QNAP TS-453 Mini NAS Review

Setup – There is more, Add-Ons & External Devices

There are so many functions in QNAP’s QTS operating system, it is hard to cover them all. I still wanted to show a few more of all that is available.

You can for example change how the login screen looks and what information should be displayed on there.

In case you installed the system as a business in the first steps and still want to access all the media functions, then you’ll find the function to turn it on within the System Administration pane under General Settings.

Domain security such as Active Directory and LDAP authentication are both supported, so you won’t have any trouble integrating it into your corporate network.

Just as sharing your files won’t be any problem, may you want network sharing to NFS, Mac, and Windows systems or use classing connections such as FTP and SSH. I did miss one feature in the FTP feature and that was the ability to turn FXP on and off.

Accidentally deleting the wrong file on a network share can be painful, that is if you don’t have the network recycle bin enabled. It works just as the desktop recycle bin that you’re used to except that this one works on your network shares instead.

Applications

There are a lot of pre-installed applications and even more that you can add extra if your needs aren’t satisfied by what you see. The main applications that will come in useful for most people are the Stations for Photos, Music, Files, downloading, and Surveillance.

You can watch the system status from network throughput to the temperature of the CPU, system, and drives. If the temperatures seen below should be too high for your preference, then just dial-up the fan a little more. I do have to say, that it’s awesome with these settings. You can’t hear a thing from the NAS.

Qsync allows for easy synchronization between all your devices. It will help you get started, tell you what apps you need and where you can find them. Just follow the onscreen instructions and you’ll be done in no time.

If you prefer other types of backup over synchronization, then QNAP has that part covered too. You’ll find anything from Rsync over RTRR and Time Machine to normal NAS to NAS backups and easy setup for Cloud services such as Amazon S3 and ElephantDrive.

Transcoding is one of the really great features on this NAS. It can do it on-the-fly or in the backgournd. You can set times when the automatics should kick in and what folders it should monitor for it. Your media will run great on any of your devices thanks to this.

Built-in antivirus is another great feature. It will take some resources as you know from your normal setup, but those are resources well spent. The days where only Microsoft systems were the big targets is long gone. Any system is at risk these days and needs to be protected.

the myQNAPcloud setup makes it easy to create your own personal cloud. It can help you configure your router for you thanks to UPnP, allows for easy VPN integration and can even link with the commercial providers.

App Center – Get even more out of your QNAP NAS

I’ve mentioned all the apps that you can install extra a couple of times and below you’ll see a small part of them. That should give you somewhat an idea of all the QNAP QTS has to offer.

External Devices

You’ll be prompted with a pop-up windows like it’s seen below if you’re logged into the QTS when you plug-in an external drive, unless of course you’ve previously told it to not show it again. You also find the drive under the External Storage settings where you can format or eject it as well as see its information.