My Synology NAS and Essential Packages for the Smart Home

John — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000

Finding Synology NAS

In the past way long ago, I was lured into the expensive black hole called photography. I had one of the most popular DSLR cameras at the time (Nikon D90), and with it came RAW files that processing of large files on multiple computers brought about a new challenge. Where to store all this data? I could expand all the storage onto my desktop, but what if I wanted to work on the files on my laptop? Then I started looking into storage, and came upon the revelation of Network Attached Storages.

One of the systems that was recommended at that time was Drobo, which I still keep as a local drive, but has not aged well. It was great! No need to learn the RAID systems, but still having data redundancy! Little did I know that the model without the ethernet port would not have much support and love as the other systems. It was finicky - there were a couple of times that I moved the Drobo NAS from the table to the floor, and when I connected it back to the computer, there was a hard drive failure, or the system failed to recognize a hard drive. I don't think it was the hard drives, because they were the Western Digital Red drives which were supposed to be for NAS systems.

As time passed, I was introduced to media servers and newly exposed to the wonders of having a NAS that is able to process much more than just data storage. Because I wanted to install Plex, there were a lot of recommendations to get the Synology NAS, specifically the DS218+ which could transcode all the anime that I want over the internet and cast it to any device I wanted.

So the NAS had great features:
- Intel Celeron J3355 dual-core 2.0 GHz, burst up to 2.5 GHz
- 4K Transcoding
- 2 GB DDR3L, expandable up to 6 GB
- 3 usb 3.0 ports, 1 eSATA port

The Synology DS220+ is the current day equivalent.

Check out the DS220+ on Amazon

After exploring, there's so much more that this little NAS can handle.

Plex

The whole reason for me to install the system. The promise to be able to stream all my downloaded TV, movies, anime, and more. It could be used as a DVR with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuner so I could save on Cable TV. There was so much promise! And it probably could live up to the hype, but I would usually like to be on my computer to watch anime and work on something else at the same time. My music mp3 downloads at the time was over 1000 songs, but they all got repetetive after a while.

And then the streaming services came along. The first one that really hooked me was Spotify, and Netflix, and Sling. Eventually all the streaming services could cover the promises of Plex. Although streaming does cover many things, I still utilize it to stream any anime I find that aren't simulcasted through Hulu, Netflix, or Crunchyroll.

Resilio Sync

Back when I was still into photography, it was challenging to only edit on one computer, especially if I was out and about. At first, Dropbox was a very good option to use, but I would be hitting the space limits pretty quick holding RAW and Lightroom files. Being in the similar realm of bittorrent, Sync was introduced, and I quickly jumped on it. It's great for secure sharing of files that are synced between computers. You fully control where the data is stored, and if you're on the same network it'll directly transfer within the network. These days I use it to synchronize my accounting files between computers.

Surveillance Station

Pretty early on getting a Synology NAS, I discovered that it could be used to store 24/7 security camera recordings. You have your own personal security surveillance that you fully own the recordings and 3rd parties don't have any access over. No 30 second recording limitations, no issues if there's an internet outage, and you don't have to worry about other people logging into your security camera and watching your family. All that's needed is to link up a compatible IP Camera, and then you're ready to go. There are 2 non-transferrable licenses for that come with each Diskstation, and you could purchase more if needed.

Active Backup

Data is important to keep and if any of your drives crash, you've lost that data forever, unless you have a backup. Previously I subscribed to Crashplan or Backblaze to backup all my data just in case. They had options for incremental backups. But now with Active Backup, I don't need to pay for those services anymore and just utilize the drives that I already have. Just make sure the computer is on when I have it scheduled to backup, and then all the data is saved from my personal computer.

Synology Photos

I love Google photos, and it has a great searching system. It shows the locations, highlights great photos, offers suggestions on edits, but it doesn't sit right that you don't fully own the data uploaded. The new DS Photos is a great alternative to the photos on phones, whether Android or iOS.

Docker

One of the biggest revelations is that I can finally run a open source package applications without fully configuring every detail on every PC! Docker makes it quick and easy to set up and just go! Some of the packages I've had up and running within 5 minutes and it's just like owning your own server for an enterprise solution.

Home Assistant

One of the newest for me and the most important app I'm running is Home Assistant. First the home automation was Smartthings, but could never get the fine controls that I wanted out of it. It is an open source project that has great community support, tons of connections with all different home automation devices, and it is regularly updated at a cadence of 2 weeks.

There's a lot more software out there to use, but this is a good starting point for getting good utilization out of NAS server.

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