Synology Disk Station DS410j NAS

The NAS Redefined:

As you have probably heard us say several times at TechwareLabs, storage is an ever increasing need as is the availability and reliability of such storage. Simply having a device to store your data on serves no use if it is not available to you wherever you go. Just having storage is not good enough for many users, we need our data to be available to us across several PC’s and abroad. This is the very definition of what a network accessible storage device accomplishes. There are many devices on the market today, so selecting one to meet your needs has become difficult . . . until now.  We have taken a look at several Synology devices in the past and our impression has always been good. It seems the engineers at Synology have the “everything and the kitchen sink” attitude towards their devices and the DS410j which we are reviewing today is no exception. So let’s start with a basic explanation of a NAS and what it does for you.

A NAS takes your standard hard drive storage and basically attaches it to an Ethernet card and makes it available on the network.  Furthering this concept there are NAS devices which allow multiple hard drives to be used in different configurations and some have additional connectivity like USB, and eSATA as options. This is beneficial to a SOHO or small business in several ways:

1. Less outlay of $cash$ for an actual file server.
2. Ease of installation for those DIY’ers.
3. Ease of access to data across several PC’s without carrying an external hard drive around.
4. Centralization of data and access of data.

Taking that a step further Synology has expanded the functionality of their products by building in functionality in all manner of areas. You will soon see why the DS410j could very well be a perfect product.

An Overview of the DS410j:

As you can see from just the looking at the DS410j the unit is small and will easily fit on your desk or into your work environment without being an eyesore. More importantly unlike many, and I daresay most other NAS devices, the DS410j is nearly silent.  The two rear fans provide significant airflow keeping the internal hard drives cool while as we mentioned, being nearly silent. In terms of serviceability the simple removal of 4 thumbscrews grants you access to the 4 hard drives within which are all easily removable. Additionally you will be able to access the memory slots should you want to upgrade the DS410j yourself. The color scheme of the Desk Station also makes it perfect for Mac users.

Specifications:

Hardware CPU: 800MHz, 16bit@DDR800 Memory: 128MB Internal HDD1: 3.5″ SATA(II) X4 or 2.5″ SATA/SSD X4 Max Internal Capacity: 8TB (4x 2TB hard drives) External HDD Interface: USB 2.0 port X2 Size: 230mm X 168mm X 184mm Weight: 2.23kg LAN: Gigabit X1 Fan: X2(80mmX80mm) Noise Level:2 23dB(A) Power Recovery AC Input Power Voltage: 100V to 240V Power Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, Single Phase Max Supported IP Camera: 5 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 Power Consumption3 42.9W(Access); 16W(HDD Hibernation) Certification FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B Networking Protocols CIFS AFP (3.1) FTP NFS Telnet/SSH Windows ADS Domain Integration ADS Support Domain users login via Samba/AFP/FTP Synology Data Replicator 3 for Domain Users Security Firewall FTP Auto-Block FTP over SSL/TLS (explicit) Encrypted Network Backup Encrypted rsync HTTPS Connection File System EXT3 FAT (External Disk Only) NTFS (External Disk Only) File Sharing Max User Accounts: 1,024 Max Groups: 256 Max Shared Folder: 256 Max Concurrent Connections(SAMBA, FTP, AFP): 128 Utilities Synology Assistant Synology Data Replicator 3 Synology Download Redirector Add printer wizard

Applications Surveillance Station 3 Photo Station 3 File Station 2 Audio Station Web Station PHP/MySQL Download Station 2 iTunes Server iPhone Applications DS photo DS audio Packages Mail Station phpMyAdmin SqueezeCenter Webalizer DLNA/UPnP Media Server Support DLNA Certified Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox360 Audio Format: AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, WAV, WMA, WMA VBR, WMA PRO, WMA Lossless 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 Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF, ICO, PNG, PSD, TIF (tiff), UFO Playlist Format: WPL, M3U iTunes Server Support Audio Format: MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV4, AIF4 Video Format: M4V, MOV, MP4 Playlist Format: M3U, WPL Audio Station Support USB Mode: (Audio) AAC, FLAC, M4A, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, WMA VBR (Playlist) M3U, WPL (Internet Radio) SHOUTcast, Radioio Streaming Mode: (Audio) MP3 (Playlist) M3U, WPL Photo Station 3 Support Video Format9: 3G2, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, FLV, M4V, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, QT, WMV, XviD, RM5, RMVB5, VOB5 Image Format: BMP, JPG (jpe, jpeg), GIF Management AJAX-based Management UI Sub-folder Privileges Setting User Home Applications privileges Setting BitTorrent Port Range Setup BitTorrent DHT Support Changing Management UI Ports CIFS Recycle Bin Download Station Bandwidth control Download Station Port Range Setup Editable HTTP Error Page Email Alert Message Email Notification for New User Package Management External HDD Hibernation (USB) Scheduled Power On/Off Firmware Upgrade FTP passive port range Hide-able Shared Folder Internal HDD Hibernation Movable Shared Folder Removable Default Shared Folder System Temperature DDNS PPPoE Resource Monitor SMS Notification SNMP UPS Management (Over USB 2.0) User Quota Web-based Download Station 2

RAID/Storage Management Volume Type: Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6 Upgrade from Basic to RAID 1, from Basic to RAID 5, from RAID 1 to RAID 5, from RAID 5 to RAID 5+Spare Expand RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare or RAID 6 with Larger Hard Drives Expand RAID 5 by Adding a Hard Drive On The Fly iSCSI Backup Solutions Network Backup Local Backup Desktop Backup (using Synology Data Replicator 3) Time Machine Backup (Mac) 3rd-Party Backup Support Supported Clients Windows 2000 onward Mac OS X 10.3 onward Linux Supported Browsers Internet Explorer 6, 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 and onward Windows Mobile 6.0 (IE Mobile or Opera 9.0 onward) Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd Edition onward Printer Support6 Max Printer #: 2 Supported Protocols: LPR, CIFS, AppleTalk Languages English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Czech, Polish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (European), Turkish, and Hungarian Environment RoHS Compliant Package Content DS410j Main Unit Installation CD Welcome Note Assembling Kit AC Power Adapter AC Power Cord 2M RJ-45 LAN Cable ___ 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 3.  Measured with 4 Seagate 750GB ST3750640NS hard drives. The figures could vary on different environments. 4.  The music can be streamed, but the metadata (ex:title, album) may not be indexed on the iTunes. 5.  User can click and download the file, but not play it in Photo Station as compressed Flash video. 6.  For Mac users, DS410j supports PostScript USB printers only. 7.  1 free license to install 1 IP camera. Additional licenses can be purchased to expand the license quota. 8.  The actual capacity will differ according to volume types. 9.  AC3, AMR, DTS, RV30, RV40, WMA3 codec are not supported.

This is quite possibly the longest table of specifications and support we have ever listed here at TechwareLabs and this truly impressive support is why we said that the engineers must have adopted an “And the Kitchen Sink” attitude.  A simple glance at the list of supported features shows that the DS410j can be used for everything from a music server and Digital Video Recorder to a surveillance station and torrent download station. In fact about the only thing the we don’t see in this list is a domain controller for windows (a little humor there). Seriously though our first glance at the list of supported features actually brought up a valid concern about this unit and the Synology software. Most often our experience is that a product that attempts to fill to many roles (especially true with software) often fails to accomplish being good at most of them. Usually this is a result of the engineering and software developers spreading themselves too thin and trying to do too much with a single product.  In the case of the DS410j  we are pleased to inform you that every role for which we tested the DS410j was done and implemented flawlessly. In fact after a thorough look through the menus we have found that the software demonstrates surprising foresight into your needs.

Lets take a look at the software behind the DS410j.

Software Interface

Our first impression of the Synology interface is that it has a very clean layout and is easy to navigate. Like most NAS devices the DS410j is managed through the web. That means that you navigate your Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome browser to a local area network address from which you have control over the device.

After first logging in you are greeted with a screen identical to the one above. While this screen may be helpful for first time users it really becomes redundant after you become familiar with the menu’s. Clicking on management brings you to a much more useful screen from which you can access every aspect of the Synology DS410j.

Think of this screen as your springboard into everything you need for the Desk Station. At your fingertips are the main  areas of the DS410j broken down into the following categories:

• Information
• System
• Privileges
• Storage
• File Sharing
• Network Services
• Applications
• Backup
• External Devices

Within each of these main segments you will find additional sub menu’s designed to help you customize the DS410j to your needs.  I will briefly discuss each of the main areas so you can understand the potential uses and flexibility of power the DS410j offers to your business or home.

Information:

This is as basic as it gets and yet still awesomely useful for management of the device. The information category will tell you percentage of system resources used, who is logged into the device, blocked users, and all activity recorded by the log. At a glance you can also find out the overall usage of your drives, IP address information, and the status and temperature of the hard drives.  All of the basic information you will need to find out how healthy your Desk Station is as well as who has been using it and what has gone on lately is contained here.

System:

This is where management and configuration starts within the DS410j beginning with IP addressing, power management, loading of firmware, and additional packages. We would like to note that the software of the DS410j is so well written that they have taken into account that once the device is fully configured you probably won’t want to do this all again. As such they have included a handy utility to backup the devices configuration and restore it at will. We will cover this later.

Within the system category you can select preferences such as language, and even setup power management to put the HDD’s and USB HD into hibernation after a period of time. In this area you can also select the fan speed mode of the unit as well as pre-schedule  a shut down of the device as well as power on of the device on a day to day basis as well as selectable days, weekdays, weekends, and more. in this manner you can ensure that the device is on exactly when you arrive to work and automatically shuts itself down when you leave. It could further be configured to turn on during a scheduled period of time to make the built in FTP available to you while on vacation or away from the business or home.

Privileges

Moving on to privileges we find that the DS410j makes use of a very familiar Windows domain similar setup. Synology has given us the ability to create users, groups, and folders and assign privileges to each. Additionally the software is smart enough to know when you make a mistake and have created a setup with conflicts. It will then modify the setup so that the changes do not create a conflict. Once again we see proof here that the engineers and software developers at Synology have thought ahead as they have included the ability to restrict/allow individual created users access to certain functions of the DS410j. This would come in extremely handy in defining certain users with the ability to access such things as the FTP and File station but restrict them from access to the surveillance, download, or audio.

Storage

Contrary to what you might think this area is actually where you manage your volumes and hard drives.  It is here that you go to enable things like S.M.A.R.T., Disk Caching,  to repair or create new volumes, and to specify settings for the built in iSCSI Target.  A lot of valuable management information can be gathered here to determine the health of your hard drives and to expand your storage if you do not fill all of the hard drives up front.

File Sharing

While the Synology DS410j does support P2P file sharing torrent downloading that is not what this section refers to. Instead the Sile Sharing configuration pages allow you to specify support for the different Windows and Mac OS file systems such as CIFS. once again we find the software engineers have paid attention to details that would likely have occurred as a need afterward and given us control to join the DS410j to a domain/workgroup. They have gone so far as to let us specify the fully qualified domain name, DNS, and even Appletalk support.  It is here that you configure your support for the built in FTP server as well as File Station support which allows, as Synology puts it “access and manage files with a browser. You can also use File Station through mobile devices.”

Network Services

The Network Services area is where you will file a multitude of configuration and support for such things as:

• Web Services
• DDNS
• Terminal services
• Firewall
• SNMP
• Auto Block

These configuration pages will allow you to specify such things as the security settings, access to the DS410j via DDNS for those who do not have a static IP address, and the ability to host a website. It should be noted that the DS410j does also allow the creation an HTTPS connection so that all incoming visitors and data are protected via an SSL/TLS connection. Redirection of HTTP to HTTPS is also supported and as such this makes for an idea small website server for online businesses.  The DS410j also supports the use of website database and language tools such as MySQL and PHP as well as giving you the ability to upload your own webpages to the DS410j. This greatly expands the functionality of the DS410j as use as a website server giving you creative freedom.

Applications

The applications area once again proves my “kitchen sink” theory that if it was possible to do it with the DS410j, the software engineers built it in as well. Here you will find a:

• Media Server
• iTunes Service
• Audio Station
• Photo Station
• Download Station
• Surveillance Station

Noticeably absent from this lineup of features is an e-mail service for exchange or other e-mail. We suspect that while the storage capabilities of the DS410j are more than capable of handling incoming e-mail, the CPU may not be able to handle the needs of outgoing e-mails for a small business and as such this capability was left out.  At least we have found one thing that the DS410j cannot do . . . yet.  Most of these sub-categories are self explanatory but the possibilities of the audio server are actually rather impressive for a device of this size and cost. Once configured and loaded with music files the DS410j is capable of streaming music to a business lobby, throughout a home, or any place music can be heard. Nearly all doctors, lawyers, dentists, and real estate offices and demo homes have music playing as you enter. This device supersedes all of the devices on the market today that perform this function and kiss your subscription to these services goodbye. Now all you need is access to the internet to download free music and you have your music playing  with a simple set of USB speakers or through a PC, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

The Download Station is where you will find support for torrent files through an eMule download. Synology does make note that all downloads must comply with applicable laws to cover themselves from the use of the DS410j as an illegal download dedicated machine.

As we mentioned earlier Synology has also included the ability to connect the DS410j to IP based surveillance cameras and record video. The DS410j supports up to 5 cameras and when enabled it will take you to a much more serious looking screen in which you can add your cameras, view live feeds, check events, and add camera licenses if needed.

Backup

No NAS device would be complete without the inclusion of a backup service and the DS410j is no exception. The DS410j does not disappoint here and true to what we have come to expect from Synology the DS410j does go above and beyond a normal backup service.  in addition to supporting the backup of local network machines the DS410j additionally supports backup of external drives, network servers (synology), and rsync-compatible servers.  Synology includes a very nicely crafted wizard to step you through the setup of backup jobs and the home screen displays a list of jobs and their status. All in all a very nice piece of software that we are happy to say works as expected. . . flawlessly.

Also to be found in the Backup area is a means to backup the configuration for the entire device. This makes sense if you think about it really. You have just purchased the DS410j and have spent the time to configure a numbers of services and settings. You of course do not want to lose all of that time and effort should something happen to your drives or the device, as such Synology has included a way to save those settings.  Aside from something happening to the drives of the device we find it much more likely that the we as the user have tinkered too much and screwed up some settings that prevent us from using the device properly. Synology has included a method to help you restore those settings which last worked for you.

External Devices

Lastly we find that Synology has included support for additional external devices such as printers and USB hard drives because Synology knows that you can never have too much storage or enough expandability. Remember our theory for this device . . . “kitchen sink”, this applies.  The external devices area includes support for three main categories of add on devices:

• USB Disks (Hard Drives or even Flash Drives)
• USB Printers (for use as a print server)
• UPS (uninterpretable power supply)

Each of these is pretty self explanatory but we find the inclusion of a print server to be an extra nice feature. As a matter of a fact the print server even includes a button to assist in cleaning of the printer. You couldn’t ask for more from this device.

Testing the DS410j:

Our testing consisted of real world use of the Desk Station DS410j. We used the system to create an FTP, accounts, groups, and of course host files. In addition we took the follow steps towards seeing inf the system worked as advertised:

• Attempted to log into the device and FTP to bypass security
• File transfers
• Access of the device from off site locations
• Power Management and Long Term Uptime
• Start Up and Shut Down

Logging in and Security:

While we did attempt to log in to the DS410j several times from off site and get through security using default usernames and passwords, we also enlisted the assistance of several others to break into the device. nothing could exemplify the security of the device better than a real world attempt to hack in which is what occurred shortly after.

Click on the Thumbnail for a Larger Image

As a side note we do not endorse anyone having a go with the IP of the pathetic attackers.

File Transfers:

In our real world setup the DS410j is connected via a 10/100 switch and our file transfers to the device took place at approximately 10.5 to 11.1 MB/second. Accessing the device via a command prompt took a disappointing 8.5 seconds to bring up folders. Transferring files from the device to a local machine we were able to receive data between 11.5 and 12.5MB/second. Finally accessing the web interface of the DS410j in Internet Explorer 8 brings up the website in a little less than 1.5 seconds.

Access of the DS410j from off site locations:

File transfers as reported by several of my staff on standard broadband cable connections varied between 187KB/s to 220KB/s. The DS410j itself is also connected to a standard cable connection which is 8MB/s down and 1.5MB/s up.

Analysis and Conclusion:

All too often we see software as an after though to the hardware and in the case of the DS410j it is refreshing to see that attention was spent in both areas. Indeed we simply can’t say enough about the software included with the DS410j. Every feature we tested worked as advertised and without any issues. The quality of the unit itself is superb and the thought behind the engineering and design is apparant the moment we began to investigate the Desk Station further. Software updates come out on a regular basis supporting new features and bringing new life to those already present. Considering the value the DS410j represents to small businesses, home users, and home office’s in addition to the excellent quality of the software and hardware the DS410j easily qualifies for our top honor the Editors Choice Award.