Synology DS411J Diskless System DiskStation 4-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use

Pros: Flexible, lots of options, easy to use, with nice interface. Almost everything you could want is as simple as a few clicks, at least for the basic features of a network storage device.

Cons: Instructions almost entirely neglected to specify how to find and install the software onto the NAS itself. It's incredibly simple: find the appropriate .pat file on your CD, if you have it, or go to the Synology download site and download the DSM software if not. Unfortunately, the two manuals each referred to each other when it came to this step, making a nearly trivial step much harder than it needed to be.

Other Thoughts: The CD suggests that you can only load the DSM software under Windows and Mac, but you can in fact load the DSM software under Linux as the specifications indicate here. Just go to the Linux subdirectory and read the install file or run the install script. (You don't need to run the script. Installation of the Synology Assistant is trivial--"unzip this, run that".)

Pros: This is one great NAS! Extremely well built (metal housing, easy access to mount hard drives) and very very quiet! Dropped two hard drives in to start, fired it up and it worked fantastic! The web interface is really what makes this a fantastic unit!! NewEgg made it a snap to do will call!!

Cons: None!!

Pros: Good solid system and interface.

Cons: No support for SATA III drives, will only operate at SATAI/II. No USB3.0 support. Lot of money for technology outdated by three years!!!
SATA III and USB 3.0 is three year old technology!!! Commonplaces for last two!!

Pros: Hardware RAID
1 GBps network interface
Unparalleled ease-of-use software (DSM)
Responsive technical support
Simple setup for most applications
Support for Windows ACLs

Cons: Indexing through Win7 does not work (cannot add shares to Win7 libraries), but you can index on the device. This is by design according to the forums.
User home directories are browsable by any users (e.g. not locked down).
DD-WRT support is minimal for router auto-configuration. Not a huge issue if you're technically knowledgeable and know how to forward ports on your router.

Other Thoughts: There are some minor faults with the software, but they do not overshadow the greatness of this NAS. I shopped a lot of NAS devices, but Synology delivers the best for retail/home users.

There is a functional demo of their DSM software on their main site. I would encourage anyone looking to buy this NAS to check out the demo before making a decision. It is feature-rich.

Pros: Easy to manage, low power usage, very quiet. It provides the ability to login to a command line and make customizations.

Has many software packages to add functionality.

Cons: DSM (OS) updates wipe out some customizations, but working within the management interface everything works great.

Slightly underpowered for my use - I occasionally don't have the power to transcode files on the fly.

Other Thoughts: Generally works very well, the cons are very minor in my mind.

Pros: Software is so easy to use, set up was too easy. I was ramped up for some issue or something - it was so easy. connects to my network, works flawlessly with both my PC and Apple. I now have a Raid 5 6TB storage for files - and it was 800 bucks with the drives.

Cons: Sometimes it can appear down when disks are spinning up, and I use AppleTV and stream, unfortunately because of how airplay works, I will still need a PC or Mac running to use them. I also use a Logitech Squeezebox – and forget using just the NAS for that. The software is terrible.

Pros: Great product. I use with windows, ps3 and have used against mobile phones (Apple and Android). No issues using stored files, movies, pictures and audio on multiple devices at the same time.

Cons: Locks up occasionally, not worth taking an egg because it is just that rare.

Other Thoughts: I have 2x 2TB seagate drives in right now. One of them failed within the first week. I RMA'd to Seagate and put back in without any performance or data loss.

Pros: Low power and EXTREMELY easy to setup. The web interface is a true a web-based OS, and is very intuitive and simple to navigate. Setting up shares, iSCSI volumes, and the many other features is a snap. User and group management is simple, as is permissions handling.

Plugging in external media (USB HDDs for example) is very easy to setup and takes no effort at all. Bulit-in functions such as FTP server, secure file sharing (via HTTPS), iTunes server, etc. make this a truly versatile NAS and worth every penny.

Speeds are quite good all things considered, even in a RAID5 configuration. Multiple users (2-4 in my case) can be continuously performing R/W operations and I have yet to really see any significant slow down in network performance. You can even set the MTU to custom values, enabling the use of 'jumbo frames'--just make sure your network hardware down the line can handle this.

Cons: Currently, there is no "easy" way to setup a secure FTP (SFTP) server. Even after setting up an SFTP server, the only user account that can access it will have root privileges to ALL shares, which is clearly not desirable in most cases.

Hard drive noise can be a bit bothersome, but it depends on the drives you use. I have 4 2TB WD Caviar Black drives in RAID5 and they can be a tad noisy. I do not noise fan noise or anything else however, so can't really blame Synology for that one.

The built-in torrent and P2P services are good for your average user--but if you are a "heavy user" of torrenting, you will most likely want to continue running torrents off a dedicated PC. The interface and features are a bit lacking; however, I run uTorrent off a HTPC that simply points to the network shares of the NAS and it works great.

Other Thoughts: Overall this is an excellent buy. I would highly recommend this to anyone

Pros: For basic functions, it is quick and easy to set up. More complicated functions take a bit longer, but work as they are supposed to. The great thing about Synology's software is that you can even set up advanced functions with minimal effort. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Cons: Haven't found a con yet.

Other Thoughts: For remote access, I'm running an FTP server and have it configured to work with my smart phones. It is connected to my UPS and will unmount the volume if the UPS gets low on battery. I've got security set up for myself and reduced access for guests. If my external IP address changes, it will email me the new IP. There are just so many options with this thing. The software is really the greatest thing about this. Hardware is so far functioning with no issues.

Pros: low price, easy setup, worked fine. Put in four Hitachi 3TB 5400rpm drives and they formatted and worked perfectly. The box is fine for media streaming but probably not fast enough as a file server.

Cons: The only issue I ran into is that Synology recommends 256M of memory for run the Squeezebox server and this unit only has 128M of ram. Also, the lowly Dlink DNS-320 beat it in my speed tests. Hmmm...

Therefore, I returned it in favor of the DS411 which has 512M Ram and a faster processor. Unfortunately, Newegg Canada did not carry this model at the time (but it was selling on their US site).

Other Thoughts: An email to Synology prior to my purchase got a swift response and a call during setup got a real person that know something. Turns out it was my issue (my browser was going through a ssl tunnel so I could not access the setup web page) but at least I could get help when I needed it. I gladly bought another Synology product.