports to convert this device to a wireless network NAS. (approved list of adapters).

Software:

After login screen

From the intuitive menu you can utilize this devices capabilities to

• Download and manage torrents
• Stream music through USB speakers
• record surveillance from your IP cameras
• integrate with dynamic DNS to easily access externally
• access and manage the device via multiple secure methods. (ssh, sftp, telnet, HTTPS)
• serve up to 30 websites.
• migrate data too and from external drives.
• THIS WILL INTEGRATE WITH YOUR IPOD (app available at appstore).

I can’t even fit the whole list in one screen

Everything is very simple to set up via the web interface, and will notify you if you change a setting that requires an additional setting to be configured. So far I have set up the download manager, File Station, and the Surveillance Station.You could spend considerable amount of money for separate devices to attempt to conglomerate the functionality of this one device. I know for a fact software with less than half the functionality of  Surveillance station can cost up to twelve hundred dollars for the initial license, and its all remarkably easy to set up, with the intuitive menus and helpful configuration tips, as long as you know how to read you should be able to get this up and running.

Security:

I am paranoid about network security. I have hardened firewall securing segments of my home network. The DS210+ doesn’t disappoint, you have complete customization options with your user login’s, and you can even get absolutely brutal with attempt lockouts. No brute force here. In addition you can blacklist IP’s and assign max quotas and custom firewall rules.

Redundancy:

Raid 1 isn’t enough for you? The DS210+ has you covered, you can schedule backups to an additional external device, you could even back up configurations and files to amazon cloud service if your that concerned about it.

USB Copy:

This is cool. You can set up a target directory to one button dump the contents of any usb storage device. Any person who regularly migrates files from one location to another. Your computer doesn’t even have to be on. Also when you connect a usb drive, it shows up as its own destination folder in windows networking.

The Synology DS210+ comes out of their Business Ready line, with the feature set they have included in the Disk Station Manager 2.3 it makes perfect sense. In this increasingly technology driven business market, the capabilities this offers out of the box are almost essential. Aside from the 256 bit AES encryption offering. Any facility utilizing either a static IP address or Dynamic DNS, can cut costs by hosting up to thirty virtual websites in house. So you forgot your presentation at the office? No problem you can download the file via Secure ftp, no worries about someone war driving your financial projections mid-download from a wi-fi hot-spot. The biggest advantage of all of these features is you don’t have to be a genius to work any of these features, all of the modules can be set-up without calling in the entire IT department.

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Benchmark Testing and Analysis:

To test the metal of the DS210+ I downloaded and uploaded files using FTP, and Windows Networking. I Have  two Seagate 1TB Barracuda Drives configured in raid 1 The NAS is connected to a Gigabit switch configured at full duplex.

Speed Testing:

My results were very similar to Synology’s own findings regarding windows file service.

It comes as no surprise than when using any other service than windows to copy and recieve files you will notice a great improvement on speed. I was using Filezilla as my ftp client for this test, and i was pleased as always with the results.  I also implemented a nonstandard port for ftp in the interface, it worked without issue.

Security Testing:

As a Business class product security concerns are paramount. As I mentioned earlier you can easily restract as much or as little as needed fro mdata quotas toblocking IP’s. For the purposes of this test I instated a limitation of 2 on the password attempts, before lockout, and in addition I would block a locked IP address for 10 days.

I accessed the device from my office, with no issue, I was able to administrate the entire device remotely. I also took the opportunity to test ssh access to the unit and it also performed flawlessly. I then proceeded to use two incorrect username and password combinations.  Immediately, I received a warning box “you do not have permission to access this resource” . I continued to try to no avail.

I was pleased to see I it also blocked  me from ssh, and ftp access to the box. It was very easy to go in and remove the blocked IP address, if it was a mistake but its comforting to know that the potential offender would be thwarted on any of those fronts.

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Summary and Conclusion:

I had high hopes for the Synology DS210+, and I was not dissapointed. The big selling point on this device is the software. It is user friendly, feature rich, and comprehensive. If you were to measure this device by the amount of software, and hardware it replaces, its astounding. Within an hour you can have a secure web hosted file-share, a redundant file-backup, a print server, a web server, and a network video recorder. From a business standpoint you could pay for a windows domain controller which will certainly perform the functions of a print server, file server, and web server. Unfortunately, Windows Server will alone cost you more than the DS210+, not factoring in maintenance, and hardware costs, and you would still need additional software to record surveillance footage from IP cameras. Coming in at roughly $450 plus hard drives, this is an unbeatable package. That is why we Awarded the Synology DS210+ Our Awesome hardware Award

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