Synology Disk Station 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS209 (White) | 
 enlarge
| Brand: Synology
Category: CE
List Price: $315.99
Buy New: $299.99
You Save: $16.00 (5%)
New (10) from $299.99
Rating:  24 reviews
Format: CD
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Apple MacOS X 10.3 or later
Size: 0 TB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 9.5 x 10.5
Warranty: 2 years warranty
MPN: DS209
Model: DS209
UPC: 846504000425
EAN: 0846504000425
ASIN: B00275G0LO
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Features:
| • | Disk Station Manager 2.1: AJAX-Based Management Interface, Remote File Management, Mail Station add-on, IP camera support | | • | Max HDD Support (Internal HDD): 2x 2TB | | • | Internal HDD(1): 2X 3.5¿ SATA(II) or 2X 2.5¿ SATA/SSD using Synology Disk Holder Type B and External HDD Interface: 3X USB 2.0 ports | | • | Networking Protocols: CIFS, AFP (3.1), FTP, NFS, Telnet/SSH | | • | Standard Memory 256MB DDR2 SDRAM |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
pSynology Disk Station DS209 is designed to provide users with a flexible solution to share files and increase productivity. Packed with the Synology Disk Station Manager 2.1, it delivers ease of use and variety of features. Furthermore, the optional Synology 2.5 Disk Holder provides an easy way for users to deploy 2.5 hard drives on the DS209, bringing the library quietness, power saving, and higher reliability for the DS209./p
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
Easy to set up, and already indispensable. July 26, 2010
Tai Chi (Brooklyn, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My family has grown ever more dependent on digital media. I often find myself copying mpegs, mp3s, and avi files from one computer to another and then to a third, which can get irritating and confusing. We have macs and windows 7 machines in our house which don't always play nicely with each other. We got an Apple Time Capsule a while back, but the performance of that product has been disappointing, particularly when it has to interact with the PCs. The DS209, on the other hand, is gorgeous. I didn't really know what RAID was before I got this machine, and to be honest I still don't, but I know this thing works. It's got 4TB (more or less) of storage, and every machine in my house sees it without any special configuration. I don't copy files from machine to machine any more. Everything I download goes directly onto the NAS.
The setup took a while (it took an entire day for the machine to check my disks, but maybe I did something unnecesssary), but it wasn't in any way frustrating. The web-based interface is great. This is really much more than just extra storage. The torrent client works without a problem - the NAS sits in the cabinet, happily downloading gigabyte after gigabyte, without complaint. It uses no resources from my desktop, and requires no attention from me. The iTunes integration is pretty much seamless. Music and video play on every computer as if they were on the local disk.
In short, I wish I had bought this a long time ago.
DS 209 gets a 100 July 16, 2010
Perry H. (Brookline, MA)
My situation:
1 DS 209
2 Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal HD ST32000542AS
4 Computers at home that require periodic backup including:
1 Windows XP box
1 Windows Vista box
1 Windows XP laptop
1 MacBook Pro
1 Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (Black) Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (Black)
The NAS and router are plugged into a battery back-up power supply that gives me about 40 minutes of juice if the power goes out.
I cobbled it all together and it works very well. Unit+installed drives is quiet, which is important to me. I configured the box as RAID 1, which gives me 2TB of storage with a redundant backup. Formatting the bare drives was easy to setup and ran in about 6.5 hours. I used the downloadable "Synology Data Replicator" to backup the three windows machines. I used the Apple "Time Machine" to backup the MacBook Pro. Total space used for initial backup of everything was just over 600GB, leaving about 1.2T free. Amazingly, everything worked the first time.
I then deleted some files on each of the machines and performed a restore. It worked. I then tested "restoring" a backup from one machine's image to another. It worked.
I tested using the DNLA service to stream video and pictures to my Samsung LN52B750 LCD TV. It worked.
There are many more features to explore here. I'll next turn my attention to the email and web servers. Will stream my iTunes stuff as well.
Overall, I am very impressed.
As easy as this seemed, I recognize that it might not be a straight forward project for a new user. Still, if the possibility of adding some NAS to your at home networking project has you excited, then don't hesitate to go with Synology. The Synology web site is quite good too. The forums are full of thousands of posts from engaged and knowledgeable users. A great value. Anyone who has ever had to safeguard data will appreciate their early experience with this product.
Of course, the proof in the pudding will be if/when one of the HD fails and I have to rebuild the RAID. Accounts of such are included in the forums and the reports are good. I could test this by buying a third drive, but the confidence gained thus far is reassuring enough that I will leave this test for another day down the road.
Objective accomplished with ease July 8, 2010
Guy Noir
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Objective: synchronized back-up of two personal computers running Windows XP via a wireless N network (router is Linksys E3000 by Cisco).
Solution: based on the above average reviews of previous posts, I purchased the Synology Disk Station 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage Model DS209 with two (2) Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 inch disks 32 MB Cache, 7200 RPM.
Experience: The set-up was straight forward following the documentation. I opened the storage unit and mounted the two 1 TB disk drives, no problem. When I booted up, I was impressed by how quietly the box runs(a quiet purr). Installed the firmware, and configured the two drives as a Raid-1 volume. I decided to self configure the NAS server rather than using the wizard because I wanted to understand all the options and settings (I have moderate technical apptitude, but do not consider myself to be network geek). Next I set-up user names and passwords matching the personal computer user accounts, and created two file shares, one for each computer I wanted to back up, and assigned personal computer user read/write permissons to each share. Next, I installed the Synology Data Replicator 3 software on each computer, then mapped a logical drive on each computer pointing to the NAS server. Finally, I configured a synchronized back-up, with option settings to preserve 1 past version and 2 restore points.
Bottom-line: I am very happy with purchase, and have accomplished the objective with ease. Synchronized back-ups are configured and running on both personal computers. I am very impressed by this solution compared with my previous experience using two (2) LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini (500 GB each) which worked for about 3 months before they expired.
Features I like: power management to turn off/on at specified times; USB connection to uninterrupted power supply (UPS) with configuration setting so server will shut down when battery is low; quiet; lots of other services that I can explore later when I have time: iTunes music library sharing and audio streaming are next on my list of things to configure and test. There are many other web services that come with this box that I will not use, but in my opinion, the unit price to overall unit value is well worth it.
Don't look further.. July 7, 2010
Alfonso Rios
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Before I rate this NAS I have to say that in this precise moment I'm not at home and have my iPhone streaming my music directly trough the cellular 3G Data Network. This is simply an awesome feature that u may achieve with other NAS's but what really stands out in this one is the specific AppStore free Application.
The setup can be really hard for a non-tech savvy, but after u get the hang of it it's really powerful and easy. The main programs let u do magic with it, the ones I would rate as the main programs are the File Station, the Audio Station and the Photo Station. If you want to buy an IP Camera youll find also very useful the Surveillance Station.
I wont really get into much detail as many other reviews do that, I'll just list the things that u can do:
- Configure a DDNS service with really ease trough a wizard. Don't worry you don't have to know what a DDNS is, suffice to say is that thing that allow you to access the router from anywhere outside your home (office, friends house, coffe station, or even your cell phone).
- File Station. So you internally manage all your folders and files and if you connect an external usb to the NAS you can copy in and out files.
- Audio Station. Connect a set of usb speakers to the NAS or listen to it in your PC. Also useful if you are with your Laptop at a Cafe.
- Surveillance Station. Already said that u neep an IP camera, but u can watch ur home while away. (maybe on a trip?).
- Mail Station. So if you buy a domain (like MyLastName.com) you can have as many email addresses as you want. (YourSonName@YourLastName.com), very useful for corporate usage.
- DNA well this is complicated, but lets say u can stream movies and songs directly from your Synology into your PS3!!
- Photo Station. Dont worry for a premier account in Flickr or Picassa, you can have all you pictures here (DDNS must be configured, see first step).
- Manage everything trough users and groups. You can decide you have private content so you can create groups and users to manage it.
- iTunes server. You can make your synology an iTunes server so you can access it from any computer with iTunes in your home.
I can keep on listing the things I love about it and I know like a salesman but I am so just happy with it that I wanted to share this.
Cons: Yes you require some patience to learn how to use it and yes some configurations like the DDNS can require a bit ore technical knowledge, but once u get over that phase.. it rocks...
Note: You don't actually need an iPhone to use the streaming to a cell phone, a phone with a browser and access to internet may do the trick, though I'n not sure which cell phone models do it, but must of them do.
 Good performance but some features not implemented well July 6, 2010
Yun Lin
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The performance of this NAS is great for the price as some review web site such as smallnetbuilder has tested. The web interface is very nice, fast and easy to use.
Two things I didn't like:
1) USB local backup almost does not work at all. I use the NAS as a file server running with 2 drives in redundant RAID configuration. I also want to backup it to another drive, in case the NAS goes down and takes both drives with it. Synology says that you can do a local USB backup by plugging in a USB external drive. The kicker is that a very large number of external USB drives/enclosures do not work. The symptom is that some time after user initiates a backup, the external USB drive would report an error and the NAS would eject it, and there is no way to continue and finish the back up. I tried my USB enclosure 4-5 times and it failed every time so basically this feature is not usable for me. Synology identifies this as an incompatibility issue with some USB controllers, and is treating this lack of compatibility as a "feature request". LOL, USB is such a prevalent technology that compatibility with commonly found USB controllers would be something that one can presume to have, and not have to specifically request. There is an 8 page discussion thread on Synology's own user forum discussing this:
[...]
2) The media station, which allows you to serve out media through a DLNA server, is hard-coded to 3 file locations (video, music and photo), if you already have your media files in different places, you can not specify them. The much cheaper (and slower) DLink NAS allowed me to specify where my media share directories are. This makes the DLNA media sharing feature of the Synology NAS completely useless to me. It's surprising that such a high performance and feature-rich NAS would skimp on this basic functionality.
Overall I'm still satisfied with the performance. But these two lackluster feature implementations leaves it short of a 5 star rating for me.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
|
|
|
