Noise:
When the Qnap is booting, you can hear each drive running without getting disturbed. When the Qnap is running, you only hear the fan. Due to a silent fan, there is very little noise.
UPS
The Nas supports most ups-devices, so it is possible to save all data and shut down the Nas correctly when there is a power failure. When the ups-device is connected to the Nas, you can log in to the configuration panel of the Qnap and go to the section “Extern device / ups settings”. Here you can easily save your personal settings: choose between a safe shut down after power failure or a safe shut down after power failure with auto reboot when the power is reestablished. For the moment, I don’t own an ups, but I will certainly do in the future.
Time Machine
Qnap delivers support by using the Apple’s backup tool “Time Machine”(standard for all Mac users). You only need to follow 3-4 steps to activate this function and you are ready to use it on all Macs in your network. Important notice: determinate a maximum size of this folder or it can take all capacity of your Nas! I tried this with my own Mac Pro on a wired network and the first backup took an hour. With my iMac connected wireless, it took the first time several hours. You can always connect the wireless devices the first time with a cable and then do the first backup. It will save some time!
Automatic copy with front USB port
At the front of the device, you’ll find an USB port and a button “Copy”. When you configure this button, you can connect another external hard drive and push the button for a simple and fast copy of one folder. I wanted to use this function every week to safe a copy of most of all data on another hard drive stored on another location than the Nas. To configure that, I activated the backup function (Backup/ External drive) on the Qnap and selected the folders I wanted to copy on the new external drive. Each week, I connect the hard drive into the front USB port and the Nas synchronized the selected folders.
Fileserver
For each user, you can set up a login and password. You can also set up access rights and determinate maximum capacity quota. For many users, it might be a great feature. You can create a folder for yourself and for each member on your home network or for each member in your small business company. It is also possible to create shared folders.
FTP-server
To set up your own FTP server is a great thing, but sadly my ICT knowledge was too limited to configure everything correctly myself. With a friend (ICT expert) and the helpdesk support of Deltalink (local dealer), we could however work out everything. When everything works, it is really nice to have your own FTP server. Now, I just created a user for each client and a FTP-folder. All clients can use their own login (each time again) and you can simply drag-and-drop the files into the correct FTP-folder. This feature is a must for each small business owner!
Qmobile
If you own an Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or an Andriod phone, you can install an “app” and access your pictures wireless. After a quick set up, you just need to copy your photos into the correct folder on the Nas and start the app. To open your pictures, you select the correct folder and watch your pictures. After some tests, I started enjoying this app, but if your camera (I own a Nikon D3 camera) delivers huge jpg files, it takes some time to open. Unfortunately and to my deep regrets, the system can’t handle raw images. Hopefully, this might be a feature for the future. Another feature I didn’t manage to work was the access to my files outside my network that would enable me to have my portfolio available on the whole planet where internet access is available of course.
Lightroom
As a photographer, I work a lot with Adobe Lightroom to modify my pictures. Lightroom works with a database with a link to each picture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t save all my pictures on my Drobo and access them into Lightroom because the speed was to slow. With this server, it is a pleasure to access files and work with them.
iTunes server
With this device, it is possible to stream your mp3 music files over a wired- or wireless network. After an easy and short setup, you’re ready to start. Open iTunes, select your Qnap server in the shared folder and select the songs or playlist you want to hear and select the audio device. How easy can it be!
Download station / Qget
Another application in the Qnap is the “Download station” or “Qget”. Let me start by the difference between these two names: Download station is the name of the application you’ll find when you log on to the Qnap. Qget is a separate program on your Mac with the same features. If you’re on your home network, you can use both. If you’re not on your home network, you can use “Download station” with the browser. The main definition of this feature is to download programs or files from Internet even when you shut down the computer. For a person who downloads each month a few files, it will be a feature without any meaning. For “download-freaks”, this feature is really great! As I download only a few files each month, I didn’t used this feature a lot.
Conclusion
Qnap has created a wonderful device, called TS-419P+, with great specs and functions. As you can read in this review, the Qnap can be installed in every home and small business environment to secure all data and photos and even more! Personally, the Qnap is a perfect solution and one of the best Nas devices I have ever used.
The price of this device is 499 Euro (without hard drives). For the hard drives you need to add almost the same amount of money for 4 hard drives of reasonable quality. If you want to buy “server-designed hard drives”, you’ll need to pay more than 200 Euro (/hard drive) for a 2TB version!
Many thanks to the Qnap dealer for Belgium: Deltalink
Best regards,
Sven Michiels
