Since the Synology is attached directly to my modem, it has its own connection to the Internet. But all NAS drives connect direct to the modem (usually). The Synology is cool because, since it has its own operating system, it doesn’t require a dedicated Mac in order for the files to be accessible from my home or from anywhere else in the world. While it’s not quite as powerful as a Headless Mac mini plus NAS setup would be, it is about $1,000 less expensive. And if you’re just wanting to dip your toe in the water with this stuff, from where I’m sitting, a Synology DiskStation is a great place to start.
Shawn’s review covers most of what I’ve wanted to say about my DS214 Play which is similar to what Shawn has but also has a hardware transcoder to compress & encode media files at the NAS (great for streaming content to my iPad from the road).
I do want to write more about the unit once I’ve had more time with it. My experience while similar to Shawn’s is quite a bit more intense because I had much more content. My iTunes library alone was 3.9 terabytes (almost filling up my LaCie Blade Runner) and I had another 800 megabytes of files from when I was younger, school work, memories, etc. Then there’s the 400 gigabytes of RAW images that live on my iMac. I ended up getting two 6 terabyte WD Red drives and w/ mirroring the NAS is almost completely full. I attached my 4 terabyte Blade Runner (USB3) to the back of the NAS and that is where my 3 computers back up via the wired/wireless network.
I plan on doing more with the Synology over the coming weeks.