Synology DS216se 2-Bay Entry-Level and Cloud NAS Review

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

Security

Security is an important factor on a NAS, after all, this is the devices that stores all your precious files, photos, and videos. You can set a wide variety of security options on the DS216se from basic log out time to cross-site attacks protection.

A basic firewall function for port and IPs is also included.

You also find a DoS protection for the LAN interface.

The Auto Block could also have been placed on the first tab in my opinion as it’s the most basic form of bruteforce protection. Block a user from trying to log in after x amount of failed attempts.

Synology ships the NAS with a self-signed SSL certificate that you naturally can replace with your own.

Network and Wireless

The DS216se only features a single network connection, so we don’t get as many settings here as on the bigger models. We can still configure the interface, traffic control, and route settings for it.

You can also set up a wireless connection through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but that requires an optional USB adapter. That would allow you to connect both the NAS wirelessly to your network as well as use it as accesspoint for other wireless devices.

Hardware and Power Settings

The available hardware and power settings aren’t anything special in themselves, but they are quite impressive for such a budget device. You can control how it should behave on different failures as well as set the fan operation mode.

Power scheduling can help you minimize the total cost of ownership by having it automatically shut down when you don’t need it anyway, for example while you’re sleeping.

You can adjust the HDD hibernation time yourself and the default time is set to 20 minutes for internal drives and no hibernation for USB drives. This is something you might want to turn on too.

Uninterrupted power supply units (UPS) are also supported on the DS216se.

There is more

A task scheduler is a useful tool that you’ll probably skip in the begining but find more and more useful down the road. Why do regular tasks manually when you can automate it all.

There is a notification center that can email you when the status changes or errors occur, which is the most basic form of notification. DSM also supports SMS verification and Push Service for notifications.

Package Center (App Store)

There are hundreds of extra apps and features availalbe inthe package center, which you chose to install comes down to what you need. You’ll find anything from streaming software over CMS systems to email servers and much much more.