"When Thecus asked me to take a look at their new N4200 small office NAS, I wasted no time agreeing to get the unit in for review. I had seen the press release and the email announcements and upon glancing over them could see right from the start that it was a little different than some of the other NAS appliances I reviewed in the past, but it was just another day at the office so to speak.

There are a number of legitimate reasons why NAS devices are becoming so popular in work environments, but because of the costly setup investment, they have remained more of a luxury than a necessity for home users.

More affordable products are finding their way to the market all the time, however you should be wary with some of them. For example, one of the cheapest 4-bay NAS devices available right now is the Promise NS4300N SmartStor at just $290. I made the terrible mistake of purchasing this product because of the attractive price point alone.

"Synology's DS210j is a great example of a low cost and easy to set up NAS unit geared towards home users and their demands. Storing and sharing multimedia files is a top priority in the home market, and the DS210j has those needs covered by providing a DLNA media server, iTunes server, audio station, download station, and various other features."