Synology Disk Station DS409+ NAS Device

Some NAS devices, such as the Linksys by Cisco Media Hub or the Pogoplug NAS Device are designed to be relatively easy to set up and use. This is not necessarily the case with the DS409+. It's not that the DS409+ is difficult to set up and use, it's just that its interface, features, and documentation are geared towards those who already have some networking knowhow. Perhaps these aren't fair comparisons as the two aforementioned NAS devices are designed primarily to be used in the home, while the DS409+ is better suited for small office environments. That said, the DS409+ does include a bevy of streaming media features that can also benefit a networked home environment--albeit the home of someone who is tech savvy.

Installation options.	Synology Assistant - Setup Wizard.	After the Setup Wizard finishes, you still need to create the storage volume.

Once the drives are installed inside the unit, and it is powered on and physically connected to the local network, the DS409+ needs to be configured. You do this by running the Synology Assistant app, which is included on the bundled disc. The app searches the local network for the drive and installs the necessary software to the device to make it functional. This step also lets you set up a few basic settings, such as the network name of the device, its admin password, and how the device will gets its IP address (DHCP or static IP). Note that any data that is currently stored on the hard disks installed in the device will be wiped at this point. Once this step is complete, you still can't use the DS409+ for data storage yet, as you still have to create the NAS device's storage volume(s).

Volume Creation Wizard.	Creating the volume.	Managing users.

The next step is to login to the device's Web-based interface to access all the DS409+'s settings. You can choose which of the installed disks will be included in the volume you will create. You can create multiple volumes if you don't use all of the disks for a particular volume. We chose to use all four installed disks to create a RAID 5 volume.

Setting user privileges.	Adding users to a group.	Assigning folder access privileges.

Technically, you could start storing and accessing files on the device at this point, but you would have to do so logged in as the admin. To fully utilize the functionality of the DS409+ you'd be best served by--at minimum--creating user accounts. This way you can control which users have access to which folders. Whenever you create a user account, a "home" folder for that user is automatically created--by default, only that particular user and the admin can access that folder. If you have also created folders on the DS409+, you can assign Read/Write, Read only, or No access rights to individual users as well any groups you have also created. You can also assign storage capacity quotas to individual users as well.