This is where a dedicated device comes in. There are countless examples of ways to get some parts of the functionality of a NAS, but they all fall short in some way or another. Since they're connected via USB, that means only one device can access them at a time unless you implement some advanced file forwarding. If that drive fails, you're out of luck, your data is likely gone. Your average external USB storage device typically uses the cheapest drive possible to hit a price point. Backing up your data to a local device may protect you from a drive failure, but again, there are limitations. It works great for some scenarios, but it is only designed for media.Īnother area where a NAS is helpful is for backups. Plex allows you to stream and view your content on many devices, and even remotely. One common example of this would be using Plex for media sharing. However, you won't be able to access it remotely, there won't be any active management or monitoring, and some devices may have trouble viewing the folder.įor a more robust option, you can set up a file server on your computer. This will allow other Windows computers on your local network to connect and access the folder. You can do this easily in Windows, for example, by right-clicking on a folder and enabling network sharing. The most basic form of NAS would be a shared folder on a computer.
Shared network drives are common in the corporate world to allow teams to collaborate on a set of files, but there hasn't been much of a use for that in the home until recent years. You can theoretically turn any system with a network connection into a NAS if you wanted, but that has its limitations. Of course, you can put security restrictions in place to allow only certain people access to certain files, but that's the general idea. You designate some files and folders that you want to be shared over your network, and then anyone can connect and access the files. Essentially, a NAS is just a bare-bones computer with a large amount of storage and specialized software. While Network Attached Storage as a concept has been around for decades, it's become more accessible and popular with home users and small businesses in the last decade. In any of these cases, Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a great option. Maybe you want a secure location to back up your important files to. Maybe you have some media on a desktop that you want to stream to a smart TV. Maybe you have some files on your phone that you want on your laptop. If you have multiple computers, chances are you've wanted to get a file from one system to another at some point.
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