Which NAS for my needs?

[PolloLoco32]

I have never used a NAS before, however, currently my imac has a dying hard drive and I don't want to stress out about my data again.

Here is what I would like in a NAS:
--Support for PC and Mac as my enviroment is mixed.

--Depending on if I can afford a 2 bay or 4 bay, I'd like either Mirrored or RAID 5 setup.

--I'm hoping that It can be set up for designated folders on the local machine to download automatically to the NAS (Preventing me from having to think about saving to both the local machine and NAS).

--I do make some money on the side from Photography and I would like to be able to log in to the NAS over the internet say from my iPad to show off some of my work.

--I'd like to be able to link specific documents or folders to someone without giving them access to the whole NAS content over the internet.

--Beyond that, what would be nice is to be able to stream content (Movies and music) to either my Apple TV or console (Currently have xbox 360, PS3, I will probably get an xbox one and sell the xb360 and ps3 though.)

Let me know if any of these requests are unreasonable or if they can't all be found in 1 NAS. Of course price is always a consideration, but I'd rather have something that is reliable and easy to use, than saving a few bucks for something with a terrible user interface or some other shenanigans.

 

[phrehdd]

I have never used a NAS before, however, currently my imac has a dying hard drive and I don't want to stress out about my data again.

Here is what I would like in a NAS:
--Support for PC and Mac as my enviroment is mixed.

--Depending on if I can afford a 2 bay or 4 bay, I'd like either Mirrored or RAID 5 setup.

--I'm hoping that It can be set up for designated folders on the local machine to download automatically to the NAS (Preventing me from having to think about saving to both the local machine and NAS).

--I do make some money on the side from Photography and I would like to be able to log in to the NAS over the internet say from my iPad to show off some of my work.

--I'd like to be able to link specific documents or folders to someone without giving them access to the whole NAS content over the internet.

--Beyond that, what would be nice is to be able to stream content (Movies and music) to either my Apple TV or console (Currently have xbox 360, PS3, I will probably get an xbox one and sell the xb360 and ps3 though.)

Let me know if any of these requests are unreasonable or if they can't all be found in 1 NAS. Of course price is always a consideration, but I'd rather have something that is reliable and easy to use, than saving a few bucks for something with a terrible user interface or some other shenanigans.

You may want to look at smallnetbuilder site and see the NAS reviews. I think you will find that perhaps Synology and QNAP may have some NAS offerings that you will find fit your list of needs.

Things you may want to investigate -
Web facing via the NAS
FTP services
iSCSI
Shares created with permissions
VLAN

None of the above are that big a deal but might be very usable by you. Some are not built into the NAS but rather are part of the NAS software offered with the NAS units. (In short, it is not part of the OS on the NAS but applications that come with the NAS units).

Last - depending on your home internet connections, some have fast downloads and very slow uploads. If you were to pull a file from your NAS, it may take time given the way service providers set up the upload/download ratios.

 

[PolloLoco32]

Thank you very much I will be checking out that site.

 

[ChesterBear]

We use the Netgear ReadyNAS and Fujitsu Celvin NAS's for pretty much everything you want.

I've not seen the ability to synchronise folders to the NAS but you could add that easily enough with software like RoboCopy or similar, though that would be scheduled rather than instant.

Adding user permissions for specific folders is certainly an option, along with web access, though you will have to point port 80 (or a designated alt port) at the NAS through your router.

Streaming to 360 and PS3 work very well from the Netgears, never tried with the Celvins.

 

[blueroom]

Any recent Synology NAS can do pretty much anything the OP requested. The Cloudsync app will sync up folder(s) and is similar to DropBox. As a bonus Synology has some nice features for sharing your photos.
Remember RAID is not a backup.

 

[smellalot]

Also have a look at WD's relatively new offering, the Western Digital MyCloud NAS. I'm under the impression that those are the cheapest offering at the moment for the features and amount of storage.

They are 1bay, but maybe you'll like to get a second one for automatic offsite-backup.

 

[maflynn]

I'd recommend any model from Synology or Qnap. I have a Qnap and it works well, has about the same features as Synology. I think Synology is more popular here at MR and its a solid performing NAS.

Comparing forums and support, I'd give the edge towards Qnap, I've had positive experiences with them and the forum seems to have positive results as well. I see less positive results on the Synology forum - just my unscientific observation