The majority of users who take photos with their smartphones upload them to the cloud. This is a problem, since you no longer have control over the photographs. The service can cease to exist, make you pay for it or the photos become corrupted, as has already happened.
While not a bad practice, we should have a second copy under our control. The easiest way is to purchase a NAS and install it next to the router. These systems are easy to install and configure, in addition, they have applications for the smartphone.
Zyxel offers us a very cheap NAS
We must say that the amount of offer is limited, since there are few brands that offer solutions. One of the best value for money offers is Zyxel. Among its products we have found this Zyxel NAS326 for 99.90 euros, with a discount of 47%.
What we have is a pretty basic NAS, but more than enough for a home environment. It has two bays for 3.5-inch hard drives and 2.5-inch SSDs. allows a maximum capacity of 32TB, so we can install storage units of up to 16 TB each.
It has very interesting things, such as the possibility of automating backup copies in a simple way. It has a smartphone application that allows us to access the storage whenever we want, being able to download the files we need or store new photos, for example. In addition, it allows acting as a multimedia server.
Regarding the capabilities, well, it’s not bad. Offers up to 105 MB/s data read and write, which is pretty good. It offers us the possibility of creating sRAID 0 and 1 systemsin addition to JBOD. They are the most basic and common configurations.
Something that also stands out is its connectivity, quite complete. We have a Gigabit Ethernet connector on the back and two USB 3.0, in case we want to connect storage units temporarily. It integrates a USB port on the front for fast data transfer.
Slightly more expensive alternatives
We like to offer you alternatives that can satisfy your needs without having a great impact on your pocket. Really, you won’t find anything as cheap as the previous Zyxel. But, you have the Synology DS220j for 213 euros, with a 6% discount.
Synology is one of the big NAS manufacturers and offers us this two-bay system. Allows us install up to 32TB, so each unit can have a maximum capacity of 16 TB. As usual, it allows you to install both 3.5-inch HDD and 2.5-inch SSD. We have the possibility to create configurations of RAID 0 and 1 disks as well as JBOD.
Here we also have a smartphone application that allows us to make backups, consult files and much more. The application is quite simple to use and complete. It has a Gigabit Ethernet port and two USB 3.0 ports.
For the most demanding we have the QNAP TS-233 for 235 euros, with a discount of 18%. This is the largest NAS manufacturer in the industry with years of experience. The best thing is that the mobile application is brutal and allows you to do everything with a very simple interface.
This unit also has two bays, but a big difference from previous models. It allows installing two units of up to 18 TB, so we can have up to 36TB total capacity. As in the previous cases we can install hard drives and SSD drives. Has support for RAID 0 and 1 configurations as well as JBOD and a hybrid system of QNAP’s own.
Its design is striking, quite careful and modern. It has a USB 3.0 on the front and, on the back, it has two USB 2.0 and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
