Synology Part II

The new Synology NAS box has been ticking over for the last few weeks.

On the whole, I'm pretty pleased with it. Having docouments and files centralised is a boon, even with a single user business.

A few of the good things I've found:

• Playback of music through the iTunes interface is pretty easy. The Audio Station application is OK but I prefer iTunes on the whole.
• Having PHP and mySQL on the network is very handy for testing websites and PHP functionality.
• The Wiki (Media Wiki - the basis for Wikipedia) is great for tasks lists and notes, as it can be accessed easily from any machine with a web browser. Having it centralised means I can bob on and write down an idea from the iPad/iPod or lounge PC.
• Setting up automated mySQL backups is a bit of a pain. I will need to get my hands dirty with config files and the Linux command prompt to get this working.

I few problems I've encountered:

• Copying photos onto the DiskStation directly is a bad idea. The thumbnail process is hideously slow. Make sure you install and use the Synology Assistant on your PC. Your PC is much faster at converting images.
• Moving folders around from Windows Explorer can cause them to lose permissions and become inaccessible. The workaround for this is to move them from the DiskStation web interface. I haven't yet tracked down the pattern of behaviour for this or found a solution online.