Would anybody mind giving me opinions on this unit? Wouldn’t it be about as good as the 918? I’m not sure what it lacks in comparison to the 918.
Dekade
With VPNs, Home VPN solutions aren’t really used to hide traffic from ISPs. The Primary purpose is to allow you to connect remotely to your home network, and that traffic is protected in its tunnel. Basically, you create a secure tunnel between your computer and the VPN. Anything leaving the VPN is standard traffic and tracable. If your VPN tunnel ends on your network anything leaving your network is normal. Your ISP can still see what the traffic is since the tunnel ends before your Cable Modem/ONT.
To hide things from your ISP you would need to use a VPN service. The tunnel needs to extend from your device past your Cable Modem. That’s how VPN services work. You are creating a tunnel between your network that runs to their network, and your routable internet traffic then goes out from their network. If your VPN resides on your NAS or Router all traffic is still coming from the same network.
I don’t know if there are any VPN server/router set ups that create and maintain a tunnel from your network to an external VPN, but the built in OpenVPN configuration on my Synology doesn’t do this.
Hi Dekade
What brand is the 918 is it a solongy ?
What unit are you comparing the 918 too?
thank You
Aaseef
There is the DS916 and the DS916+. The plus is intel based and supports hardware transcoding. the basic DS916 is ARM based and does not support hardware transcoding. It’s not a suitable choice.
The DS218+ is a two bay unit with HW Transcoding and runs about $250. The DS 418Play is a 4 bay unit that supports HW Transcoding (but not 4K) and is about $430 new. The DS 918+ is 4 bay with HW transcoding and other goodies like SSD caching…
I have no idea if they are any good, but Terramaster has a 4bay with HW encoding for $320.
https://www.amazon.com/TerraMaster-F2-220-Storage-Network-Diskless/dp/B01G1YI0NC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540927429&sr=1-1&keywords=terramaster%2Bf2-220&th=1
Another option is get the two bay DS 218+ and in future you can expand it by 5 bays with a:
https://www.amazon.com/Synology-5bay-Expansion-DX517-Diskless/dp/B06Y4J9GR8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1540927655&sr=1-1&keywords=dx517
Hi Dekade
Not sure that will work for 720p and 1080p. Try to look for something that is at least i7 with at least 8GB ram. Processor and Ram is the most important thing. You can find something with 2 to 4 bays, depending how you want to use RAID
Hi Dekade
Take a look at this one, it support up 1080p
SynologyDS418play
I will say it one more time then I will go away.
From all the information you gave and your NAS expectations buy the 916+.
If it too much - WAIT
Synology do not have any consumer/home user NAS with an i7.
The 918+, 718+ and 218+ all have celerons
I recommend the 918+ as its a 4 bay with an intel CPU (IMO no NAS should be smaller than 4bay )
But if the OP really really cannot afford the 918+ ($540) then the 718+ has the same CPU but less RAM and is 2 bay for $400)…
At least wait til Black Friday - there might be a deal that suits your budget!!
Okay, so here’s where I’m inclined to go. No matter what I do I am going over my budget limit. That is putting me in the dog house to a degree. But I think I can control the expenditures and still come out smelling pretty good…
I went to Synology’s website and compared the DS418play and the DS918+. Then I looked at the Plex comparison chart. The 418play and the 918+ both handle 1080P. If I understand things correctly they also handle 4K (for any of my future big screen considerations). Right now in our house we are not media intensive at all. We watch one HD1080 Samsung and sometimes the wife uses an LG tablet to watch a Neflix movie if she can’t fall asleep and sometimes I’ll watch a football game on my PC while writing. That’s it. Therefore, I don’t think the transcoding is a major deal breaker for me (please correct if I’m thinking wrong). As long as Plex, in the future, can deal with some recorded OTA shows in 4K then I think the 418 play will be quite adequate.
My main intention for a NAS is so that I can share work files over our local network and have all of our family photographs available for us to go down memory lane. We have a couple of handfuls of family videos also. Then I also want the NAS to act as a DVR. I’m thinking about in the future of upgrading our OTA TV capabilities with HDHomeRun’s premium feature of 35 premium channels for $34.99 monthly. I would sometimes like to have news channels and the wife likes movie channels like Lifetime etc.
I guess the VPN thing is not necessary. Nonetheless, I have to try to find someone online that can help me finish what I have started with Shibby Tomato and OpenVPN on my Asus RT-N66U router. I have the VPN working on my PC but can’t figure out how to get OpenVPN to address my other 3 clients. I think if I could accomplish that then the NAS could also become a client. I don’t really know for sure. I hope though that I can find out how to close the chapter on this issue. It bugs me. Like I said, I have nothing to hide, but I simply don’t relish the thought of anyone, no matter who they are, invading my space. Just a personal hangup.
Both the 418play and the 918+ use the Celeron processor. That’s a plus from what I understand. The 418play is dual core and the 918+ is quad core. The NAS is not going to be sweating bricks all day in our household so Quad Core might be considered overkill. The 418play will give me 6GB Ram vs the 918+ at 8GB ram. A $70.00 investment for a 4GB upgrade to 6GB on the 418play seems to be a solid consideration.
A 4 bay over a 2 bay seems to be a wise choice for many reasons; which all of you already know… With a 4 bay I have at least expanded my threshold for future playing around. The Synology SHR RAID feature seems to be a big plus for me as I can learn about RAID and still keep investments down by using different size drives. I think I will be going 2 WD Red 4TB drives. Maybe a 4TB and a 2 or 3 TB just to save a few bucks. I see no need to go the Red Pro line. The Seagate Iron Wolfs look great but I have never had an ounce of problem with WD for over 15 years. HOWEVER, there is a potential deal breaker for the Seagate Iron Wolfs. If a drive goes down then supposedly Seagate will recover the data for me for free. A feature not held by WD.
So, unless someone really puts the clamps on me via this forum then I think I’m making some correct choices. I would like to hear if I am heading down a correct path with any of my conclusions. If I’m apparently safe, I think I’ll step into the world of NAS and Plex this afternoon.
I’d still like to receive input on my thinking. Thanks for a helping to make a great thread for a person that’s new to the scene.
Dekade
Despite my last lengthy post I started rethinking just a tad. Spikemixture enticed me to PAY MORE ATTENTION to the following. I went to the Synology website again and this time pulled up the DS418play, the DS718+ and the DS918+.
I now realized that the 718+ has the capability to add on extra drives via an expansion unit. PLus Quad Core, 3 yr. warranty, etc., etc. So, that said, I think I would be wise to get the 718+ . . . learn about NAS and Plex and RAID . . . and then add drives with an expansion unit; should the need arise in the future. The only drawback is the 6GB ram versus 8 GB. But, I don’t think that is much of an issue at this point. I have not come across anything that says the 718+ Ram can be taken up to 12 or 16GB in the 718+ like I’ve read that the ram can go higher from 8GB to 16GB in the 918+. So, I think I can have the best of both worlds here by crawling with the 718+ before I walk with additional drives. Any comments?
Dekade
I will conclude my suggestions by saying these last 3 things.
- Get the 918+ .
buy what you can afford after buying the 918+ 2x 2tb will be a good start - Don’t rely on the seagate thing as your back up plan!
- Worry about the VPN later
cheers…
1 Like
As I mentioned before, Hardware Transcoding is a must for HD. So, the 418Play is a reasonable choice. Don’t sweat about the RAM. It’s an easy upgrade you can do later if you really need it. See how things run first. I thought about bumping my 918+ from the default 4GB to 8GB, but I haven’t seen it go past 25% usage, even when recording 3 channels and streaming to the TV. The primary differences between the 918+ and 418Play seems to be the Extra RAM, two extra cores, and support for M.2 SSD Caching. Considering the RAM is easily upgradable to more than you need, and SSD caching is really more for office environments, I think the 418play is a good choice. By the way, with HW Transcoding turned on, I don’t see my processor busier than 30%. I’m sure there are random tasks that will push it, but not general usage.
For TV, we have Comcast using the HD Homerun Prime with a cable Card. Given how well it has worked for me, I would expect any HD Homerun tuner to work well for you.
For home videos, Plex has been great. I’ve been doing some 4K Drone stuff, and it does well for me. Photos as well.
When chosing drives you have some flexability. Just remember that when using RAID or the Synology SHR feature you are settling for the lowest common denominator for capacity. If you have 1 3TB drive in the pool, it will be as if all the drives in that pool are 3TB even if you have several higher capacity drives loaded. If you like the WD Reds, stick with them. The Iron Wolves are nice, they have extra error tracking, but not necessary. When you are using SHR for fault tolerance, you won’t have to worry about data recovery if a drive fails. Unless you have some sort of power surge(I’ve never seen it happen) that takes out more than one drive, you’ll be fine. I have never seen more than one drive go bad at a time.
Just remember, when you are setting things up, DO NOT treat the NAS as your disaster recovery storage. I keep my working folder and other key folders syncronised with my NAS using the built in Synology stuff. I also use Backblaze B2 for an offsite backup. I dump all my photo’s, home videos and Documents there. It’s a very cheap solution and works well. I currently have about 800GB of data backed up there and it costs me under $4 a month so far. This way, losing a drive or two, or even the whole NAS is only an irritation, since my important data is safe and accessable from BackBlaze.
Jbalcius, Thanks again. You answered one of my next questions before I could ask it . . . regarding the 3TB making anything larger act as if it too were 3TB.
I currently am using GoodSync. I too use an elaborate main PC folder tree for my work and GoodSync it to an external WD 1.5TB HDD. I think GoodSync will also work with the Synology NAS.
Believe it or not though, for the next few hours I am probably still going to teeter back and forth. As you can see per post 30 I was thinking about the DS718+. That now even seems a little ill considered because the cost of a DX517 5 bay expansion unit is well over $500 for anytime in the future. So . . . that brings me back to the DS918+ and hurting my pocketbook up front.
However, I have not mentioned the following before in this thread. I do have a small business that I still am the owner of. It operates as digitally as possible. I started thinking about FTP, emails, and other business stuff and am wondering if I should now ONLY LOOK AT the 918+ because of small business benefits, related 1st party and third party apps, and software, etc. etc. Some of which are not available on the 418play.
And finally, since now considering either a 718+ or 918+ or 418play I see no reason to consider used equipment on Ebay. I would worry too much.
I’m getting real close here despite major hurt from it being more cost than originally planned.
Dekade
HI Dekade
Sorry I am in the PST zone, I was sleeping lol, i would have responded sooner. For you VPN question, if you are worried about that. Why not get a router that support WRT router. With that router you can setup OpenVPN, so any devices connected to this router will use VPN. But spikemixture is right, dont worry about this now.
For you NAS drive, Good that you have narrowed down your choices, 718+ or 918+ or 418play. I would recommend getting something that will benefit you in the future too. Spend a little more and it will also benefit you in the future. If you are using it mainly for personal picture and videos I do not think you would need a lot, I would recommend staying away from celeron.
[quote=“aaseef021_gmail.com, post:35, topic:325215, full:true”]. . . I would recommend staying away from celeron.
[/quote]
Sorry to question you - but - the DS918+ is only offering the Celeron. Isn’t that the best that is available on the DS918+ ??? Is there a better option than Celeron that I don’t know about???
Second, my router is Asus RT-N66U and I have the competition of WRT on it which is Shibby Tomato. Please reference post 30 paragraph 4 for my dilemma. That paragraph will help you to see why I am having a problem with the VPN portion of NAS and routers.
Thanks for your help with this thread. I greatly appreciate your inputs.
Dekade
Sorry to question you - but - the DS918+ is only offering the Celeron. Isn’t that the best that is available on the DS918+ ??? Is there a better option than Celeron that I don’t know about???
Only reason I do not recommend celeron is for performance issue, you are correct the sysnology does not offer anything outside of celeron. Other than that the DS918+ looks good.
For your VPN what service provided are you using, is it NordVPN?
I do not use a VPN service. I was under the impression that the Tomato software created my own VPN and that I didn’t need a VPN service. maybe I’v been wrong all along.
Yah that might be it, for good VPN you have to have service with them. VPN service is very cheap, I use NordVPN. There are many popular ones like ExpressVPN, IP vanish and so on.
Curious why not consider a QNAP, you can find a decent one compared to sysnology.
[quote=“aaseef021_gmail.com, post:41, topic:325215, full:true”] . . . Curious why not consider a QNAP, you can find a decent one compared to sysnology.
[/quote]
I was wondering if that question would arise. After watching online videos for over two hours I was led to believe that QNAP has tendency to be unstable because of third party apps. Videos led me to believe that QNAP requires a lot of tweaking to get things up and running. Online said that Synology was more plug it in and it’s up and running. I did like the idea though that QNAP functioned more like windows does. I also didn’t know if QNAP is SOHO friendly in addition to multi media. Maybe I should look at it again. The QNAP is also Celeron.
Dekade
