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This is my second Synology. This replaced my four year old DS206. I am very satisfied.
Bad news first:
(1) Speed: Although I'm glad to report that DS209 is at least twice as fast or as the DS206, it is still no contest to an internal hard drive. I did a simple test of transferring a file of 1G size. Between my 7200rpm internal hard drives, the transfer took just barely over 10 seconds; but the same file took almost 35 seconds to transfer from the Synology DS209 to another internal hard drive, and over 1.5 minutes transferring between different folders within Synology. So just be aware of this and put your expectation at the right place.
I actually hesitated between buying the Synology and building a real Windows server. Because I already have the Windows Server Operating system, I could probably build a solid Windows server at a comparable cost, and it would have much faster speed than Synology because it will have nearly the same speed as the internal drives on a gigabyte network. But at the end, I chose Synology because I felt that it was likely to be simpler. And it probably is, as I am not very familiar with Windows Server software and management.
That being said, I feel the Synology really is fast enough for its intended purpose. For accessing files and folders, you really don't notice any difference between this network storage and an internal hard drive unless you routinely transfer very large files.
(2) Hidden Features: Although the very basic setup of Synology DS209 is straightforward and simple, many advanced functions require a tech savvy person to dig out. The manufacturer default settings are extremely conservative with a majority of advanced functions turned off. Furthermore, for those functions that you could easily turn on, actually making it work is a challenge due to lack of detailed instructions. The case on point is the website hosting function (see below). It turned out this is one of the most exciting features of Synology, yet there is absolutely no adequate instructions for setting this up. It took hours of research, and trial and error for me to figure it out.
(3) Connectivity issues: I used to be plagued by a very annoying problem with Synology. It always asked me to enter a username and password to log back on when I accessed the Synology network drives after a while of not using it. A real network drive should not behave like this! I was hoping that the new Synology would somehow fix that problem. Well, it didn't, but on the other hand, I finally figured out what was causing the problem. It turned out that when you set up users on Synology, you must set it exactly the same way as your Windows computer user setup, including both the username and the password, in order to avoid being required to log back on again and again. This may sound simple, but the truly confusing part is that on Windows your actual username is not necessarily the same as the "Account Name" you see on the windows. The username is set up when you first created the account. You can later change the "account name" to whatever you like, but the username will remain the original one. The account name change is just cosmetic. You will need to get really deep into the Windows operating system in order to change the username. The fact that you only see the "account name" but not the real username on the Windows will confuse you. And that's what it did to me. I don't know who is to blame for this issue, but I'm just glad that I finally got it right. It now seems to make an automatic connection every time when my desktop is started and will not ask for a logon again. I will come back to write a more detailed explanation later when I have time.
The good news:
(1) Performance: This thing works, very reliably. Tons of advanced functions. And you get extensive product support. The management software is generously upgradable on the old products. My four year old DS206 continued to receive benefits of software updates, and even firmware update. This is very generous of the company. They stand behind their products. There is also a very knowledgeable user community online.
(2) Web station: The Synology can host up to 30 websites. I'm talking about real "your own domain" websites, not subdomain personal websites given to members. You will need either a static IP from your Internet service provider (expensive) or you will need to sign up for DDNS service to automatically track your dynamic IP (difficult to set up). If you have a fairly stable dynamic IP which very seldom changes, you might be able to manually track the IP, but that is painful and also renders the website unreliable.
The website hosted this way may not be fast enough for very busy commercial websites, but for relatively simple personal websites and company-front websites, this is more than good enough. In fact, because you don't share an IP address with others (who knows who they are and what they are), you have a clean hosting. I used to run a website which always gets blocked in China. I later figured out that it was blocked because some other websites sharing the same IP address had content problems with the Chinese authorities. You may say that I should complain about the Chinese authorities, but for practicality, I'm just glad that I could now avoid that problem quite simply.
Being able to host websites is an exciting function. But the problem is in the setting up. It took me a long time to figure it out, even assuming a static IP (and it becomes even more difficult if you have a dynamic IP as most people probably do). The instructions are absolutely not clear. If you are not already experienced with these things, there's little chance that you could make it work. I am very experienced, yet it took me hours of research and trial and error to figure it out. When I have time, I will provide some detailed instructions for doing this here. More later.
UPDATE:
Ok, this is rather stupid. I wrote a detailed instruction for web hosting using Synology, but Amazon automatically edits out all ULRs contained in it. The instruction I prepared uses hypothetical URLs which are absolutely necessary for illustration! What Amazon did renders the instruction very much unusable. Sigh.
But here it is anyway:
(WARNING: long, and ruined by Amazon's auto deleting of the absolutely necessary hypothetical URLs. If you would like to read an unaffected clean version of the instructions, please go to Epinions to search for the same review.)
The following are some detailed instructions for setting up the Synology to host a website.
In the following, I am going to assume the following:
(a) you have a website with a domain name called "[...]". Just replace that with your own actual domain name.
(b) you have the complete registry control over the domain in order to make the necessary DNS settings at the domain name registrar.
(c) you use a router that allows virtual host forwarding, and you have total control over the router setup.
Part one - preparation
(0) Create a website on your computer. Obviously necessary, isn't it? Put everything under a folder called "mywebsite". You may use a different folder name, but in connection with the following instructions, I assume that it is "mywebsite" (replace that with you actual domain name).
Part two - Synology setup
(1) log onto your Synology management through DSM. I must assume that you at least know how to do this. I also assume that you have the latest DSM 3.0. But if you have a different version, you would be able to do the same, except that some of the terms I use and the exec sequence may be slightly different. So you need to understand what's going on in principle.
(2) open "control panel"
(3) open "Web services" (under the category of "Network Services")
(4) check "Enable Web Station" (so far, all is very obvious)
(5) click on "Virtual Host" below "Enable Web Station"
(6) Create at least one virtual host with the following entries:
Sub-folder name: mywebsite
Hostname: [...] (if static IP address); or [...] (if dynamic IP address, where "forwardingdomain" is to be replaced by the actual forwarding domain you choose; see the later section for dynamic IP address)
Protocol: [...]
Port: 80
The above virtual host is the very basics, but you can also create an optional virtual host so that visitors can come to your website by entering the URL [...] without "www".
Sub-folder name: mywebsite
Hostname: [...] (not applicable if using dynamic IP address)
Protocol: [...]
Port: 80
(7) Save everything you just created and quit "virtual host"
(8) Go to "Shared Folder" (which is under "File Sharing and Privileged" category), and check to confirm that a folder called "web" has been created.
(9) now, leave DSM, try to access the the folder called "web".
(10) move or copy your entire website to the Synology folder "web" under a sub-folder named "mywebsite". This sub-folder name must match that you created above. You can use any name you want, but they must match.
Part three - router setup
(11) Now log into your router management. From this point on, you will have to make sense out of what I'm saying, because different routers may have very different management interface.
(11) locate "virtual server" on your router. This can be under various names. I use an SMC, in which there is a "Virtual Server" sub-window under "Advanced" category. D-Link routers have the same thing. But on other routers, it could be named differently, such as "virtual host forwarding", or something like that. But the idea here is to find the place on your router where you can tell your router to forward outside visits to the proper sub-folder you just set up on your Synology Web station. A typical entry of this forwarding is like this:
Application Name: although your router may provide a default list of application names, there is no restriction for this. This can be any name you want. This is not a technical term. This just for you and the system to identify the entry. The only requirement is that each entry must have a unique name.
IP address: this is your local IP address of your Synology which you already assigned to your Synology on the router. This is extremely important. You not trying to sign an IP address to your Synology here. You must have already applied or assigned an IP address for your Synology before you come here. You've got to have it right. I believe that you should use static IP address for your Synology. This is done on your router. If you don't know how to set a static IP for your Synology on your router, you will probably need to do some research and learn about it somewhere else. It's going to take too much space here to give instructions on that.
Protocol: choose TCP for hosting
Public port: 80
Private port: 80
Part four - DNS set up (this is for static IP address only; for dynamic IP address, see later section)
(12) Now log on to your domain manager at your domain registrar to set up the host records.
If you have a static IP address, do the following (for dynamic IP address, see the later section):
Make at least one host record with the following entries:
Hostname: www (here, it really is "[...]", but because you are making the host record within your particular domain name, the [...] is assumed, and therefore you shouldn't enter anything other than [...] The system knows and uses the rest.)
Type: A (this is to point to a specific IP address)
IP address: enter your external IP address of the router. This is extremely important and not very obvious to the beginners. The external IP address of your router is not the same as the internal IP address of your router or Synology or anything on your local network. This is assigned by your Internet service provider such as Comcast or Verizon. The routers usually displaye the its external IP address when your router is connected to the Internet. Synology also displays that within the DMS management. If you are still clueless, just visit website called [...] and it will give you a present IP address. Whichever way you use, you need to find that external IP address and enter it here.
This is also why you a static IP address works better. If your Internet service provider gives you a dynamic IP address which changes from time to time, you will either have to come here to make the change every time the external IP address changes, or you will need to use a DDNS service to automatically track the dynamic IP, which I will talk about later.
The above is the very basic host record you must make. But you can make, and should make, an optional one so that your visitors can visit using the URL [...] without entering [...]
Hostname: @ (it really is "[...]", but because you are making the host record within your particular domain name set up, the [...] is assumed, and you shouldn't enter anything other than @)
Type: A (same as above)
IP address: enter your external IP address of the router. (same as above)
Further, if you would like to direct subdomains for your website, him and set up another host records as follows:
Hostname: *
Type: A (same as above)
IP address: enter your external IP address of the router. (same as above)
Save everything, and you're done. Your website is up and running probably within 10 min., but sometimes take up to 24 hours for the DNS server to broadcast your DNS settings.
If you want to understand the logic of this, it is like this: a visitor's URL request comes to your DNS server first. The DNS server looks at the requested hostname which is found within the URL entered, and directs it to your router according to the external IP address of your router; at your router, it directs the request to your Synology. It does that according to the internal IP address of your Synology in the host server settings you did in your router. At Synology, it directs the request to the proper subfolder of the weather station based on the "virtual host" settings you did in you Synology.
Dynamic IP Address:
Now, what if you don't have a static IP address but a dynamic one instead. As said above, you could manually update the IP address at the domain manager. This may not be as crazy as you think. I use FIOS, and the dynamic IP address can remain unchanged for months if not over year sometimes.
But still, it's far better if you don't have to do this manual setup. Buying a static IP is expensive nowadays. Thankfully, there are websites like [...] that could help you automatically track your dynamic IP address. The following is how to do this.
1. Follow the above instructions part one, part two and part three. They are mostly the same for both static IP address and dynamic IP address except for otherwise noted.
2. DDNS setup
(1) register an account at [...] (there are many other website that provide similar services as recommended by Synology)
(2) In "host/redirects", create the host as follows:
Hostname: [...] (here, note that "mywebsite" is still your own domain, while "[...] is one of the many free domains offered by [...]. You get to choose from a list. Choose whatever you like. This is a hidden from your website visitors.
Host type: DNS host (A)
IP address: the actual external IP address of your router which we discussed above. Remember, this is dynamic. You need to enter the current IP address. It has to be right. Once [...] picks it up, it will track that IP address and updated automatically from there.
3. DNS Setup for dynamic IP
Remember, although you just set up the DDNS service above, the visitors of your website are now still directed by the DNS server that manages your domain. Unless you redirect them to the DDNS, nothing is going to happen.
So you log onto your DNS manager, and make the host record changes as follows:
Hostname: www
Type: CNAME (no longer type "A")
Address: [...]. (It's important to have that "." after com; also note that this is how your DNS server knows to direct the URL visit of your website to [...]; and this goes to the service at [...] you have set up, and from there, the forwarding server forwards the URL request to your router, and everything else after that is the same as above. So there is one extra redirection in the process. But the visitors won't notice any delay.
Now, you see why I said there's little chance that one not already experienced with this will make it work. I wish Synology had published something like this. It would have saved us a lot of time. And be able to host Rew websites is a great feature of Synology and they don't even advertise it too much.
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Reviews with images
Synology DS209 High Performance 2-Bay NAS
The Synology DS209 is a good alternative for a two drive Network Attached Storage (NAS). There are other choices for a dual drive NAS with decent performance but for me the combination of performance, features, and price stands out.The Synology DS209 is housed in a sturdy white plastic medium sized box just large enough to hold two 3.5" drives and the system board. It is powered by a Marvell CPU clocked at 1.2 GHz and 256 MB of main memory. This compares to the "upscale" DS209+II Ultra High Perf NAS with a Freescale floating point CPU clocked at 1.06 GHz CPU and 512 MB of main memory, and to the "economy" DS209j Economic 2-Bay NAS with a 266 MHz CPU and 64 MB main memory.According to Synology, performance for Windows XP transfers are 11.46 / 39.09 / 48.31 MB/sec (upload) and 27.75 / 49.49 / 52.53 MB/sec (download) for the DS209j / DS209 / DS209+II. In my quick informal testing copying files to and from a Vista laptop over a gigabit LAN the DS209 transferred files anywhere from 30 MB/sec to 43.5 MB / sec, depending on the file size.All recent Synology NASes including the DS209 run the same application software, Synology Disk Station Manager 2.1. Some highlights of DSM 2.1 include:- Support for file sharing with Windows / Mac / UNIX, with definable user accounts and groups.- Web based file management (File Station 2).- Support for FTP, Telnet/SSH, BitTorrent / eMule download, etc.- Support for Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1.- Support for attached USB drives, printing to attached USB printer.- Support for recording/playback of IP video (surveillance) cameras attached to the network.- Servers for iTunes, uPnP, photo sharing, e-mail, etc.See attached screen shots for a few views of DSM 2.1.I'm running with two WD Green 750 GB drives in Basic mode, with one disk as "operational" and the second as a backup, using File Station 2 to sync the two drives. To date I have not experienced any problems with DSM 2.1, but there are so many features available to the Synology NAS products that I can't do justice here to the quality or issues with all of them. Rather, I'll point to the user forums at the Synology website and to posts in the Synology forum at SmallNetBuilder for information / concerns about the specific applications you are interested in. I'll also point out SmallNetBuilder as a great place to get comparison performance data on many NAS units; the DS209 is not listed in the site's NAS charts, but it should perform the same as or a bit better than the single drive DS109 which has the same CPU but only 128 MB main memory.The DS209 can be compared to the DS209+II mentioned above, as well as the QNAP TS-219P NAS Superior Performance All-in-One Server with iSCSI for SOHO and Home Users and QNAP TS-239 Pro Turbo NAS Superior Performance All-in-One Server with iSCSI for Business. There are also cheaper alternatives such as the DS209j mentioned above, the D-Link DNS321 2-Bay NAS, and the Buffalo Technology LS-WS1.0TGL/R1 LinkStation Mini 1TB Compact Shared NAS, but you will be giving up significant performance to save money as these less expensive NASes tend to have slow CPUs and less memory. IMHO the DS209 hits a sweet spot on the performance / price curve.In summary, the Synology DS209 offers a good combination of performance and features. And while it is not the least expensive option for a dual drive NAS, it offers value for those who need more performance than an entry level box.
Top reviews from other countries
Cédric M
Pratique et vraiment très très intéressant
Reviewed in France on October 19, 2016
