NAS: Synology new beta available

Synology is really rocking and have just released the latest beta. I suggest that you sign-up before the beta closes – I did my upgrade last night and everything is working good. Amongst the enhancements (I was looking forward to the hibernation fix for my Western Digital Green-HD):

• RAID 6 Support: RAID 6 volume type cuts off the risk of volume failure and provides extra data protection.
• NFS Support: With built-in NFS option, admin can quickly enable NFS and set up privileges on the UI by a few checks only.
• Virtual Host: Hosting multiple websites on one single server for a more efficient and economical purpose; both IP-based and name-based virtual hosting are supported.
• Batch Users Creating: By importing the user list, admin can now efficiently create a number of user accounts on a batch basis.
• HDD S.M.A.R.T.: The S.M.A.R.T. information and S.M.A.R.T. test are available on the management UI for admin to monitor, detect, and report the hard disks status, in a way to alert possible HDD failures. (Not supported on DS-101j)
• Enhanced Local Backup: Enables multiple scheduled Local Backup tasks with the assistance of Local Backup wizard, the backup destination can be either the external HDD or the shared folders on the internal HDD. From now on, the external attached HDD (EXT3 or FAT format) can be used as storage and backup disk simultaneously.
• Enhanced FTP Server: The advanced privilege of “write-only” is supported. In addition, limiting the maximum connections from each individual IP provides better bandwidth management together with the bandwidth restriction option. UTF-8 filename support which better handles multilingual characters is also optional.
• New Download Station 2: Other than BitTorrent/FTP/HTTP download, new download channels eMule and NZB are now supported by the Download Station 2. In addition, partial files download from BitTorrent is also allowed. Download Station 2 is now separated from the management UI and stands on an individual webpage.
• Enhanced File Station: Admin can designate his/her own File Station with a different port as well as customize webpage banner, so that users will login the File Station independent from the NAS server management UI. The advanced privilege of “write-only” is also supported.
• Enhanced Audio Station: No USB speakers are required for playing music stored on the server anymore. The new streaming mode streams .mp3 audio files to the client PC(1) and delivers by built-in speakers. A built-in playlist “Random100” will randomly choose and play 100 songs each time it is selected. (Not supported on DS-101j)
• Enhanced Photo Station 3: Admin can now customize Photo Station 3 background and theme in his/her own fashion, and sort photos and albums according to personal preference in the Settings area. Language setting is also modifiable based on his/her choice. The media RSS feed is now supported. Moreover, users can now enjoy the Photo Station 3 with PicLens dazzling full screen 3-dimensional photo slideshow(2).
• Enhanced Windows ADS Compatibility: Better handles the Windows domains especially for those with a large number of domain users. Windows Server 2008 is also supported now. (Not supported on DS107e, DS108j, DS-106e, DS-106j, and DS-101j)
• Enhanced Mac OS Usability: Synology NAS servers will be automatically found by Bonjour protocol, including Finder and Safari browser (Bookmarks > Bonjour).
• Enhanced iTunes Server: m4a and m4p file formats are correctly indexed on iTunes server with tags information.
• Enhanced Hibernation: Improved hibernation mechanism is introduced particularly to solve the problem of Western Digital Green Power series HDDs’ not sleeping while in hibernation.
• Enhanced Concurrent Connection Capability: The maximum concurrent connection number is now expanded to 256. (Available on DS508, RS408, and RS408-RP)
• Perl Support: Perl 5.8.6 is formally included in Synology Disk Station Manager 2.0. (Not supported on DS-101j)