Not too long ago whereas engaged on my homelab setup, I observed the twin community ports on my NAS, and I acquired curious what was potential with the second. Trying via manuals and discussions, I discovered I had a number of choices.

Many NAS units today, even some entry-level ones, embrace not only one however two community ports. That is regardless of the very fact you solely want one to attach it to the LAN. It isn’t there for nothing, although, and for those who aren’t making the most of it, you is likely to be lacking out.

Synology DS425+ on a white background.

7/10

Model

Synology

CPU

Intel Celeron J4125

Reminiscence

2GB DDR4 non-ECC

Drive Bays

4

This four-bay NAS works nice for residence and small workplace use, and it comes with a three-year guarantee from Synology.


The best and most typical use for the second port in your NAS is hyperlink aggregation, generally referred to as “trunking,” “bonding,” or “teaming.” All it includes is utilizing each ports to connect with your router, or one other entry level, with two totally different cables. This lets you “combination” ports and reap the benefits of each on the similar time.

Link aggregation wizard in ADM for an Asustor NAS.

The way you arrange hyperlink aggregation is determined by your gadget, however you sometimes get a number of modes to select from at configuration, like spherical robin, lively backup, and adaptive load balancing. The mode for you is determined by what you are attempting to do together with your NAS and what networking gear you will have at your disposal, so it’s best to learn your NAS’ guide on the subject.

The impact of most choices although is best load balancing to extend reliability, plus the addition of fault tolerance. Meaning if one port fails for some motive, the opposite will routinely choose up the slack.

Hyperlink aggregation typically can enhance your throughput. It will not be the doubling you may think, even when each ports provide the similar most pace. Nonetheless, when you’ve got an additional port in your router and an additional Ethernet cable that may attain it, there’s nearly no motive to not reap the benefits of hyperlink aggregation in your NAS.

Wire in from a PC instantly

Secondary Ethernet being used to connect to a PC in ADM for an Asustor NAS.

For those who’re repeatedly transferring recordsdata between your Wi-Fi-connected PC or laptop computer and your NAS, you possibly can put your further Ethernet port to make use of by connecting your PC on to your NAS with a community cable. Clearly, you want a cable long enough to succeed in the NAS, however you additionally must be ready to manually alter some community settings.

Model

StarTech.com

Size

125ft

Cable Sort

Copper

Connector Sort

RJ45

Class

Cat 6

Velocity

10Gbps

This further lengthy StarTech Cat-6 cable is a high-quality Ethernet cable that helps as much as 10Gbps knowledge switch speeds.


Particularly, you have to set a static IP address on your PC, and also you additionally have to set a static IP on the NAS with an handle on the identical subnet because the PC. For those who do not do that, the connection will not work.

The setup is price it, although, if you’d like wired speeds with out going via the router. I managed to do that with my NAS and my laptop computer. Over my Wi-Fi connection, I used to be maxing out at about 33MBs, averaging extra like 20MBs. I used to be hitting a significantly better and extra regular 105 to 110MBs with the direct line to the NAS.

Bridge a PC to the LAN (probably)

For instance you will have a PC and a NAS in your workplace, however the workplace solely has one community port. If you need a wired connection for each, the standard reply is to get a community swap. Nonetheless, it might be technically potential to provide the one Ethernet connection to your NAS, then use the NAS’ second port as a method to wire your PC into the broader community.

I might solely discover a number of folks on the web efficiently doing this, totally on Synology units. They had been utilizing “digital swap” software program put in on the NAS, which “bridges” the 2 ports to permit a secondary wired-in gadget (like your PC) to connect with the web by way of the NAS as if it had been an actual community swap.

A NAS server with an SSD, a multi-gig switch and a GPU above it.


5 NAS Accessories That Will Level Up Your Homelab

I actually ought to add #2 again to my NAS setup…

Most NAS units should not designed for this operate, although, and I’d recommend a hardware switch for those who can handle it. Nonetheless, a bridge-over-NAS is likely to be potential in a pinch. If you are going to try this, I like to recommend discovering another person who’s completed it earlier than in your NAS and ensuring you perceive how digital swap know-how works.

Whereas I used to be researching this matter, I observed the RJ45 ports on the Uninterupted Power Supply (UPS) holding my NAS powered and I puzzled in the event that they had been an alternate route for my NAS’ communication with the UPS. It turned out the reply was no; these ports had been only for defending the LAN from surges.

In truth, Ethernet-based communication with the UPS is just potential in case your gadget is high-end sufficient to have an SNMP-enabled community card. Even then, you are most likely going to be connecting it to the broader community quite than straight into the NAS, in order that second port will nonetheless go unused.

For those who’re on the lookout for different methods to get essentially the most out of your NAS, be taught how useful Portainer is on a NAS. For those who do not personal a NAS however are fascinated by a purchase order, contemplate building your own NAS device instead.


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