Back up all your data—and we mean all of it—to your NAS box without installing any software

If you know anything about NAS (Network Attached Storage), you know that it’s a great centralized backup receptacle for your PCs. If you didn’t know, we just told you. Actually, the name is bit of a giveaway: NAS is storage that you attach via ethernet or Wi-Fi and access across the network. What that doesn’t tell you is that most NAS boxes have the smarts of a PC, with a full-blown app environment that includes extensive backup abilities.

But there are two things that even NAS aware users might not realize: First, many NAS boxes are perfectly capable of backing up data from PCs running any type of operating system (e.g., Windows, OS X, or Linux) from anywhere, using nothing more than their integrated utilities. All you need to do is configure the PC to give up its data, and then use the NAS box to grab it.

Second, most NAS boxes can also sync with OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox and other cloud services to keep your mobile data backed up, too. Sadly, Apple’s iCloud is one of the few services that is not widely supported. But there are ways, and I’ll cover NAS/online syncing at the end for this article.

There are of course any number of ways to back up to a NAS box that can be invoked locally; i.e., from the PC or device you want to back up. But nearly all involve installing software or client apps or