Router with NAS server from FRITZ!Box - learn about its advantages
Hundreds, thousands of photos, videos and recordings documenting our daily lives need a place where they can be stored. By default, we store the daily recorded material in the phones memory and in the mysterious "cloud". However, it is especially useful to save sensitive documents and really large files on your own network drive.
Home NAS Server - FRITZBox
A NAS server is an extremely useful feature in the home and office. Thanks to it, we can easily turn every flash drive and portable USB drive into a network file server - Network Attached Storage. Implemented by the FRITZBox router, NAS is a great alternative to relatively expensive dedicated file servers. A router with a NAS server makes it very easy to run this useful feature. The media you have is connected to the USB 3.0 socket, which the NAS router is equipped with, and in the configuration you enable the corresponding option.
NAS file server - why you should have one at home
NAS-compatible file server is the perfect addition to your home network. Its resources can store huge amounts of data at no extra cost. The user only needs to equip himself with the appropriate drive (HDD or SSD) for his needs, which will be connected to the router, and this is a one-time cost. There are no subscription fees, depending on the amount of file storage space.
Performing NAS functions, the servers are part of a local network that can only be accessed by household members. It can be figuratively called a "private cloud" over which only the user has full control. The stored data is not subject to checking by the service provider for compliance with more or less fancy rules and regulations, which additionally change with the whims and currently professed ideologies of service providers.
If we would like to make our cloud less airtight, but still 100% private, we can set up remote access to our home resources using a VPN. This does not mean making our files available on the Internet, but only extending the home network to include remote users.
For users who are less keen on absolute privacy, the FRITZBox NAS implemented by the FRITZBox router offers the possibility to connect local resources to external cloud services such as WebDAV. With this feature, the resources of our network drive, connected to the router, will be mapped to the service provider's online resources and accessible from outside our network.
FRITZBox NAS
FRITZBox NAS Applications are varied and will successfully meet the needs of any home or even small business.
First of all, the files stored on the NAS drive can be accessed using the usual Windows Explorer, since the sharing supports the SMB protocol (including the older SMBv1 version, if necessary). You can give a share a name of your choice and "subscribe" it to your workgroup in a network environment.
The second commonly used file sharing protocol supported by the NAS of FRITZ routers!Box is a well-known and well-liked FTP. This protocol is one of the fastest because of the relatively small amount of control data (consuming bandwidth, but not carrying user information, the so-called "overhead"). In addition, the FTP protocol has the ability to resume an interrupted file transfer from where it last ended (in the case of SMB, the transfer must be resumed in its entirety).
Both ways of sharing have inbuilt mechanisms of individual security by means of username and password and the possibility of granting access to selected disk resources.
Complementing the NAS in FRITZ routers!Box is the ability to share disk resources, especially multimedia, using a UPnP-compliant Mediaserver. With this feature, our photos, music and videos can be viewed directly from the web using smart TVs, network media players.
After enabling the feature in the setup, the availability of resources is broadcast to the network via UPnP and our media server will show up on the TV as a network source of media content.
