Hi, I need some kind of NAS to backup multiple computers and network-enable a printer.. I've been looking at Synology's offerings but have a few questions.. Does the NAS need to be connected via ethernet or can I use wireless? Does it work with any USB printer or do I need to check specific protocols? It's a fairly modern HP.. Already got spare HDD's to put in it, just need to decide on a box now! Cheers!
The synology ones do seem to be quite highly rated. It would be a lot faster to be connected to ethernet and would highly recommend it as backing up over wireless would take ages.
It doesn’t have inbuilt wireless, so it’d need to be connected via Ethernet. Haven’t tried the printer part of it, but the rest of the software functions as described and with minimal setup, I’d say you’d almost certainly be fine if as you say, it’s a modern HP. I can highly recommend Synology NAS boxes, easily the best I’ve ever used.
you can use USB wireless adaptors: http://www.synology.com/support/faq_show.php?q_id=427 my Edimax adaptor worked well with my Ds410j until i got a longer cable. but being wireless, it is very slow. you really need to have gigabyte wire+router for the NAS to work and not be frustrating to use. i've also not used printer, here's a not very up to date list of supported USB printers: http://www.synology.com/support/faq_show.php?q_id=116&lang=enu i've plugged in a cheap £1 ebay USB sound dongle, worked without problem, but being cheap Ebay dongle, there is a constant humming noise. i've also used USB wireless and works perfectly fine. USB flash drives also works brilliantly. so far, i've not had any problem with hardware recognition, so my educated guess is that it should work with your HP printer.
Thanks guys - my issue is that the printer/computer is in one room and the router (home hub) is in the kitchen.. in order to get wifi coverage everywhere in the house! I'll have to do some experimenting
buy a second router preferably one that is in the DD-WRT database http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index then, connect your computer, printer and NAS together. have the 2nd router as wifi receiver from your primary homehub.
Thinking about it.. the only issue is really getting the wifi to my computer upstairs so perhaps I could use those plug things instead of wifi?
Homeplug? They are utterly brilliant. The 200mbps ones offer the best bang for buck at the moment. I use it to stream 1080p content from my DS211j to my PC - something my wireless N connection could never handle.
Does it matter if it went through an extension cable to my computer? Not entirely sure how it works..
Ok - thanks guys. This could get expensive! How easy would it be to connect the NAS to a cloud service, e.g. dropbox?
or you could just have your own cloud service: http://www.synology.com/support/video_your_cloud.php?lang=us otherwise you would have to run Dropbox client on your computer, pointing it to Synology share location.
