NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 500 GB (1 x 500 GB) Network Attached Storage RND2150 by Netgear
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Digital camera reviews of NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 500 GB (1 x 500 GB) Network Attached Storage RND2150
Digital camera Review: Great file server, ITunes software? Back to the drawing board.
Summary: 4 Stars
As a file server this device is awesome. Set up is easy for both Mac and PC. Webserving is also a snap, as is the bittorrent add-on. The only junk here is the advertised ITunes streaming service. Not only is it unable read many mp3's and mp4's that ITunes has no problem with, but instead of giving an error message or skipping the files, the application completely locks up and has to be removed and reinstalled before you can try again (at which time it locks up again). A quick check to the Redynas forums shows the problem to be pretty universal and, if you have a lot of files in your ITunes library, the fix is complicated, time consuming and involves paying for extra software to repair music files tat ITunes plays with no problem. The software is a beta product but still, it is an advertised function of the device and therefore should work.Digital camera Review: Great for families that want to organize and back-up their data!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this device. It is so easy to get up and running. It's a great solution for a family or even a start-up business to organize their data (be it movies, photos, etc. or source code). The user management system probably works better under NFS and UNIX/Linux environments because of the way you can create users and groups with user ids and group ids like in UNIX. But I'm using it at home just fine with Windows under CIFS... in that environment, you can create users with passwords so that when you access \\MyNAShostname\MySharedFolderName, you will be prompted for login credentials if you are accessing a non-public share (you can set up a share to be freely accessed by anyone in the network or you can identify specific machines or users/groups that can access each share). I wish it was easier to tie to your Windows login. But no biggie.
This device is probably not appropriate for businesses, though (the lack of Active Directory support and the possibility of tens to hundreds of users accessing the device at once are probably not the use case this device was meant to address).
The two biggest benefits I see are:
1. Having shared folders available over the network so we can organize our files rather than keeping them in our separate laptops, desktops, etc.
You can do this with a desktop computer (using it as a file server), but it sucks to leave it on all the time. The RND2150 is much quieter and draws less power than a desktop. The only point at which the device is noisy is for the half-minute or so when you first power it up. It's quiet!
2. Redundancy. Hard disks fail. With RAID, you can be protected in case one of the disks fails. The X-RAID system is so easy--popping in a new disk was so effortless I was stunned. It's hot-swappable, so you don't even need to power down the unit to stick in a new drive.
NOTE: I believe that if the NAS device itself (not the disks inside) fails, it may still cost you money to send it in to get the data extracted properly. But there are evidently capabilities to manage back-ups to a USB external drive from time to time. So for full protection, buy this unit, put in an extra drive (to benefit from X-RAID), and also get a USB drive if you're paranoid about the device itself failing. Making it so easy to take advantage of these capabilities in a reliable manner is what I was looking for in a NAS.
My chief complaint is that it can be difficult to find information on good compatible disks. Their support community website www.readynas.com publishes a short list. But most of the drives listed are either Seagate (which a lot of people are avoiding until they prove they've resolved their quality issues) or obsolete versions from other vendors. NetGear really needs to get their certification testing act together. Why certify so many Seagates when there are many questions surrounding it? I saw in a random forum somewhere that people had been using Western Digital 640GB drives without issues (WD6401AALS), so that's what I just stuck in there a minute ago. So far so good... will take about 5 hours and 40 minutes to initialize.
I'm really quite happy with this purchase. It's also sturdy and doesn't take up much space.
Digital camera Review: Great for storage, not so great for streaming (Mac perspective)
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this to replace a 10-year-old iMac DV that had kept our music collection networked for many years until it died recently. I knew I wanted to get an NAS with mirrored RAID because the thought of having to rip so many CDs again was not pleasant. We are an all-Mac household as well, so we needed something that did not require a PC for initial setup (I'm looking at you, HP Media Vault).
What's good:
-Very fast reads and writes to the ReadyNAS Duo. I now keep my iTunes Music folder on the NAS and the iTunes Library file on my Macbook Pro, and the performance is great.
-Fast network speeds using AFP (the standard network protocol for a Mac).
-Fairly easy to setup the basics using their wizard.
-Lots of advanced options if you need it (password-protected accounts, Internet access).
-Easy printer sharing. Just plug in your USB printer! (And no Mac limitations like the Synology.)
-Recognized my APC-brand UPS; it can monitor the UPS and automatically shut down during a power outage when the battery drains to a certain level (you can set the remaining battery level to your liking).
-Built-in backup software allows you to backup to an external USB drive at the push of a button (though I haven't tested this yet).
-iTunes streaming server works very well; it's very fast over the local network. It shows up in iTunes under the "Shared" section as "Itunes Server."
-Small and quiet.
-Uses less energy than the old iMac.
-Adding a second hard drive (like I did) gives you peace of mind with data redundancy.
-Solid construction.
-Hot-swappable drives on trays (you can also purchase extra trays to rotate drives).
-Easy to expand the storage by swapping in larger hard drives one at a time (though I haven't tested this).
-Great widget for the Mac to monitor the Duo (available capacity, temperature, UPS condition, fan speed).
-Configuration is done through a web browser.
What's bad:
-The UPnP streaming is really poor. Previously I used Connect360 on the old iMac to stream music and movies to an Xbox 360, and the iMac was many, many times faster than the Duo. It can take 20 seconds or so for the Xbox 360 to fully load any one of the music lists (Albums, Artists, etc.). By comparison, if I turn on Connect360 on my Macbook Pro and stream the same 93GB iTunes Library from the Duo, the performance is great! (Then again, the Videos folder on the Duo does not have a lot of subfolders and it loads fairly quickly.) Obviously I'm not an expert on UPnP servers, but if streaming media is your absolute top priority, this might not be the box for you.
-The documentation is really light. You'll need to go to the ReadyNAS forums to get answers at some point. As far as forums go, they are very helpful.
-You will need some knowledge of networking terms. Not hard to learn, but the software was clearly not written by anyone from Apple.
-Expect to spend at least 30 minutes with the initial setup, not including any file copying that needs to be done.
-Too little RAM. I upgraded to 1GB (available through Amazon).
-Small list of approved hardware upgrades, including RAM, UPS and hard drives. There also seems to be a lag in approving new items.
-Not all brands of UPS are supported.
-Approved hard drives are server-grade, not consumer desktop models. Expect to pay about 50% more (but theoretically they should be more reliable). I purchased a second hard drive from Amazon from the approved list (a Western Digital 500GB) for ~$90.
-Not the cheapest NAS out there.
What's needed:
-Better UPnP streaming. I'm not sure if this is a software limitation or a processor limitation.
-More base RAM.
To sum it up: My only real knock against it is the UPnP streaming. As an NAS, it offers reliable and redundant storage combined with fast network speeds; works with different operating systems (and works very well with Macs); and it's very energy efficient. Unless media streaming is at the absolute top of your list, the ReadyNAS Duo offers great performance for the price.
For added research, check out the charts at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190
There's a great feature to sort by Price vs. Performance. Highly recommended!
Digital camera Review: Great if you replace the hard drive
Summary: 4 Stars
These come with Seagate drives. They have an atrocious failure rate. Replace the drive with a WD immediately and you'll have a great product. I've done this many times.Digital camera Review: Great little NAS
Summary: 5 Stars
There has been some pretty thorough reviews on this product, so I'm not going to bore you with another uber detailed report. I just want to mention a couple points.
I have one of those sweet little devices called a SqueezeBox and when I read that this had SqueezeCenter (a.k.a. SlimServer) installed, I knew this was the one. So far it works fairly well, though it does not respond nearly as quickly as a PC based setup. Obviously the ReadyNAS Duo is a tad weak on processing power for stuff like this, but it is a NAS, and not a PC after all. Still, the ability to play my music collection with out turning on a single PC in the house is very very nice.
The only other thing I wanted to mention was the power configuration options in this. NetGear obviously put a lot of thought into this and I don't think there is anything else like it. Not only does it offer a lower mode when idle, you can actually set specific times each day to turn it off and back on. I've set it up to turn off at 10 p.m. and flip back on again at 8 a.m. during the week days. I leave it on over the weekends. Way cool!
Great little product!