QNAP officially released the latest firmware for their awesome NAS units, QTS 4.3.3. The updates in the new firmware are focused around users ability to do more with their systems and it’s quite the nice list of new features.
“QTS 4.3.3 was designed around the concept of ‘intelligence’ and adds numerous competitive features to realize intelligent and efficient functionality,” said Dylan Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding “Since the QTS 4.3 Beta release, our development team has constantly refined the usability and functionality of QTS to better fit the needs of users.”
The new QTS 4.3.3 version brings along some of all the previously tested beta features and new apps that we have heard of lately, all packed neatly into one base system with options to install more. Among some of the really nice new features is the new resource monitor that now features additional metrics and the new Network Center. The new Network Center isn’t just an overhaul of the user interface, it also comes with virtual switch function for even better utilisation of the available network ports. It even supports Thunderbolt to Ethernet converters and Thunderbolt NAS devices to access the network via their Thunderbolt connection.
Home users will probably love the revamped user interface for the multimedia-focused apps most. Both Music Station and Video Station come with new features and functions as well as multi-zone multimedia controls. Backup from USB and SATA optical disc drives is also possible now through the new firmware. For a full list of new features, please see the list below.
Key new apps and features in QTS 4.3.3:
Visual and insightful resource monitoring: The re-engineered Resource Monitor features useful graphs and additional metrics to provide better functionality for analysing and managing resource utilisation and storage performance.
Intelligent Qtier 2.0: Featuring an intelligent optimisation engine, Qtier now learns from NAS usage, analysing system performance and peak usage hours to determine the best time and optimum transfer speeds for auto tiering.
Maximised network accessibility with Network & Virtual Switch: Network & Virtual Switch allows NAS, virtual machines and containers to share the same LAN port. It also supports the T2E (Thunderbolt to Ethernet) Converter and the Thunderbolt virtual switch NAT service that allows Thunderbolt devices to access network resources via QNAP Thunderbolt NAS.
Time Machine backup over SMB: QTS 4.3.3 supports seamless functionality with MacOS Sierra, including SMB network file sharing protocols for extensive backup scenarios.
exFAT compatibility: Users can purchase a license that provides exFAT compatibility for directly accessing and editing files stored on exFAT-based storage using QNAP NAS, creating a seamless workflow for online media editing.
Qfiling for automatic file organisation: Qfiling automates file organisation – simply determine filing conditions, set a schedule, and files will be organised and archived based on your settings.
File Station adds remote connections: Users can directly browse and transfer files from their QNAP NAS to public cloud services, and mount shared folders from a remote NAS to a local NAS using FTP and CIFS/SMB. QTS 4.3.3 supports Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, Yandex Disk, Amazon Drive, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, and HiDrive.
Backup from USB/SATA optical disc drives: Users can connect a compatible USB/SATA optical disc drive to their NAS and directly access/copy the contents of inserted discs to a NAS shared folder using File Station.
Refined multimedia experience: All of the multimedia-focused apps have a revamped user interface; Music Station has a new Spotlight mode and supports smart playlists; Video Station allows for tagging scenes, switching audio tracks, and downloading supplementary data from online databases such as TMDb. QTS 4.3.3 also provides multi-zone multimedia controls for multimedia apps. Download Station now features an integrated BT search engine.
More productivity apps and utilities: QmailAgent allows for centrally managing multiple email accounts and IMAP servers; Qcontactz helps to centrally manage a growing contacts list from multiple devices and platforms; Qsync is enhanced with a new team folder structure and auto-recovery functionality that greatly improves stability and synchronization speed; IFTTT Agent allows productive workflow automation for QNAP NAS; QTS Help Center facilitates customer support and provides an optional remote connection service for QNAP engineers to resolve NAS issues via secure 256-bit SSL encrypted connections. More useful apps and utilities are available from the QTS App Center.
A place where you really have to give QNAP credit is the compatibility and how far back the new firmware is supported; Units as old as the TS-112 will support the new firmware version. For those who don’t know, this is a single-bay Marvell-based system that uses DDR2 memory. So it’s quite old by now.