NAS
Synology DiskStation DS211+ review
By Jon L. Jacobi | PC World | Published: 13:19, 21 September 2011
The two-bay Synology DiskStation DS211+ is as feature-packed as two bay NAS enclosures come.
Not only is the box fast, but its easy-to-use DiskStation Manager 3.1 software provides tons of Secure FTP and HTTP, a variety of media serving features, rsync backup to other NAS boxes, iSCSI, video surveillance and a whole lot more.
Although the unit itself is attractive, the DS211+'s drive bays have a slightly cheap feel. The pop-off faceplate that facilitates access to the drives is clever as well as handy, but the plastic trays and locking mechanisms seem a bit penny-pinching for a box this pricey. So does the lack of a second ethernet port for failover and increasing available bandwidth.
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The company's DiskStation Manager 3.1 software offers an interface that is like running Linux inside a window. You can open, close, drag and stack windows, all within your web browser. The multiple views and windows make it much easier to get a handle on file operations and the contents of the drive. And it's just plain cool.
I tested the DS211+ with both a 3TB and 2TB drive installed. The unit averaged approximately 44MBps writing data to its drives, and about 62MBps reading on my gigabit network. That's a good performance, but a tad slower writing than the Synology DS411slim, though 4MBps faster reading.
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