Can anyone guide me through my options for linking a NAS to my iMac / network. The time machine function would be good to have as there is no way I will remember to backup regularly.

So far I think I have come up with these options:

-I’m aware of the time capsule, which would be the simplest option, but of course there is an apple premium to pay (not keen on this one)

-I’ve seen a WD 2tb drive which apparently functions with time machine since apple updated the OS and made it a p.i.t.a to use time machine with any non- apple device

-get AirPort Extreme and just plug in a USB drive and this will function as a NAS (and presumably with TM)

– do away with all the fancy business and just get a USB drive

I’d put a synology DS212J on my network and split it into a time machine backup drive and also a normal NAS drive for media sharing.

Works really well on all the macs in my house 🙂

No issues using TM since the upgrade to Lion/ML?

@somouk – any idea whether you can access the documents backed up by time machine from afar?

Got a QNAP NAS (TS-212) here that works fine too with ML. It’s got explicit support for TimeMachine. You just enable support, give it a password, then TimeMachine on any Macs will pick it up as a backup destination. Does work well.

Bump for the daytime IT bods…..