A network attached storage device can provide shared storage, a time machine backup target, and additional useful features for mac, iphone, and ipad users on a local area network and beyond. How to connect two routers on one home network using a lan cable stock router netgeartplink duration. Even if you only access your nas through your home network, encryption will protect you if the device is stolen. If you know anything about nas network attached storage, you know. A nas drive that provides shared storage for everyone on your network is ideal for homes that own multiple macs and mobile devices. Today well look at the steps you can take to keep your nas secured and your data.
In my case, i had an old macbook that wouldnt hold a charge anymore so i rigged up an esata connection to my 2tb external drive the advantages to using an actual mac over a true nas system uses firstparty afp on hfs for optimal compatibility. Reading apple forums, i see frequent mentioning of not getting a nas for home storage, and instead getting a mac mini with the osx server app. How to connect external hard disk to home network over. A proper nasmac setup can save time and reduce stress through easier downloads, improved organization, smoother backups, and more. Pick your favorite top nas drive for mac to extend storage capacity, backup and protect data and share file easily. What to do if the nas cant be seen in network neighborhood.
Freenas is a powerful storage solution that makes it easy to share movies and music, back up your photos, protect your files and much, much more. Nas network attached storage fills in the gaps, acting as a central hub for all your photos, videos, music, and other files. The nas devices have a builtin network card and a bit expensive, but a very reliable solution. From the mac you want to mount a networked drive, start system preferences. Connect your mac to shared computers and servers apple.
Synology is one of the leading vendors of nas devices. This is an external hard drive that sits outside of your computer and is accessed over the network. Network attached storage nas is your central storage system with multiple hard drives and is constantly connected to the network. Access your data anywhere in your home or office with these best nas devices that connect to your wireless router. You can connect by either browsing or entering the computers or servers network address. Choose the seagate network assistant icon in the menu bar to select open seagate network assistant.
When you need access to your files at a moments notice, network attached storage can give you what you need without any hassle. A network drive, also known as a nas network attached storage drive, is a storage device that connects to a home or office network instead of your computer. How to automatically mount network drives on macos imore. Western digitals my cloud home drive provides a quick. But if youre serving hd videos over your home network to two tablets, a laptop, and your smart tv, all at the same time, youll want a nas with higher specifications for memory, processor, and. These devices are in essence an external hard drive that, instead of plugging into your pc, connects to your network. There are a variety of my cloud variants out there. Networkattached storage options are more abundant than ever, but jumping into the copious bush of nas can be quite a task, especially if you want a system that plays nice with both pc and mac. How to build a mac home network macs technewsworld. Highlight the share youd like to have automatically mount. Rightclick on the seagate network assistant icon and choose open seagate network assistant.
Best network attached storage options for mac, iphone, and ipad users wd my cloud. Alongside western digital, seagate is another common brand. A fivebay drive such as the 5n2 might be unnecessary for. An iomega nas server appliance provides an easytomanage network storage solution for filelevel data consolidation, sharing and backup across all microsoft windows, macintosh, netware, unix and. Fix nas drive not visible on network windows 10 youtube. There are two smart solutions to overcome this problem and keep external hd connected on home network 247. You can connect to shared computers and file servers on your network, including mac and windows computers that have file sharing turned on, and servers that use protocols such as smb. A proper nasmac setup can save time and reduce stress through easier. First things first, if youre using a mac youll want a nas with afp support unless youre using a thirdparty service to provide afp support in mixed os environments, such as acronis files connect. The device is easily the least capable nas server you can find on the market, but for time machine backup on a mac, its about as good as can be, especially considering the fact its also a 802. The best nas network attached storage devices for 2020 pcmag. The location popup menu shows the name of your currently selected set of network settings. How to turn a raspberry pi into a nas for wholehome file.
The best nas network attached storage devices for 2020. Now each time you log in, that remote drive will be mounted. Using the usb port on the back, you can attach usb flash drives or hard drives to import files easily. Many businesses have a different approach to storage, they use what is called network attached storage nas. Fix nas drive not visible on network windows 10 so your nas drive has disappeared from your network. Speaking about business, network storage usually comes in the form of server storage, sans storage area network, nas network attached storage and cloud services. So the nas will eventually look like a series of separate mounted drives like this. For mac users, theres no better way to expand storage capacity and share files across networks than nas. If its not already connected, follow the steps below. After testing five new twobay networkattached storage nas devices and comparing them against our previous picks, we found that the. You could also use your nas to make your files available to you over the internet, using it as a remote file server you can access from anywhere. Heres our list of best mac nas devices for home usage and officesbusiness in 2020. Afp is the native protocol that offers file services for mac osx.
Networkattached storage, or nas, is a cheap and efficient way to expand your storage at home or in the office. How to use network locations on your mac apple support. Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network deployment to facilitate data management. Once os x finds a network drive, you will be able to connect to it and access the resources you have permission to access. On your mac desktop, open the go menu, and then select the connect to server command. Back up your windows, macos, and linux pcs, along with your mobile devices, to a nas box using its builtin apps and utilities. Youre spoilt for choice when it comes to western digitals my. If youve already been using your nas for other things, its likely that your mac is already connected to it. Store files from a mac computer within the local network synology inc. This can be used to connect using smb, afp or nfs by entering the protocol then the ip of the nas e. For macusing homes, however, the options for a home network are pretty easy, though not exactly always straightforward. Make your life easier by using freenas to build and set up the perfect home storage system that does exactly what you need. Basically, its a way to attach a hard drive to your network and make it accessible to all your devices for centralized filesharing and backups.
We can configure os x to automatically mount the drive in the future to save having to do this every time you want to access something. The first one is to depend on nas network attached storage devices. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. It is integrated with third party apps and support for dropbox and similar cloud backup services. If you have multiple nas os devices, select the nas you wish to access from the list on the lefthand column. Another option is goconnect to serverenter server address. When you just want to graduate from an external hard drive to a network attached storage for mac.
Save file under shared find your nas name, in this instance mine was called 431plus afp. This method could be used to rule out any network variable that might be interfering with the visibility of your nas. Encryption is mostly important if you use your nas to back up sensitive data that you dont want anyone to access. Adding network storage nas to your mac macintosh how to. The best mac nas drive comes with hardware raid accelerator, making it tranfer files faster. If you will be using cifssmb, from the finder, select gonetworkworkgrouphostname.
Back up all your data to your nas box without installing. But with so many nas solutions available for home and business use, knowing what youll need can be tricky. How to choose the best network storage for a macpc home. Simply save your files onto the qnap, and by using ftp, smb or afp you could easily access your files on the nasstationed at home or work whenever you want.
Then again, running a mac server isnt for everyoneand these days, networkattached storage nas devices can provide most of the functionality of a computer at a lower cost and reduced. Heres how to turn a simple board into the brains of a nas for file sharing. Heres how mac users can make the most out of nas, and a look at the top four nas solutions currently available. On windows, please find file explorer network,check if the nas is in the computer list. For home freenas open source storage operating system.
Perfect for sharing and backing up files across networks, streaming media, and more, nas from can provide you with selfcontained storage solutions for all your data needs. Encryption nas devices that include hardwarelevel encryption are much faster than devices that rely on software. If you want a networkattached storage device but arent ready to invest in one, make one with a spare raspberry pi. However, home users also can use the same technologies, but sans requires higher budget, so. For mac using homes, however, the options for a home network are pretty easy, though not exactly always straightforward.
450 90 386 203 618 649 1053 1358 140 336 711 832 153 538 180 1503 231 739 165 1437 1471 983 849 1655 751 567 1041 1259 187 888 1370 1397 986