Synology NAS Setup Guide: Based on DSM 7.4

So, what this book is: a great primer to let you know the possibilities of what you can do with your NAS, including setting up VPNs, creating a media server, running VMs, etc. The author recommends apps, for instance PLEX for the media server, that help you start on the journey for that particular application.What it's not: an exhaustive step-by-step manual on how to set all this up. Most of that info can easily be found via search of the interwebs. For instance, I installed PLEX, based on the book's recommendation, but had to do some searches to figure out why my libraries weren't displaying on my TV (via Amazon Firestick).For what it's designed to be, it's a great book for those just diving into the wonderful world of Synology NAS.

The Synology NAS is a great device and if you need to look up some details their web site is well done. However, I had some questions about which apps might work best for my home server and at the time of moving from a DS211J to a new DS918 I came looking for a book. This filled the need beyond my expectation. Well done with a great index to locate the exact topic of interest. Being familiar with Synology's NAS systems I was tempted to just skip over the early chapters. However, the book is so well written I found myself reading everything just to be sure I wasn't overlooking something I should have known. There aren't many books for the Synology NAS, but fortunately this author has done a great job, so there may not be many others written. Well done, Nick.

Bought a entry level Synology NAS drive - this book is a great resource. It’s set up logically (essentials, security, and basic intro to things it can do). It goes into just enough detail as to not get bogged down, but help you take a look at some of the basic settings you should consider on the front end of setting it up. For the price, it’s a GREAT value - minimal additional expense to the NAS purchase itself, allowing you to secure it and get a lot more use out of the Synology NAS drive.Highly recommend!

Nick Rushton's Synology Setup Guide is a noteworthy improvement over the documentation that "accompanies" my DS1815+. It wades thru the frivolous options of setup and guides you to a good configuration that would work for an average user - someone looking for shared or simply more disk space on their home network. I particularly appreciate that it spared me the "See DSM Help" reference at every step in the Synology Users Guide. Unfortunately it didn't offer me much detail on the somewhat technical issues I face: how to best configure raid groups versus volumes versus iSCSI targets for other servers without wasting disk capacity, how to secure the NAS with an SSL certificate, or how to integrate it into an Active Directory and use the AD for authentication and access controls. For the price, it's a better guide than what the manufacturer offers; it's just not a "deep dive" for more advanced configuration cases.

For a beginner, this is a good start. For someone who is about to set up a new Synology unit for the 1st time and who is not familiar with networking operating systems, I would recommend this book.Unfortunately, if you have already installed the OS following the provided instructions, you will know too much for this book to advance your knowledge. It is not a reference book. I was disappointed to find that the page count is irrelevant as quite a number of the pages are only one paragraph long.I gave it 3 stars because for someone with no understanding of networking, this is a smooth start to get you going.On the up side, I would purchase another book by the author if he went into depth on the OS.

The Synology disk station is a great tool, but if you have very limitedIT knowledge as I do you need this book to help you get it set up correctly on your network and to help you set up files, user accounts and manage this great but complicated device. I set up my Synology without the help of this book only to realize it was not doing what I wanted it to do. I bought the book, read through it page by page. Eventually, I realized I had to start over and reset my disk station to factory setting and then walk through the set up using this book. It made it simple and helped me understand the process better. Until I got this book my disk station was worthless to me because of my misunderstanding of how it all works together. Now the disk station is a great tool that I use all the time - very powerful.

I have familiarity with most computers in general. But when I got my 1st NAS device, I decided it couldn't hurt to have some hands-on advice. Nick Rushton's book on setting up my Synology NAS DSM 6.0 has been the best spent money and has helped me get up and running in a small amount of time. No nonsense, easily understood step-by-step recommendations were what I needed. I highly recommend his guide. I got it in Kindle form, so that I could read his instructions while working in the Synology DiskStation at the same time. Overall, a fine companion piece to my 1st NAS experience.

IF you are not a networking expert or have had previous Synology NAS and configured them before, this book was absolutely perfect for learning everything you need to understand the NAS and its DSM OS and getting it all set up and configured the first time. I could not have don't it without this book. It is written very well and is perfect for people who know little about networking. His writing style was clear and to the point. Cannot recommend this book enough!

At £13.99 this is a little expensive for a paperback and is quite basic. It also completely fails to cover DDNS, Router Configuration, Certificates, HHTPS and port forwarding. Getting a Windows network to see your NAS can be difficult It also has no index. Considering it is written for a NAS, discussion and help on networks and the way that Synology uses them is remarkably skimpy.

Unfortunately, some glaring omissions - most notably setting up Web Station. This, for me, was really disappointing as this was a key reason for me purchasing the Synology NAS Setup Guide. Others include a lack of information on Port Forwarding - again a topic that is likely to present problems to new inexperienced converts to NAS ownership. All in all, let down by incomplete coverage of essential topics required to maximise fully the immense benefits of owning and running a Synology NAS Drive.

I bought a Synology NAS mainly to provide a repository for backups. This book has shown me how much more I can use it for. I wish it had included more detail on the iTunes server, but otherwise it is excellent. If you have just purchased your first Synology NAS - or are just thinking about one - getting this book is recommended.

The problem with Synology's NASs (if it is a problem) is that they are really versatile and powerful and so tend to be complicated for the newcomer. I bought my NAS as replacement for a HPServer after reading reviews of various NASs. However, I was beginning to despair of ever setting it up until I read this book. It's not that the Synology help files are poor - they are very good at helping with individual tasks but this book puts the overall task of setting up the NAS into a logical sequence and tell you which settings to change and which can be left as they are. I also have a personal preference for using a handbook where it it is easy to refer back rather than electronic files which tend to deal with individual topics. Once I had read the book, which I did over the course of a few days, I was able to set up my NAS in a few hours.One word or warning. If you are using this book to "sort out" your NAS, as I was, you may have to resort to the Synology help files from time to time to supplement the information in the book.An extremely good beginners guide.

This is the first time that I've set up a NAS drive, so this book has been very useful. I have doubts that I would have had the confidence to attempt such a different task, though this information. I am used to Word, Excel, etc. but haven't done anything like this. Although I am quite IT savvy, I often prefer to learn things the old-fashioned way, and this book has been invaluable.A NAS drive is needed as I have over 15,000 digital photos and about 10,000 slides, most I want to scan and cleanse them using Photoshop Lightroom CC. Then the best photos will be saved again as part of slideshows. Also I have lots of music and other documents that I want to save onto the NAS so that they can be deleted from my laptop. It's a massive project which will take me a long time to complete!Firstly, I read through the book to get a feel for what I would need to do. Then, in preparing the two 3Tb disks in the Synology DS216J NAS Drive, I have been following through the book, doing as it says - ignoring the online advice that may have been helpful. I have not quite finished yet, but I am sure that this book will guide me step-by-step to the conclusion of setting up my project.I can recommend this book to anyone who has got a Synology NAS drive and they wants help to set it up.Hence the 5 stars.