Review on Diskless Synology 💾 DS218j 2-Bay NAS DiskStation by Scott Hall

I replaced my old Synology NAS SD212j with this one to improve speed and storage space. The old one worked perfectly for 7 years. The new DS281j version has moderately faster hardware, so I expect a slight performance boost. I installed two 4TB WD Red drives in the new unit instead of the 2TB in the old one. Installing from disk is easy and takes 10 minutes. Plug the device into the mains and connect it to the network with the supplied Cat 5e Ethernet cable. Launch the available "Synology Assistant" app on your PC and all your NAS devices will appear on the network. Click here to connect via browser. Go through the simple step-by-step setup process and you're good to go. For absolutely simple presettings, you need little technical knowledge beyond assembly and wiring. For more advanced tasks, you may need to visit the Synology website. Despite the fact that there is a lot of information, most of it is outdated. I found inconsistencies in every KB document I looked at as they were obviously written for previous versions of the DSM OS and not updated. You can usually understand what you need, even if the exact terms no longer match the current version of the DSM. I have used other storage systems and Synology is best for basic use, almost ready to go. I suggest exploring some of the more advanced features and taking advantage of the various "packages" (applications) available to install on the NAS. This may be all you need. A simple, hassle-free storage and backup system or a complete mail and media hosting server.