Independent Australian storage and infrastructure guides. Real AU pricing, honest verdicts.
A NAS that cannot be found on the network is often not a NAS problem at all - it is usually a network configuration issue that can be resolved in under 10 minutes. This guide walks through every common cause of NAS discovery failure, with exact diagnostic steps for Windows, Mac, and the NAS itself.
A Synology volume showing Crashed or Critical status is alarming but not always catastrophic. The correct response in the first 10 minutes determines whether you lose data or not. This guide covers what each volume status means, the right sequence of actions, when recovery is possible, and when to call professional data recovery.
NAS transfers that drop to zero mid-copy are one of the most reported NAS problems. The transfer appears to start, progress for a few seconds or minutes, then completely stalls. This guide covers the six most common causes, how to diagnose which one is causing your problem, and the exact steps to fix each.
Setting up a family NAS means creating accounts for each person, personal folders they can access privately, and shared folders the whole household can reach. This guide walks through user accounts, folder permissions, photo backup for everyone's phone, and media sharing for TVs - on both Synology DSM and QNAP QTS.
Backing up a Windows PC to a Synology NAS takes about 20 minutes to configure and gives you a local copy of your files that restores in minutes rather than hours. This guide covers Active Backup for Business, Hyper Backup, and Windows-native options - and which to use for each scenario.
Running a local AI server at home takes about an hour to set up and costs between $0 (if you already have a NAS) and $1,200 for a dedicated mini-PC. This guide covers the full path from hardware choice to a working chat interface running on your network.
New drives fail at a higher rate in their first 6-12 months than at any other point. Testing before adding to a NAS RAID catches early failures while drives are still under warranty. Here is how to run SMART tests and surface scans on Synology, QNAP, and Windows before the drive goes into production.
Moving from Synology DSM to Unraid is not a simple drive swap. Synology formats drives using Btrfs or EXT4 inside a proprietary volume structure that Unraid does not recognise. The correct migration path involves backing up all data before touching any hardware, then rebuilding from scratch on Unraid. Done in the right order, this is a safe and repeatable process.
Rclone is a free, open-source command-line tool that syncs files between your NAS and virtually any cloud storage provider. This beginner's guide covers installation on Synology and QNAP, configuring your first remote, running your first sync, and automating it to run on a schedule.
A hybrid NAS and cloud setup gives you fast local access for active data and secure offsite copies for protection. This guide covers which data to keep on your NAS, what to push to the cloud, and how to automate the whole workflow on Synology and QNAP.
Running Ollama on a QNAP NAS delivers a private local LLM on hardware you own. QNAP's AMD Ryzen models (TS-473A, TS-873A) outperform equivalent Synology units for LLM inference due to AVX2 support and higher core counts. This guide covers hardware selection, Container Station setup, model deployment, and Open WebUI installation.
Running Ollama on a Synology NAS gives you a private local LLM accessible from any device on your network. This guide covers compatible Synology models, Container Manager setup, model selection, Open WebUI installation, and what to expect from performance on Synology hardware.
How to enable and verify Plex hardware transcoding on QNAP NAS units. Covering Intel Quick Sync setup, the required VAAPI package, Plex Pass requirement, and troubleshooting common failures.
How to configure a NAS for multi-editor shared video storage. Covering SMB share structure, user permissions, 10GbE networking, cache SSD configuration, and read/write workflow for 2-8 simultaneous editors.
How to set up a Ugreen NAS running UGOS Pro. Covering initial configuration, storage pool creation, SMB shares, user accounts, Docker via Container Manager, and remote access.
How to configure and use Immich's AI-powered features. Face recognition, CLIP semantic search, and smart albums. On NAS hardware, with performance expectations by CPU architecture.
How to install Open WebUI on a NAS using Docker. A self-hosted ChatGPT-style interface for local LLMs via Ollama. Covers setup on Synology and QNAP with GPU passthrough notes.
How to set up a NAS for a small business. Configuring Windows SMB shares, user accounts, group permissions, backup, and remote access for a 5-20 person workgroup environment.
How to migrate a Windows file server to a NAS. Covering share mapping, user accounts, permissions, offline file migration, and DFS namespace considerations for SMB environments.
How to automatically back up Android photos to a NAS. Covering Synology DS Photo, QNAP Qfile, and Immich mobile app methods with configuration steps for automatic Wi-Fi background upload.
How to set up offsite cloud backup from a NAS to Backblaze B2, Synology C2, and Wasabi. Covering Synology Hyper Backup and QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync configuration with cost comparison.
How to configure Synology Hyper Backup for scheduled NAS-to-external-drive, NAS-to-NAS, and NAS-to-cloud backup. Covers versioning, integrity checks, and restore procedures.
How to run Home Assistant in a Docker container on a NAS. Covering Synology and QNAP setup, network mode configuration for device discovery, and the key differences from a dedicated Home Assistant installation.
How to install Vaultwarden on a NAS using Docker. A self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible password manager. Works on any NAS running Docker, including Synology and QNAP.