It’s getting time to retire the old Apple Airport Time Capsule, and I’m looking recommendations on easy-to-use replacements. This would be used for general files and automatic laptop backups.
Requirements:
- At least 2TB
- Capable of archiving to an offline disk used as an off-site backup
- Easy enough for my parents to use
- Not crazy expensive if possible
I’ve never used a dedicated NAS, so I’m humbly seeking the opinions of the Lemmy experts. Thank you!
I have a DS923+ with four Seagate 8TB drives in it that I really like. It’s easy to use and offers a lot of services.
However, like others have said, I do not recommend it for new purchases. If I were to do it again I would most likely set up an old PC as a server (though I went with the Synology mainly for power use reasons).
Synology is getting increasingly customer hostile, and from what I’ve read online their Linux version is so full of bespoke patches that they have painted themselves in a corner it will be hard to get out of. So, they’re likely to fall behind on keeping up with third party software. Their software is usually pretty slick and easy to use, but they discontinue things every few cycles.
The main thing I still use of theirs is Synology Drive, which was a pretty seamless move from Google Drive. On the flipside, their stuff is proprietary, so getting off of their platform can be challenging.
For my self-hosting needs I try not to tie anything to the Synology and just use it as a plain NAS. I use my Raspberry Pi or a VM instead.