NAS devices make great Media Servers. The best NAS storage devices such as the excellent Synology DiskStation and NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 2 Plus have built in media streaming software and are DLNA compatible, meaning you can stream your media to many different devices such as ipad, iphone, android, mobile, xbox, playstation, TV and many more.

Network Attached Storage devices will have some or all of the following characteristics:

• Support fast network – 100Mb or 1Gb Ethernet
• RAID protection against Hard Drive failure (at least 2 hard drives required)
• Support streaming to multiple devices
• Support streaming media to remote devices over the internet
• DLNA Support
• Hot-Swappable drives so you can replace drives without turning the NAS off.
• Easy to use, intuitive interface

The Home NAS is the best home network storage solution as it will be plug and play, and will not require the installation of media server software that many high end dedicated media servers require.

It is also a huge advancement on the single disk media players and media centers, as it enables hardware RAID protection against data loss should there be a hard drive failure.

This section will provide reviews of the best Network Attached Storage devices available from some of the leading manufacturers such as Synology and QNAP.