In the past most home users resorted to buying cheap low end PC’s just to act as a file server in cases where they have more than 1 PC in the household and everyone wants to share files among each other as well as store important data as backups. Until recently I myself had an old P3 machine in the corner of the house simply acting as a file server and doing other minor networking tasks as well as audio streaming. However with the introduction of Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems we now have the ability to do these tasks with much ease and with hardly any effort at all.
We have been reviewing a few NAS products in the past few months and if you are keeping up with new hardware devices coming out, you would have noticed the plethora of manufactures coming out with these devices. Today we look at a popular contender in the NAS market called QNAP. QNAP has been in the industry for many years now and has received significant popularity for their feature rich and high performance NAS systems. The device we’re looking at today is the TS 109 Pro Turbo Station NAS system which is aimed at the SMB & Corporate market.
The TS-109 Pro supports many valuable functions like File Server, FTP Server, Printer Server, etc. to satisfy the needs of SMB and SOHO users. Even though the TS 109 Pro is built on a very small footprint, it packs a 500 MHz processor, 128MB of DDR II RAM and a bucket load of features. Let’s take a look at the specs:
Features & Specifications
Create your own File Server in the easiest way
The
basic purpose of File Server is to allow users to store and share
files. Users often concern that their private data or confidential
files would be accessed by others. TS-109 Pro allows server manager to
create user ID and password, and define the authority and quota for
each user. Thus personal data stored on TS-109 Pro are well protected.
FTP Server simplifies the data sharing
Having
troubles with sending large files by e-mail due to the limited
capacity? You can establish your own FTP server by using TS-109 Pro.
You can manage the access authority of the FTP server and share your
files with your friends or customers easily in a few steps.
Backup Server with the most professional auto-backup software
Data
backup may sound time and effort consuming for most users. QNAP's Turbo
Station now brings you the enterprise-class technology to make backup
extremely simple and efficient! The most intelligent automatic backup
software, NetBak Replicator, is provided for users to perform real-time
synchronization or schedule backup from multiple PCs to TS-109 Pro.
Enhanced data protection by optional RAID-1 mirroring
Imagine,
your server's hard drive crashes and you lose everything. What would
you do to have it back? QNAP's exclusive Q-RAID 1 provides the
ultra-high-level redundancy, which helps to keep a real-time
synchronized mirror in your external USB or eSATA hard drive box. In
case the main storage is damaged, the backup disk can be installed to
TS-109 Pro to resume normal operation
Remote Replication
Remote
Replication provides a superior level of data protection. Files can be
backed up from TS-109 Pro to other QNAP NAS products in remote
locations. Advanced options including data compression, block level
incremental backup, and data synchronization save tremendous bandwidth
and time for data backup.
Establish your interactive Web Server
Owning
a web server is no more a dream! With the dual support of MySQL and
SQLite, SMB/ SOHO users can easily set up their own web server. With
the editable php.ini support, there is no need of going through all the
hassles of setting up a web server. You can either develop programs by
yourself or download a variety of open-sourced applications, such as
online shops, forums, blogs, etc., over the Internet.
MySQL Server
TS-109
Pro is the most affordable choice as a standalone database server for
system integrators. It can be applied flexibly in various deployments
such as a database server of another web server in remote site or as an
additional backup database server to achieve system redundancy.
Share your printer resource by Printer Server
You
can share your printer device over the network without duplicating
investment by simply connecting a USB printer to TS-109 Pro's USB port
and enabling the printer sharing function.
UPnP Media Server (with built-in TwonkyMedia Server)
TS-109
Pro is a perfect media storage center and it works well with DLNA
(Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant media players. You can play
the photos and videos on TV. In addition, you can listen to your
favorite music and Internet Radio on your Hi-Fi System.
Multimedia Station for photo sharing
Now
you can share photos with your family and friends by TS-109 Pro. By
uploading your photos to TS-109 Pro, the server automatically generates
a web-based photo album with thumbnails and details, such as date,
resolution, focal length, aperture, etc.. You can browse and share the
digital photos in a convenient way!
Enjoy continuous download independent of PC
TS-109
Pro serves as a continuous BT Download ( BitTorrent ), FTP, or HTTP
download center without turning on your PC. The great web-based
interface allows you to manage the download tasks anytime, anywhere!
Share your music by iTunes Server
Music
fans and Apple enthusiasts will be certainly rocked by the coolest
music-sharing feature of TS-109 Pro! All your MP3 music can be
collectively stored and streamed to Mac or Windows PC. Just turn on the
iTunes program and enjoy all the music around your home network!
Support Windows ADS
With
Windows ADS (Active Directory Service) support, you can deploy your
Turbo Station in small business environment easily! It enables Windows
domain users to easily access the shared data with the Active Directory
authentication. This not only saves server manager's time and effort in
creating duplicated groups and accounts, but also lowers the
maintenance cost by centralized management.
Sharing files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix.
TS-109 Pro is specially designed for different users to share the files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix environment.
No fan design
The
fan used inside a device is for the purpose of cooling system, no
matter how quiet it is, the fan has to be activated for air
ventilation. Somehow, it is inevitable to generate intermittent
chirping noise which distracts your work or diminishes your enjoyment.
TS-109 Pro adapts no fan design approach by using silver/ black
aluminum case for thermal dissipation. It provides an absolute quiet
working environment for you!! For more details about fanless design
One touch USB auto copy
When
a USB device such as digital camera, digital camcorder, or pen drive is
plugging into the front panel USB port, data in the USB flash disk or
digital photos in your camera can be backed up to TS-109 Pro
automatically by simply pressing the USB copy button.
Unique advanced HDD health scanning (HHS)
No
idea how's the health status of your centralized storage hard disk?
TS-109 Pro is embedded with HHS technology which lets you to perform
checking disk and bad blocks scanning to prevent potential data loss.
Unique Web File Manager
TS-109
Pro provides unique Web File Manager function for you to easily
download, upload and manage the files on the server by browser.
SSL Security (HTTPS)
You
can access and manage your Turbo Station by using web browser securely.
All connections between PC and NAS including user ID, password, files,
download tasks, etc. are encrypted in SSL tunnels and are well
protected.
Remote management of download tasks on multiple Turbo Stations
QGet
is powerful P2P download management software provided with QNAP's Turbo
Station series. QGet can be installed on any Windows computers for
users to simultaneously manage BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP download tasks
of multiple Turbo Station servers.
Network Recycle Bin
Can
you imagine if you delete an important file on the NAS by mistake and
lose it forever? You don't need to worry now! The files deleted from
the network shares of the TS-109 Pro will be moved to a particular
recycle bin folder. You can restore your data anytime in case of
unintended file deletion.
Built-in DDNS support
TS-109
Pro supports dynamic DNS (DDNS). You can register a unique domain name
from a DDNS service provider and assign it to your Turbo Station. There
is no more need to remember a lengthy IP address!
Establish a PC-less Home Multimedia Center by Using QNAP NAS and PS3 or Xbox 360
All
the multimedia contents stored on QNAP NAS can be automatically shared
to a PS3 or an Xbox 360 in the home network. Users can play their
stored photos and videos on a TV, or listen to the music via their
Hi-Fi system. QNAP NAS can be a perfect home storage and sharing center
for establishing a PC-less, HD video-playing (via PS3, video resolution
up to 1080p), highly accessible, and power-saving digital home theatre.
Support Windows ADS
Sharing files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix. 
One touch USB auto copy
Unique advanced HDD health scanning (HHS)
Network Recycle Bin
