Synology DiskStation 8TB DS218play 2-Bay NAS Enclosure Kit with WD NAS Drives (2 x 4TB)
file sharing is great; syncing not so much
Santa sent the DS218+ Diskstation 2-Bay NAS for file sharing between my desktop and wireless laptop and tablet. Easier to set up than I thought. Lots of techy stuff I don't understand, but good for even a somewhat novice. I put my genealogy files, recipes, and photos on a 4T WD Pro HDD. Transferred (copy/paste) 21,000+ photo files without any problem. It didn't take much time at all. Others have said it took overnight, but less than 1/2 hour for ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Easy to setup, quiet, runs in background, great features
Have been backing up to a large external HD for waay to long, and was toying with the idea of a NAS for many years. Happy to find this and WD Red HD's here at B&H with free shipping and aggressive pricing. For a home user with lots of invaluable photos and home videos over the years, it's great to be able to put them all up on this NAS and have an iOS/Android that you can access from anywhere. One small complaint is a 'photo upload' tool in Windo... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Easy installation and setup
I used two 3TB WD Red drives and set up the system as Raid 1. Everything functioned out of the box, both the DS218+ and the WD drives worked fine. The only problem I had, and still have, is that Win7 will not let me backup my system to this drive. I can still backup to the old NAS drive I use for Sonos but not this one. I have still to explore some of the software and it lost a star because I'm not sure it's running at a transfer speed that is sp... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Love it! First NAS, Super Handy
I bought this NAS (the + model) specifically to run my Channels DVR server as well as for redundancy on freelance video project files. Previously, I had the server running on my main desktop, requiring it be awake 24/7, and it wasn't the best at streaming video to my other devices. This thing works like a champ. Now I don't need to worry about leaving my desktop on, and the streaming capability is much improved. (A specific use case, I know!) It... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great network device
As a software developer, I was in the market for an NAS to provide a backup for my computer systems. I wanted an NAS that was extensible but also at a reasonable price point. I chose Synology DS218 . With my home network, I sport many home automation devices, media tools, computers etc. In other words, its pretty active network where I am cautious about what kinds of equipment I hang off of it. My first thought was that this NAS would simply si... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Better than I imagined!
I was shopping for a replacement for my old G-Raid 4TB external Thunderbolt drive. I'm accustomed to simple plug-n-play external drives, so setting up this NAS was quite a bit more complicated than I was initially expecting. Fortunately, there's plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating pretty much anything you need to (or want to) configure. I'm very happy with this enclosure. It's very quiet, looks great, and will give me plenty of room to grow as... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Perfect for home media storage + Plex!
This is my first NAS, and Synology makes it extremely easy to get up and running in no time. Im using the DS218+ with two 10TB WD White drives that I shucked from some Easystores. It was as simple as putting the drives in and walking through the setup. Im using QuickConnect and havent had an issue yet. Im also running Plex, which was something I was concerned about. Im not doing multi-video streams to different devices or transcoding large 4K fil... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Easy setup, apps
I'm not that tech savvy and purchased this unit as a plug-n-play approach on a NAS drive. I installed two 3TB Western Digital Blue drives easily, raid 1 (second drive is a redundant drive allowing 1 drive failure without losing data). The setup was quick. There's a little learning curve as I didn't realize that interface was through browser but the apps offered are relatively intuitive. I had DLNA setup fairly quick - viewed photos and listened t... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
This is my first NAS, so far so good!
I watched a dozen YouTube videos about network attached storage before buying this DS218+. The main reason I got the DS218+ over the DS216j was because of its Snapshot capability. It offers piece of mind knowing that my files are backed up nearly instantly using Cloud Station Backup on my PC and Running Cloud Station Server on the DS218+. I also like the ability to set up automatic external USB drive backups of the NAS. It can be set to simply pl... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great functionality.
Been playing with this box for a few days. So far - very happy on how it performs. The app list is great. So far used it as a media center + storage for personal photos and documents. I haven't upgraded the RAM and so far I do not see the need. The only resource shortage I got was on the CPU side when I copied a bunch if media files and it started indexing or matching the video files metadata, but these are rare cases. I installed 2x 4TB WD reds ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Excellent Home NAS
I've had a DS211j for almost 7 years and just upgraded to the DS218Play. WOW! I just had 5 computers syncing with the DS218Play while the DS218Play was uploading encrypted files to a cloud server, while also copying files from the DS218Play to a USB drive. CPU usage was 37% and memory was 42%. Moving between the different pages of DSM 6.1 was almost instantaneous while all this was happening. I'm so glad I upgraded. The DS211j still handled MO... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great Diskstation!
Way faster then my old DS115J. It was easy to save my configuration from my old DS115 and load it into the DS218+. Just make sure your old Diskstation firmware is up to date before saving the configuration. Hassle free from going through and resetting all the configurations. It was seamless. I just had to reload all my data because I couldntmigrate the drive between the two. Some Diskstations you can simply migrate drives between the two. I saved... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Not ready yet
Pros: It is reasonably priced and has a lot of potential once setup and operating. Many online resources for guiding setup. Good for a small home business if your familiar with serves. Cons: If not familiar with servers it could be challenging. It is not ready yet for simple home use. Online help could take days to respond and the answers seem scripted. Ive waited 4 days for a response. The dashboard interface can only be operated from a browser. As browsers can time out lengthy operations are out. It suffers for the lack of a real desktop dashboard interface.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Doesn't Work with Plex - Despite Advertising to the Contrary
I bought this because BOTH the Plex site and the Synology website said that it worked with Plex. It does not. That said, it's a pretty solid product. The native apps work well. The file name editing is very well though out. And Synology's tech Support actually responds to inquiries, unlike Plex. Very disappointed that I need to run two media servers now, Plex for everything (because I've used it for years) and Synology for video. This stuff should just work. Super frustrating experience.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Nice features and very easy to set up
My old NAS started to break down (Buffalo Mini Linkstation which are diskless - one broke and other running in degraded mode). Copied the data from old to this one which has tons of old photos, videos. The setups are easy but have to figure out ways to use the Media Server and other utilities. Even though I copied some data to relative folders, would have to find time to dig deep. But overall it is quite and would like to see how long these last.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Synology DS218+
I used to run a Webetec RAID system and gang drives together. As tech grew, the unit was a bit outdated, so I would purchase large drives and they would just fill up. the expandability of this unit caught my eye along with the drives that spin at 7200RPM. Its lighting fast and the App on my phone connects and populates my work much faster than my previous NAS system. I would highly recommend this unit.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Versatile, Convenient
The DS 218 is easy to set up. Just plug in the drives and turn it on. The unit practically installs itself. If in doubt, there are many YouTube videos for reference. The Symbology software library is comprehensive. I have set up my unit as real-time backup. Within seconds, any new file is backed up. I can also access my files anywhere in the world as long as there is Internet. Highly recommend it.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Better performance than expected
This is more than a NAS. Once you login it has the ability to download a lot of free apps that are useful. Even though this is the low end model compared to the more expensive Synology models, storage access on my network is blazingly fast which I didn't expect. I also use the Synology to stream my music collection to Sonos without any additional computer required. Very nice.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great Home NAS
I love this thing. the DS218Play 2-Bay was an upgrade from my DS212. The speed is immediately noticeable going from 1-core to 4-cores and to 1GB ram from 256MB. The set up only took about 10 minutes and was absolutely painless. If you are looking for a great home NAS for your photo, movie and music collection, this thing fits the bill. Treat yourself.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
The 4k transcoding performance is really bad...
I got this item few days ago and spend sometimes to setup it. It was really easy to setup. I purchase this item to be the home media server for my photos and videos. When I try to play Hi-Res video, it was so laggy on my mobile device like iPad or iPhone, even play on my smart TV. The performance is not as what it advertise.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
uncertain
I don't know whether the issue is with the Synology unit or with mac's TimeMachine, but rather than a continuing backup process, each backup is being determined by the system--or lack thereof--between the two to be a completely new backup. Not at all the experience across the years with the WD units.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
This drives does everything I need.
I needed a backup drive and a Plex server. This does both extremely well for me. It is a little more technically involved when getting this setup but Synology support has been really great and once I got it setup it is running great. I upgraded the RAM myself which was super easy. Love this drive.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Easy to set up and fast
I was able to get this up and running in no time. Its fast and quiet. I upgraded from the DS209+ which I had for 8 years and is still going strong but decided it was time to refresh hardware. Don't forget to but NAS hard drives for this that are listed as compatible I went with WD Reds.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Small but powerful
I bought this for my son, after having a DS416 and DS918 for myself. He needed a compact NAS that can work constantly in background. The Diskstation software is most powerful and easy to configure. Added 2TB red's and it booted up and I configured it quickly. Nice gift for my son. BILL
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
