Synology

For virtually anything to happen as expected in our daily life, computer storage is needed. If you think that's a grand statement, you, like most of us, have been taking storage for granted.

Despite the massive recent flood in Thailand that affected many storage vendors, hard drives, the most common form of computer storage, are still generally affordable (and abundant in terms of capacities). However, not all other forms of storage applications share the similar pricing as hard drives. And they can get progressively pricier the faster and the cooler they get.

Here's a list of storage devices … Read more

With Apple's iCloud coming next week, hot on the heels of Amazon and Google's cloud services for music, it seems like the years-old dream of cloud media streaming is coming to greater fruition than ever before. That's promising news to me, a person who cut the cord on his cable TV over a year and a half ago. I live off the Internet and my various devices--my laptop, game consoles, iPhone, and iPad--to get my media, be it TV shows, movies, music or books.

So far, it looks like 2011 will be more the year of Cloud Music than that of Cloud Video. And that's a shame, because I'm getting fed up with my half-baked digital-video life.

I've spent the last week with a product called Pogoplug Video, which attempts to do what no one's currently offering yet: the ability to stream multiformat video files easily across multiple platforms, be they gaming console, computer, or phone/tablet, even across the Internet or 3G.

I held high hopes for the Pogoplug Video. The $199 device is much like the Pogoplug Pro we reviewed last year, equipped with a more powerful processor. And, it does what it promises, to a point: video files stored on hard drives or USB sticks plugged into the Pogoplug do indeed technically play back on iPhones, iPads, laptops, or even via DLNA on an Xbox 360 or PS3.… Read more

It's been a while since I last had opportunity to take on a Windows Server-based NAS server, such as the Acer Aspire EasyStore or HP's MediaSmart series. And now when Microsoft fanboys are starting to worry that the company has abandoned the NAS server market, LaCie has announced its first network storage server that's based on an NAS-specific operating system (OS) from the software giant, the 5big Storage Server.

The new NAS server is powered by Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Standard operating system, which was introduced in October 2010 and is based on Windows … Read more

Dan Ackerman joins us today from our New York office. He's been building a man-cave in a small Manhattan apartment and shares his experiences. Plus, week 6 of Rafe's adventures with Synology servers. And your burning questions answered, including: can one go overboard on antivirus apps?

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

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I roped Eric Franklin into joining the show today, and I'm glad I did. He shares a hobby with me: home-building PCs. Today we talk about his smoking motherboard and why we both spend so much money on tower cases. Also: best tools for backing up PCs to network drives, how to buy HDMI cables, and for those of you keeping score, the progress report from my Synology network-attached storage device.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, call us with your questions to get on the next show: 877-438-6688 or e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

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Brian Cooley is with us today, and he's in a bit of a mood, leading to one of the most rambling Rescues we've done. But still, we cover more news on Rafe's Synology NAS, a common problem with Panasonic network cameras, and why you should never take Best Buy prices seriously. Also, your questions answered, including the re-use of Windows licenses, adding a second monitor to a desktop PC, and more.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, call us with your questions to get on the next show: 877-438-6688 or e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

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Sure, the iPad's fun. It's thin, it's addictive, it can handle a wide variety of apps and media files. There's only one problem: it still needs to sync to a PC.

If "magical" was the catchphrase most repeated at last year's iPad unveiling, "post-PC" was this year's equivalent for the iPad 2. I had hoped that, along with the iPad 2, Apple would find a way access media libraries wirelessly. They have, in a way, with iOS 4.3's new Home Sharing capability--but it needs a Mac or PC … Read more

My guest today is CNET editor Seth Rosenblatt, who's going to help us keep our shiny new iPad 2s safe from harm. Also, I test the new Synology DS411slim home server, we opine on using a DVR as an archival store for videos, and more.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, call us with your questions to get on the next show: 877-438-6688 or e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

… Read more

You won't find any network storage device that offers more space than the recently reviewed five-bay DS1511+ NAS server from Synology.

This is the first NAS we've reviewed that has up to 15TB of storage space out of the box, by supporting the new 3TB hard drives. On top of that, when used with two DX510 expansion units, the server's storage space can be scaled up to be 45TB. With front-facing drive bays, it's easy to replace or add more hard drives to the systems.

Apart from standard RAID configurations, the DS1511+ also offers Synologoy Hybrid RAID, which is similar to RAID 5, that allows you to add/upgrade hard drives to the system without building the RAID setup from the beginning, hence retaining the existing data. And then after that, if 45TB still isn't not enough, you can use the four USB ports to add more. … Read more