Nas Server For Mac

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To mount the NAS and see it on your desktop you need to use the ‘Go’ menu in your OSX Menu Bar and select ‘Connect to Server.’ Type in afp:// followed by the IP address of the NAS. Eg afp://10.0.0.120 When you log in as a user it will mount your own home folder, but not other people’s home folders.

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  2. Connect to a computer or server by entering its address In the Finder on your Mac, choose Go Connect to Server. Type the network address for the computer or server in the Server Address field. For information about the correct format for network addresses, see Network address formats and protocols.
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A network drive, also known as a NAS (network attached storage) drive, is a storage device that connects to a home or office network instead of your computer. Some of the advantages of this are obvious: for example, you can get access files from a smartphone, tablet, or computer without having to plug the drive in.

Other, perhaps less obvious, positives of NAS include things like automated backups and the ability to mirror data on two drives. In other words, NAS offers a flexible and protected way to manage Mac storage that’s far beyond that of standard external hard drives. Read along to learn how to map a network drive and avoid some common NAS mistakes.

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What is a network drive used for?

Whether it’s populated or diskless, has one bay or more than five, a network drive is typically used as an alternative to cloud storage. It may be easy to drag and drop files to something like Google Drive or Dropbox, but just a bit of drive mapping can make using a network drive a fantastic cloud alternative.

Some of network drive’s key advantages include:

Best Nas For Mac Os

  • Better control over your files
  • More security features than cloud services
  • Flexibility without compromising on privacy
  • Being used by multiple users across multiple devices

Map network drive on macOS (one-time)

Nowadays, most NAS devices are seriously easy to map. Let’s say that you’ve been working on a document in your home office but have just remembered a key fact that you want to include. Time to make a quick edit from your wife’s laptop before you forget about it!

Network drive access can be obtained in three simple steps, provided you don’t mind having to repeat those steps if the connection drops, you restart your Mac, or the device is disconnected:

  1. In Finder, either hit Command+K to bring up “Connect to Server” or click Go > Connect to Server
  2. Enter the path of the network drive you’re trying to map (e.g. smb://192.168.1.300/shared/Files) and click Connect
  3. Enter your login details and password then click OK to mount the network drive

You can now access the relevant drive either via your desktop or the sidebar in Finder windows.

Map network drive on macOS (remount after reboot)

Maybe you have a server in your office with a connected network drive and want all your employees to be able to connect to it so they can collaborate on shared documents. If you want to keep a Mac connected to a network drive, even after restarting, the easiest way to do this is to follow the three steps above then add these:

Best Nas Server For Mac

  1. Hit the Apple menu, then System Preferences > Users & Groups
  2. From here, select Login Items and click + to add a new item
  3. Find your network drive and click Add, then close the window

Now, your network drive will be mapped and automatically remounted when you reboot your Mac. Network drives won’t, however, connect automatically if you’re using a different WiFi network.

Make a network drive accessible from Mac desktop

Depending on your settings, mounted drives may not always appear on your desktop. That’s not necessarily a problem if you don’t mind only being able to see connected servers in Finder window sidebars and open/save dialogues.

If, however, you want your NAS device to always be just one double-click away (in the same way that most people have Macintosh HD as a visible item on their desktop) just follow these steps:

  1. Open Finder > Preferences or click Command + to open Finder Preferences
  2. Click the General tab, then tick the box next to Connected servers
  3. Close Finder Preferences

Remount a mapped network drive with one click

Managing, or working across, multiple departments that each have their own network drive? In that case, it can be handy to create aliases of mapped network drive(s):

  1. Right click on any mapped NAS device on your desktop.
  2. Select Make Alias

This might not sound like anything all that significant but, as the subheading suggests, you can use this alias to reconnect to a network drive with one click. That can be very helpful if you need to keep jumping between different shared drives.

How to manage files with network-attached storage

In most cases, macOS’s default tools are sufficient for viewing, editing, and deleting files. That might change, however, if you’re using a NAS device. For example, it’s very easy to end up with a ton of duplicate files on your network drive where it’s likely you’ll be less concerned about making the most of your storage as you might be with a built in hard drive.

Gemini is a great tool for digging out any duplicate content on your drives, so you can ditch everything you no longer need while hanging onto backup documents, photos, etc.

  1. Open up the app and hit the giant + or drag your folder of choice into the window
  2. Choose from recommended locations or select a custom folder
  3. Push the green Scan for Duplicates button to get started
  4. Delete duplicate files manually or use Smart Cleanup to automate the process

For a more granular approach to file management, you might want to consider something like DCommander or Forklift. These apps both offer dual-pane file management, as well as features like batch renaming, copying, and deletion, in a more seamless way than your default Finder.

Although Forklift was designed with FTP management in mind, it’s become a favorite of network drive users because of how closely it resembles macOS. Billed as a Finder replacement app in parts of its marketing material, you won’t find an app much more native unless it comes out of Cupertino.

Plus, actually getting started with the app is incredibly simple:

  1. Open up the Forklift app
  2. Use the left-hand panel to find the file(s) you want to move across
  3. Select the right-hand panel then, using the sidebar, click on your network drive
  4. Start moving, renaming and archiving files

If Forklift isn’t for you then you might prefer to take a look at DCommander, an approved Mac alternative of Total Commander for Windows. In addition to two side-by-side file panels that look very similar to those of Forklift, DCommander puts a wider range of commands and features (including quick file viewing, selective file unpacking, navigation history, and a great looking Dark Mode) at your fingertips without the need to leave the dual-panel display.

Both apps let you do things like mark certain drives as favorites, create and browse archives, and get previews of items. In short, they’re much like macOS’s Finder … only better. It’s difficult to overstate how much easier it becomes to manage Mac storage with dual-pane browsing until you try to organize your network drive without it!

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Effectively manage Mac storage day-to-day

Thanks to macOS, network drive mapping is a pretty simple process even if you’re not particularly tech-savvy. You might be out of luck if you’re hoping to access a NAS device from another network using standard macOS tools but, at present, that’s pretty much the only thing keeping network drives from competing with the cloud at the mainstream level.

If remote access isn’t such a concern for you and you’re using NAS as an alternative to cloud, then it’s definitely worth taking a look at programs like Forklift or DCommander to make file management easier once you’re done drive mapping, as well as Gemini to ensure that your NAS device isn’t filling up with duplicate files you don’t need.

Best of all, the software mentioned above is available for a free trial through Setapp, a collection of over 150 high-quality macOS applications from the best developers around. Manage your Mac effectively today!

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Are you planning to create your own NAS (Network Attached Storage) using some old hardware and drives? Then for that self-made DIY NAS server you definitely need some OS or software to work; obviously, because the operating system is the thing that will control the functions that your NAS server will provide later. However, still, there are only a few well known Linux operating systems that dedicatedly meant to do this job. Yet, whatever out there are quite developed to provide Linux/FreeBSD based SAN (Storage Area Network) or NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions to enterprises, small offices or homes.

Top Open source Linux DIY NAS software

Top Open source Linux DIY NAS software

Before listing Linux or FreeBSD distros for creating network Attached storage OS, I would like to say there is no “best operating system” either for NAS or computer. The choice of an operating system depends heavily on what you are going to do with the NAS server. In this guide, we focus on software that understands a NAS server primarily as a system for the provision of data in your office or home. With the operating systems we mention in this article, you can copy data back and forth, perform backups, along with some advanced tasks (such as establishing a VPN connection or installing a mail server) including plugins to extend OS capabilities.

Here we are about to list some best NAS solutions to help you if you are planning to data management using open-source software in 2020.

1. FreeNAS OS

You might be already familiar with its name. It is one of the best FreeBSD based NAS software solutions that not only provide easy to use interface but also plugins to extend features such as for the Plex server. The operating system is designed to enable a self-built NAS system based on free software.

The company behind it actually deals in NAS hardware for enterprises, however, the OS is available free of cost for the general public.

The best thing is you don’t need to have a hard drive for FreeNAS installation, a simple USB drive would be enough, of course, to save data hard drives are needed those can be managed from its graphical user interface.


In addition, the operation of the FreeNAS is extremely simple. In terms of upgrades and updates, the manufacturer and their ​​product life cycles are released from time to time. It uses the OpenZFS file system which is highly reliable and can be configured from the admin web interface volume manager.

Key Features:

  • It provides easy to use graphical interface.
  • Supports all major protocols for file sharing such as CIFS/SMB (Windows), AFP (Apple), and NFS (Unix).
  • It makes easy to stream and share your movies and music.
  • Backup and snapshots are possible.
  • Checksums ensure only error-free data gets written to disk
  • Self file repair file system.
  • It offers encryption on ZFS volumes.
  • It offers useful plugins such as Plex, Owncloud, Minecraft and more to use NAS more than a storage device.
  • Docker and in-built virtualization support.

2. OpenMediaVault NAS software OS

OpenMediaVault (OMV) is another network-attached storage (NAS) software operating system and well-known for home or small office clouds. It is based on Debian Linux distribution, yes, the familiar one thus easy to install and manage without much system knowledge. This opensource Linux NAS software supports all major protocols such as SSH, (S) FTP, SMB / CIFS, and RSync and also can be expanded via plug-ins, for example, DAAP Media Server, Shairport – AirPlay/RAOP receiver, and more…

Open Media vault Key Features:

  • It comes with a web-based user interface thus not a problem to backup and accessing the storage drives from anywhere.
  • Based on Debian, thus easy maintenance of updates using the apt command.
  • Web-based administration, User management, Scheduled jobs, Multilanguage support, Service announcement via DNS-SD and Plugin system.
  • In terms of networking, it supports Link aggregation, Wake On Lan and IPv6 support.
  • Openmediavault provides a wide range of options to manage the storage volumes such as GPT partitions, RAID JBOD/0/1/5/6/, Quota feature to restrict user, SHare Management, EXT3/EXT4/XFS/JFS filesystem support and more…
  • It is faster and lighter weight and one best NAS OS even some people prefer it over FreeNAS.

3. XigmaNAS (formerly NAS4Free)

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XigmaNAS was earlier known as NAS4Free. If you want to create your own DIY NAS box, it provides easy-to-manage file server to provide data storage and smaller server tasks such as media services with little effort.

It also based on FreeBSD just like FreeNAS, actually, it had been developed using the code of FreeNAS and later in 2018, NAS4Free was renamed to XigmaNAS. It can be used USB sticks, memory cards or hard drives and SSDs as boot media. It is also possible to boot it from a live CD or a live USB stick.

XigmaNAS has extensive documentation directly on its own website, thus installation and handling would not be a big pain.


Like FreeNAS, XigmaNAS server functionalities can also be expanded using its extension based system. For example, you can save data related to BitTorrent directly on the NAS hard drives. Conversion of NAS server into a media server is also possible using the Plex media server extension that allows to manage media data in a visually appealing manner and to stream it to other devices. Or you can install an interface that also makes access from smartphones in a more convenient way.

Key Features of XigmaNAS:

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  • Complete management via a web interface
  • Software raid (0,1,5) and optional file encryption
  • File systems: ZFS v5000 (Feature Flag), UFS, Ext2 / 3, FAT, NTFS
    MBR and GPT partitions
  • Disk encryption with support for cryptographic hardware acceleration,
  • Numerous network protocols such as CIFS / SMB (Samba v4.x), FTP, NFS, TFTP, AFP, RSYNC, Unison, SCP (SSH), iSCSI (initiator and target), HAST (Highly Available Storage), CARP (Common Address Redundancy Protocol ), Bridge, UPnP and BitTorrent
    Services such as UPNP server, iTunes server, iTunes / DAAP server, web server, torrent client etc.
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
  • Monitoring with email alarm
  • Monitoring of hard disk drives and solid-state drives (SSDs) via SMART

4. Rockstor – Centos based Linux NAS solution

This Linux NAS software is slightly different and has a more stable base that is CentOS. The biggest difference between FreeNAS and Rockstor is it uses the Btrfs file system, which is very similar to ZFS used by FreeNAS. Btrfs is a so-called CoW (Copy-On-Write) file system and developed by the Oracle to provide high read and write performance and to handle fault tolerance, repair and easy administration.

Rockstor supports the protocols/features AFP, Active Directory, LDAP, NIS, NTP, NUT-UPS, SFTP and SNMP. Shares can be made available via NFS and Samba (Smb / CIFS). The SMART function for hard drives has also recently been supported.

It only supports 64-bit modern systems with at least 2Gb RAM and for best out of it, 4 to 8Gb is recommended depending on the number of data hard drives used.

Rockstor offers the possibility to integrate plugins via Docker. The plugins are available as containers, which Docker virtualizes on the host system.

Server

Apart from the traditional NAS system, it can be also used as Personal Cloud Server and SMB Cloud Server, we can set as per the requirement and data availability.

Nas Server For Mac

Key Features of Rockstor:

  • Linux, BTRFS based open source storage OS with Bitrot protection, checksums, compression and other advanced filesystem features
  • Copy-on-write Snapshots
  • File sharing is possible across all major systems such as Linux, Mac, Windows and Mobile devices.
  • GUI installer
  • Customizable Dashboard
  • Rockstor supports file backup with Rsync, Apple Time Machine and Windows Backup.
  • Resource monitoring with SNMP.
  • Add-ons for media streaming, backups, cloud storage and more.
  • And more…

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