Which NAS for offsite backup?

[Helsen]

Hello

I am looking for an offsite backup solution in case my mac gets stolen or my house burns down. I am thinking of placing a nas at my parents house. I am new to nas though. Synology seems to be a good choice from what i have read so far. Not sure which model to take. Can someone help me with this? Is it hard to install?

 

[maflynn]

I believe both Synology and Qnap have USB ports for you to hook up an external disk to back the NAS up, you can then take that external drive off site.

Qnap (I own one) offers cloud backup services, so if you have an account with Amazon, or one of the other providers Qnap is compatible with, you can backup your NAS to the cloud.

I'm sure Synology offers something similar though I can't be sure since I don't have one.

 

[Helsen]

That is not what i had in mind. I m looking for some kind of server on which i can store stuff via internet connection.

 

[glenthompson]

That is not what i had in mind. I m looking for some kind of server on which i can store stuff via internet connection.

Unless you have very fast upload speeds and no data cap on your or your parent's internet connection you will run into problems.

The Synology can be set up for external access but you won't be able to use time machine. You will have to roll your own backup solution.

 

[ctyrider]

Hello

I am looking for an offsite backup solution in case my mac gets stolen or my house burns down. I am thinking of placing a nas at my parents house. I am new to nas though. Synology seems to be a good choice from what i have read so far. Not sure which model to take. Can someone help me with this? Is it hard to install?

You don't need an offsite server. Use Crashplan instead.

 

[Helsen]

Unless you have very fast upload speeds and no data cap on your or your parent's internet connection you will run into problems.

The Synology can be set up for external access but you won't be able to use time machine. You will have to roll your own backup solution.

I don't need Time Machine to backup over the internet. I already use TM with my das. I only need the offsite server to put on a daily or weekly backup. What do you mean by 'run into trouble'?

Crashplan is nice, but i'll have to keep paying subscription fees month after month. I don't feel good about that. Rather pay once and have my own server.

 

[ctyrider]

Crashplan is nice, but i'll have to keep paying subscription fees month after month. I don't feel good about that. Rather pay once and have my own server.

That's just silly. Crashplan charges $189 for 4 years of unlimited backup. You are going to spend way more money and time doing it yourself, and it won't be as reliable.

 

[matrix07]

Plus Crashplan offer offsite backup for FREE. Exactly what you are looking for.

 

[talmy]

Yes you can use the Crashplan software with your own server, but I don't know if they have software for NASes. You could use a Mac mini or an old PC for the server -- just remember that it needs to run 24/7.

 

[matrix07]

Yes you can use the Crashplan software with your own server, but I don't know if they have software for NASes. You could use a Mac mini or an old PC for the server -- just remember that it needs to run 24/7.

Yup. Buy an (or use your own) old computer and attach external drives to it. Might even be cheaper than buying NAS.

 

[ctyrider]

Plus Crashplan offer offsite backup for FREE. Exactly what you are looking for.

It's not "free". You have to buy a server, you have to buy hard drives, you have to pay for electricity to keep it up and running 24x7. Crashplan charges less than $4 for month. I just don't get it why anyone would go DYI route.

 

[matrix07]

It's not "free". You have to buy a server, you have to buy hard drives, you have to pay for electricity to keep it up and running 24x7. Crashplan charges less than $4 for month. I just don't get it why anyone would go DYI route.

Same as the OP still has to buy a NAS and pay for electricity and keep it running for 24/7. It's free 'cause there's no subscription fee. Looks to me like it fit the OP plan nicely (uneasy to pay monthly).
Of course you can argue $4 a month for "a" computer is cheaper but that is not what I'm saying.

 

[talmy]

It's not "free". You have to buy a server, you have to buy hard drives, you have to pay for electricity to keep it up and running 24x7. Crashplan charges less than $4 for month. I just don't get it why anyone would go DYI route.

I use both Crashplan and DIY. Doing a full recovery from Crashplan is either excessively slow or requires purchasing a recovery drive. It's always good to have two or more independent backup plans in case one fails.

 

[matrix07]

OT but I have to say this $189 for 4 years is perfect for backing up my TBs of HD movies. Thanks ctyrider for mentioning it. I'm just not sure how the price will be increased when those 4 years are up though.
But in the end, this is way more cheaper than trying backing it up myself.

Cheers,

 

[talmy]

OT but I have to say this $189 for 4 years is perfect for backing up my TBs of HD movies. Thanks ctyrider for mentioning it. I'm just not sure how the price will be increased when those 4 years are up though.
But in the end, this is way more cheaper than trying backing it up myself.

Cheers,

They did have a major price increase last year. I bought the "family plan" for 2-10 computers for a year two years ago and was shocked by the increase which was actually greater for the long term contracts than on a year to year basis! But I still consider it cheap so renewed for 4 years at $429. I back up 5 of my home Macs through the service, so it's about $21/year per system.

I think they probably underestimated how much data would be backed up with an "unlimited" service. They also keep old versions of files, so its a lot like Time Machine as well, and this just adds to the amount of storage needed.

 

[maflynn]

That is not what i had in mind. I m looking for some kind of server on which i can store stuff via internet connection.

See the second part of my post where I mentioned that the qnap offers cloud backup options. I don't know if the synology has this, as I own the qnap and not the synology

 

[Menel]

I use a WD MYCloud on dads 100/100 fiber link.

Works good.

I did first backup on site, incrementals remote.

 

[smellalot]

I use a WD MYCloud on dads 100/100 fiber link.

Works good.

I did first backup on site, incrementals remote.

Which software do you use?

 

[matrix07]

They did have a major price increase last year. I bought the "family plan" for 2-10 computers for a year two years ago and was shocked by the increase which was actually greater for the long term contracts than on a year to year basis! But I still consider it cheap so renewed for 4 years at $429. I back up 5 of my home Macs through the service, so it's about $21/year per system.

How is the average speed for your upload and download?

Thank you.

 

[Menel]

Which software do you use?

Cobian
Probably doesn't help you on Mac. There are surely alternatives.

 

[talmy]

How is the average speed for your upload and download?

Thank you.

You are in luck because I just looked at this for another thread. With a large backup (about 600GB), it's running at 4.3Mbps. I've got 25Mbps FIOS up speed (which I've verified). This was on my server and all the throttling settings were at minimum. While I've recently restored a 800 MB file, I didn't time it. Restoration feels about as fast as TimeMachine. I've got about 2TB on CrashPlan

 

[BrianBaughn]

You could get two Synology units and have them backup to each other. Use the first one as your local/home backup and put the other offsite. This way, you could have everything configured and ready on both devices before moving the 2nd device offsite...negating the huge amount of bandwidth you'd be using, initially, with an empty offsite device.

 

[matrix07]

You are in luck because I just looked at this for another thread. With a large backup (about 600GB), it's running at 4.3Mbps. I've got 25Mbps FIOS up speed (which I've verified). This was on my server and all the throttling settings were at minimum. While I've recently restored a 800 MB file, I didn't time it. Restoration feels about as fast as TimeMachine. I've got about 2TB on CrashPlan

Thanks. Sounds good.