5 ways to turn a NAS into the heart of your smart home
Your home NAS will be powered on 24/7 to back up your devices, so why not add some services that make your home smarter at the same time? The best part is that almost any NAS can run containers to bring your smart home to the next level, from a Raspberry Pi to more turnkey solutions. You could build your own NAS, too, and put your choice of operating system on it, getting you the customized storage solution of your dreams.
But you don’t need to go to those lengths to make your smart home better by hosting things on your NAS. From containers to centralized backups, media streaming, and local voice control, the NAS can be the beating heart of your smart home.
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Running Home Assistant
Automate your smart home and get every manufacturer’s ecosystem talking to each other
Home Assistant is an indispensable tool for anyone with a smart home ecosystem because it effortlessly integrates devices into the same control plane. Almost any device you can think of can be brought into Home Assistant, and thanks to a Docker container, it’s easy to get running on your NAS. Once running, it can tie into thousands of APIs from companies that make smart home devices, and you’ll wonder how you survived without it.
Then, when adding new smart home gadgets, the question changes from “What app do I need installed?” to “Which devices can I now add?” It’s fantastic, and the rabbit hole for HA add-ons is nearly as deep as the number of devices you’ll be able to use. We suggest adding HACS, or the Home Assistant Community Store, once you’ve got HA running because the number of custom add-ons is breathtaking and will show you the vast power of Home Assistant. Plus, you can customize your HA dashboard to make things exactly how you want them.
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Build your own streaming media service
One of the more popular uses for NAS devices is self-hosting a media server, filled with high-quality video and audio files that can be streamed to any device you own. Whether you opt for Plex, Jellyfin, or other options, you’ll have a personal media library in no time at all, especially if you have a stack of DVDs and CDs that you can rip into digital files. Creating a media server is incredibly simple these days, with the installer doing most of the hard work for you.
You’ll get higher quality playback than internet streaming sites, tons of plugins to add subtitles and other functionality, and the ability to access your media from anywhere, with a little bit of setup. Once set up, you can stream to your mobile devices, streaming sticks, and smart TVs, and slowly break the hold that subscription streaming services have over your wallet.
Plus, you can set the NAS to automatically back up all your devices without you having to think about it. That means no more lost documents, no more lost photos, and, maybe most importantly, no more huge cloud storage bills.
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Automation and voice control
Use tools like NodeRED or IFTTT to integrate your NAS with voice assistants
Your smart home will be filled with gadgets, IoT devices, and smart home staples that can all be controlled by your voice. Once you’ve added them all to Home Assistant running on your NAS, the next stage is to make them controllable without needing the app. The process is fairly involved, but you put in the extra work now to have an easier time of it for the rest of your smart home dwelling, and it’s well worth it. Making your own voice assistant means your data isn’t training some megacorporation’s voice assistant, and it is a boon for personal privacy.
But you can make this even more powerful by adding Node-RED, a node-based programming tool for creating custom Home Assistant actions. For example, you can add automated blinds triggered by dawn and dusk or control your thermostat with sensors, weather centers, or the local forecast. Keep your grass green and stay on the right side of your HOA by automating your sprinkler system, or randomize your lights while away from home to make it seem like somebody is at home. The possibilities are endless, and the drag-drop interface makes Node-RED easy to use, even if mastering it could take some time.
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Centralize your setup
Keep cable clutter to a minimum by storing your networking gear and NAS in the same place
The thing about adding any network-attached devices to your network is that the ensuing cable clutter is going to become an eyesore. You don’t have to buy a network cabinet to stash your NAS and other networking gear, but you should consider centralizing it all in a cabinet or closet so that it can be neatly tucked away.
This gets even worse the deeper into the home lab rabbit hole you end up going, but even with a NAS and a router, it can look unsightly. Today, it’s a NAS; tomorrow, it’s a managed switch to give your PCs faster Ethernet, and next week, it will be something else. Planning where they will live so they don’t take over the living room or your office is important for a harmonious household, and you’ll learn some skills about wired networking at the same time.
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With a little bit of effort, you can make your setup clutter-free and beautiful.
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Self-host services and become the cloud
From calendars to dashboards and personal knowledge managers, the sky is the limit
Hosting a media server is only the start of what you can self-host on a NAS. Almost anything that there is a cloud-based subscription service for will have a corresponding self-hostable server, from habit trackers, wikis, notetaking apps, and more. As you start hosting more containers, you’ll want a way to manage them more easily, like our favorite Portainer, which simplifies pulling new images, modifying settings, and everything else you used to do on the command line.
Then there are useful tools like Watchtower, which helps manage updates to Docker containers as the sources get updated and makes your self-hosting life easier. If you’re a gaming household, add some self-hosted gaming apps like emulators to stream games to devices around your home. And it’s no good setting up all these services if you can’t use them off your home network, so set up Tailscale or a similar service to never be without your self-hosted NAS solutions.
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Your personal command center
A NAS is the heart of any modern smart home
NAS devices are considerably more approachable than they ever were, both in affordability and ease of use. A more modest NAS can be used for storage, backup, and smart home integrations, while a more powerful NAS can be used for almost anything. And if you have old PC hardware lying around, you can build a NAS out of that, saving you money and reducing e-waste in the process. Then, you can expand the services running on your NAS to include monitoring apps, and things like Ansible to document how you did it, and how to repair things when they break.
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