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I’ve been a long time user of , having first reviewed them on 9to5Mac 2-bay to a model has unlocked even more use cases for me, but I still get the impression that to most people, a NAS is a scary and uninviting concept.

Hopefully, in this post, I can highlight how a NAS can dramatically enhance your Apple experience, and that the whole venture is a relatively straightforward thing to integrate in your life, and get ongoing value …

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The post Synology review: How a NAS can enhance your Apple device experience appeared first on 9to5Mac.

In the past when I’ve covered my experience with Synology NAS products, it’s usually been from the perspective of using one of Synology’s more powerful offerings as a media server for Final Cut Pro X libraries. Today, I’d like to flip the script and talk about Synology’s entry-level NAS, the compact DS220j. I’d also like to begin regular discussions of more common needs for the everyday Mac user, such as Time Machine backups, private cloud storage, etc.

Being an entry-level model, the DS220j is marketed as a personal cloud solution for data sharing and backup, and I find it to be a good fit for those applications. In this first hands-on video, I’ll walk you through what it takes to set up the DS220j as a Time Machine backup solution for your Macs.

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The post How to easily back up your Mac with Time Machine and a Synology NAS [Video] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Synology, known for its great network and storage solutions has seen businesses buying licenses for its VPN Plus Client five times higher than normal as the coronavirus pandemic has developed. Now in a generous move, Synology is making its VPN Plus Client and Site-to-Site VPN licenses free.

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Using a dedicated device like a drive to host your Plex media library offers a variety of advantages over using a Mac. In addition to being able to configure a large amount of storage at a low cost and freeing up your desktop or notebook from the workload, a Plex setup with a NAS drive offers features like 4K video transcoding, the ability to record TV shows for free, and much more. Read along with our detailed guide on how to set up Plex on a Synology NAS drive.

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A couple of years ago I replaced my Apple AirPort Extreme router with Synology’s RT2600ac. I made this move partly because of the rumors about Apple exiting the router business — which it eventually did — and partly because I desired a more robust feature set.

This was around the same time that consumer mesh networks were really beginning to gain in popularity, but unfortunately, Synology didn’t offer a mesh networking solution at the time. The good news is that Synology now has a mesh router in its repertoire in the . Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for more details. more…

The post Hands-on: Synology’s MR2200ac mesh router enhances its AirPort Extreme alternative [Video] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

In this walkthrough, we show you how to easily store Final Cut Pro X libraries on a Synology NAS with just a few configuration steps. We’ve posted a prior solution before that utilized the NFS protocol, but this solution uses SMB. Watch our hands-on video tutorial for the details. more…

The post Final Cut Friday: How to store FCP X libraries on a Synology NAS [Video] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Yesterday in New York City, Synology took the wraps off its latest consumer product, the . Like other popular mesh router systems, Synology’s MR2200ac allows users to fill their home with Wi-Fi in an effort to eliminate the so-called dead zones in coverage.

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The post Synology unveils new $140 MR2200ac mesh router with quad-core CPU appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Synology just launched its newest prosumer NAS box, the . This 6-bay machine comes with a quad-core 2.1GHz CPU, and 4GB of DDR4 non-ECC memory that can be upgraded to 32GB of ECC RAM.

What makes the DS1618+ particularly special is its expandability — and not just eSATA storage expandability that we usually associate with Synology products. The DS1618+ features a PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion slot that can accommodate either an M.2 card for cache, or a 10GbE NIC for significantly faster throughput. Such an addition makes the DS1618+ ideal for connecting to machines with 10 Gigabit Ethernet, such as the iMac Pro.

There are many reasons why individuals and companies employ the use of NAS boxes. In household environments, they can act like a media server, storing high quality video rips for local streaming. Others, perhaps those in corporate environments, like to use NAS setups as a storage solution for video editing.

But there is another key reason why you might want to consider a NAS, especially in light of Apple’s decision to abandon its AirPort and Time Capsule products — Time Machine backups. In this hands-on video, I show you how I use the DS1618+ as a quiet and reliable Time Machine backup solution.

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The post Back to the Mac 009: How to use a Synology NAS for Time Machine backups [Video] appeared first on 9to5Mac.

I’ve used a Synology NAS to store Final Cut Pro X libraries in the past, but the process wasn’t very straightforward at the time, and performance was never good enough to convince me to use it over the long-term. This was especially true as I started to dabble more in 4K workflows.

As we all know, the iMac Pro features built in 10GbE connectivity, which opens up the possibilities when it comes to using a NAS as a Final Cut Pro X storage solution. Final Cut Pro X also received updates in the last year in order to better facilitate working from network attached storage.

Is a 10GbE NAS a viable storage solution for Final Cut Pro X users?

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The post Final Cut Pro X: Revisiting the Synology NAS, this time with 10GbE appeared first on 9to5Mac.

Since the news broke that Apple is getting out of the router business, I’ve been looking to replace my AirPort...

The post A possible AirPort Extreme replacement? Hands-on with the Synology RT2600ac [Video] appeared first on 9to5Mac.