Network Management

Slow networks and internet connections problems are frustrating and difficult to resolve. Home and office networks rely heavily on WiFi because of the convenience for use and setup, but WiFi is susceptible to many external factors that make it unreliable or slow.

Your 2.4Ghz WiFi was not designed for the heavy loads of today's digital media, and your home and office networks need to manage larger volumes of data moving in / out of the network, whilst maintaining security, backup, and recovery in an automated manner.

The resources below will assist you in making informed choices about the configuration of your NAS, and provide guidelines for its ongoing management.

- <span class="glyphicons glyphicons-router"> </span> Network Management

Most ADSL+ ISP's state they provide 6-10 Mhz download, and 800kbps upload. However whilst download speeds vary infrequently most homes will be lucky if their upload are closer to 200bps.

Then inside your network the 2.4G wireless connections will usually provide around 50Mbps when you're close to the router, but will deteriorate as the device is moved further from the WiFi router and/or as more people login and use the same wireless network.

Additionally, wireless routers provided by most ISP's have very low RF power and have difficulty managing large numbers of data packets on networks especially with regular use of music, videos, gaming, downloading, and internet browsing.

To understand how networks develop speed problems please visit the article Hey Dad, why is the Internet Slow?

The following videos explain some of the terms and their effect on the speed and reliability of your network.

Wireless Routers Explained

Wireless routers 101

Lon Seidman provides a timely explanation of the mechanics of your network, whilst introducing the terminology that will help you to understand the reasons why networks get bogged down.

Does your network perform well at the moment? It is still worthwhile to understand what he has to say so you can avoid these problems as your digital world grows.

Choosing the best router for your home - Part 1

TechFreshness has gathered a number of well known routers and in this first part 1 of 2 video, it compares their basic capabilities, purposes and prices (in USD).

Choosing the best router for your home - Part 2

In Part 2, TechFreshness provides more detailed comparison of each of the routers' features and explains which features he finds most beneficial in a router.

You don't need to use WiFi for everything
You don't need to download everything on demand
Those things you must download, you don't have to re-download each time you use them
You don't need to re-download movies
You MUST use multiple networks in the home
Get a NAS to manage what, when, where, how things are sent, backed up, shared, serviced
You must plan to use 2.4Ghz network for casual web surfing (so it has a lighter load)
If you have the opportunity to install 1GB or 10GB Ethernet to link sections of the home "do it"
If you (or the person you eventually sell your home to) will value home security, then when installing Ethernet install TWO cables side by side so you can have double capacity of redundancy if someone digs a hole in the wrong place.
If installing Ethernet under structures before they are built (like running a cable under a slab of cement before its poured) run protective electric pipes capable of carrying 3 Ethernet cables (1 spare) and make sure that cable is in the pipes before the cement is poured.
If you can stretch the budget to purchase a NAS with Thunderbolt 20 or 40GB connection between devices with high traffic (e.g. NAS to backup), this will move the high volume traffic away from the Ethernet.
A fast WiFi router matters. The WiFi routers provided by your ISP are mostly the lowest spec devices, and when the home starts to fill up with more and more devices, these low spec devices get locked up trying to handle the data packets. (That's why your network sometimes seems faster after restarting router, because the router has dropped all the incomplete connections it was holding onto.)

Access to your network is managed using the NAS box user authentication. Setting up a user in the NAS involves assigning user ID, name, email, password and access rights. Users are then added to groups which are the names you give to certain types of users, such as Family, Kids, colleagues, staffs. It's then a simple matter of assigning these groups to folders.

Computers, Tablets and Phones access the NAS in a number of ways.

Mapping a folder on NAS as a local drive (When a user opens up a Windows PC, and navigates to the NAS, they can right-mouse click and map any of the shared folders as a drive connected to their PC. From there they can manage files on the NAS as if they were stored locally.)
Mapping a folder on PC to use either ownCloud and/or Qsync software to sync files back and forth to NAS.

Network Connection Options

Qsync Qsync is software installed on the PC that acts as your own Dropbox with a huge capacity with full access rights to it. You own your data, and your files will always be safe and sound in your own personal cloud. You could still put files in the public cloud, but it makes more sense to have it safely stored in your NAS; as it also lets you share across different platforms, stream and remotely access on the go! Qsync lets you: Sync files across devices Whenever you add, edit, delete or rename a file on one computer, the change applies to all others linked with the Turbo NAS, so you have exactly identical contents on all your devices. Save up device storage Allows you to remove files on one computer without affecting the copies stored on others that are linked with the Turbo NAS. However, when someone updates the files you've deleted from another computer, you can still retrieve them in the Qsync folder. Sync selective sub-folders When synchronizing files, you can choose to only sync specific sub-folders within the Qsync folder, useful if your computers have limited storage. Share folders and files easily		Share team folders with different groups of people Your life is connected with different groups of people. You can create sub-folders within the Qsync folder, and share each with different groups of Turbo NAS users as a file exchange center. Everyone in the same sub-folder is always kept up-to-date with the latest version of the files. Quickly share files with download links You can create download links to share files with people, even if they don't have an account on the Turbo NAS. This greatly reduces the time in creating user account and password for users just to share less-important documents.

Qsync Central Station Webinar A detailed demonstration of Qsync Central station on NAS

Share, Sync and Backup with Qsync - Training Webinar Not satisfied with the limited Dropbox storage? The Qsync utility turns your Turbo NAS into a safe data center for file synchronization with huge storage. You can upload photos from mobile or tablet devices to the Turbo NAS, and access the same files on any computer, laptop or mobile device linked to the Turbo NAS. Qsync is especially useful for frequent travelers to manage files and always have the most updated files on different devices. Qsync provides multiple ways of file synchronization and group file sharing, greatly enhancing the flexibility of collaboration.

Get the Most From your Mac with a NAS Did you know that the NAS is designed for networks with both Mac and PC computers? You can easily store, download, share, and backup your data from your Mac to your NAS along with MUCH more!

Thunderbolt Hybrid NAS The TVS-871T is the world’s first Thunderbolt™ DAS/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution. With the incredible power of Thunderbolt 2 to double the speed potential to 20 Gbps, simultaneous 4K video transfer and display is enabled with considerable cost effectiveness. It’s also a perfect match for Thunderbolt-equipped Mac users for 4K workflows, file storage and high-speed sharing.