[mdlug] Fwd: Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit

[email5000 at usa.com]

I'm in the market for a Network Attached Storage (NAS). My minimum requirements are very basic: storage.  I'm looking for recommendations
of brands to consider / stay away from, experience, considerations, etc.

I've seen some units that have some great sounding features, but it
isn't worth it to me to spend significant money on those. I've id'd some
basic core H/W and S/W features below, that I feel are appropriately
necessary for today and looking forward:

     * 2 drive bays
     * multi-core microprocessor
     * >= 512 MB RAM
     * RAID (usual set: Basic, RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD)
     * SATA 2, 3 Drive connectivity
     * Gigabit Ethernet
     * USB 2, 3

     * multi-media streaming (ethernet, poss. wi-fi) within the home
     * SMB 2, 3

     * Needs to support Windows XP (if only temporarily, until I can migrate completely to Linux). N.B. I've seen references to minimum Windows OS requirements that make me think this is common...maybe only some models).

Possibly (not absolutely necessary)
     * FTP
     * web server
     * e-mail server

I read an online rating (PCMag.com 9/2017) of 8 different units, including brands: Synology, QNAP, Buffalo TeraStation, Western Digital.
Western Digital is out automatically (because of their 90+% failure rate -- in my experience). Synololgy appears to be everywhere, and is of the top two (Synology, QNAP) that I've seen in reviews. So, I've been looking at a several Synology units, particularly the DS216, DS216+, DS218, DS218+, but
have not committed to any of them.

Thanks,
Rich Hall