RELATED: The Best External Hard Drives of 2023 It’s compatible with Windows as well, although you’ll need to download the Airport utility software to manage it or access the hard drive. Because the hard drive is internal, you don’t have to deal with the slow USB 2.0 speeds that you might get connecting an external drive to another router. This may be the most well-known type of router with a built-in hard drive, but there are many similar routers available to those not interested in Apple products, too.Įditor’s Note: At the How-To Geek office we use (and recommend) the 3TB AirPort Time Capsule to backup our Macs and the 802.11ac Wi-Fi access is blazing fast everywhere. These devices function as your typical network router, but they also have all that fancy NAS server software and a built-in hard drive so you can get a NAS without adding yet another device to your household.įor Apple users, Apple’s AirPort Time Capsule is a wireless router with built-in network storage that Macs can easily back up to and use for network file-sharing. Rather than getting a dedicated NAS device and tacking it on to all your other devices, you can actually buy higher-end Wi-Fi routers that come with built-in hard drives. RELATED: The Best NAS (Network Attached Storage) Devices of 2023 Many types of back-up software can back up directly to the network storage. You can then access the files using a variety of different applications and even run different bits of software on the NAS itself, such as media-server solutions for streaming media and BitTorrent clients for downloading directly on the device. Generally, such devices can be controlled via a web interface, like your router can be. They’re all-in-one solutions so you can just grab a box, plug it in, and start using it. Essentially, these devices have built-in hard drives and some basic server software that can connect to your Wi-Fi or wired network and provide a NAS file server. Alternatively, you can just read our guide to buying the best NAS device.
Head to a website like Amazon and perform a search for “NAS” and you’ll find a bunch of devices marketed as a home file or media servers. The most obvious - though not necessarily best - way to get a NAS is just to buy a pre-made, ready-to-use NAS device.
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