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Back up & Share Your Digital Photos on QNAP NAS
"Showcasing your photo albums after making a backup to QNAP NAS"
Preface
Digital camera is widely used nowadays. Most people have large amount of digital photos saved in their PC or notebook for easy access. However, in case the computer is lost or the hard disk crashes, all precious memories will be gone. Some people who have a stronger sense of data backup may back up their digital photos by CD-R burning. Nevertheless, CD-R burning is time-consuming. It is also inconvenient to view the pictures and preserve the files. The discs can be easily scrapped and all the data will be lost.
Create Your Digital Photo Album and Backup to QNAP NAS
QNAP Turbo NAS provides a new choice for digital photo backup. Turbo NAS is a NAS with multiple server functions. Simply move the photo files to the folder Qmultimedia on Turbo NAS, you can create a photo album which can be browsed by web browser. Turbo NAS also supports photo backup and network sharing functions.
Let's get started!
Assign the NAS a fixed IP and setup the DDNS
It is recommended to assign a fixed IP to Turbo NAS . (Since you may need to open the ports of services on your NAT router and forward them to the LAN IP address of Turbo NAS and you do not want it to be changed.) Go to 'System Administration' > 'Network' > 'TCP/IP' and click on  to bring up the TCP/IP property window. Assign a static IP address for your NAS, besides, be sure to set the DNS server address as well or your will not be able to connect to the trackers.
Most ISP will provide one or more dynamic public IP for Internet connection. (This applies to the situation that the IP sharing router acquires WAN IP from ISP by PPPoE or DHCP connection.) To set up a server, a fixed IP address or URL is necessary so that users can easily recall the server address to connect to. When a dynamic IP address is used, you can get a router that supports DDNS or simply use the built-in DDNS function on QNAP NAS, and through registering an easy-to-remember domain name from any DDNS provider to easily identify Turbo NAS on the Internet, e.g. myqnap.dyndns.com.
You can move your photos to "Qmultimedia" folder on Turbo NAS. You can upload the files by My Network Places in Windows (Key in the path in your browser: \\192.168.1.34\ to access to the folder and then you can right click the mouse button to map the selected disk drive). You can then drag and drop files to and access the files on Turbo NAS directly.
Setup port forwarding on your router
If your Turbo NAS is located behind the NAT router, you need to open the ports of the services on the NAT router and forward these ports to the fixed LAN IP of NAS. This function is available on most routers found in the market and is often known as "Port Forwarding", "NAT Server" or "Virtual Server". You have to forward port 8080 to the LAN IP of Turbo NAS, e.g. forward TCP port 8080 to 192.168.1.34. When the NAT router receives packets from the WAN side to the external port 8080, the router will forward these packets to the LAN IP of Turbo NAS. (See below for an example setup on a Baffalo router.
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Some NAT routers provide DMZ settings. You can forward LAN IP address specified by DMZ to Turbo NAS. When this setting is used, all ports from WAN to LAN will be forwarded to Turbo NAS. |
To share your album with friends and family via the Internet, after completing these settings, your Turbo NAS album can be accessed via the Internet with 'http://myqnap.dyndns.com:8080/Qmultimedia/'.
Setup the Multimedia Station on QNAP NAS
Enable Multimedia Station
Go to 'Applications' > 'Multimedia Station' and tick the checkbox of both 'Enable Multimedia Station' and 'Show service link on the login page'. Then you will see the Multimedia Station icon on the top. Click on it to go to the Multimedia Station.
Upload photos
There are several ways to upload your photos to the Qmultimedia folder on Turbo NAS.
- By FTP. This is the fastest way for you to upload all photos to Qmultimedia folder. (Make sure FTP server is enabled. Please refer to FTP server settings.
- By My Network Places in Windows: Drag and drop the photos to Qmultimedia folder.
- By the 'Upload' option from the Multimedia Station after successful log in. (Only one photo can be uploaded each time)
Define guest access authority
When you enter Multimedia Station, you are treated as a "guest" before logging in with an administrative account. After you login as admin, please click the icon 'Configure album authority' to manage the access right. You can define which photo albums to be shared under QMultimedia folder.
Before you create new user accounts, there is only one system default account, i.e., "guest". (All the web access to Multimedia Station before login is treated as "guest"). Please move the folders for guest access from inaccessible albums to the accessible album list by selecting the album and clicking on the 'Add' button. Once done, click on the 'Submit' button to apply.
In the above example, the folder "Stock_photos" is not in the list of Accessible albums. If you connect to Multimedia Station by "guest" (no login), all the folders will be shared except the "Stock_photos".
Creat a new user
You can click on 'Create User' to add a new user, and define password and the album access righst of the user.
Set the album cover
You can set any pictures under a certain album as your album cover. Simply click the icon 'Set as album cover'.
Cooliris support
Multimedia Station fully supports photo browsing with the popular application - Cooliris. When mouse cursor stays on a photo you will notice a little arrow-like sign on the bottom left corner. Simply click on it will take you to Cooliris 3D photo browsing. (Note that you will have to first install the Cooliris plugin for the browser you use)
Conclusion
Backing up digital photos by Turbo NAS , users can enjoy extra data protection as well as a web album which is easy-to-share and browse. It is an ideal choice for home and small office.
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