Comments on Netgear ReadyNAS Duo

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Mike13

3:14 AM on 26 January, 2009

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It's now 2009, and I have just purchased one of these. I am already quite fond of it.





The unit does all it claims to, and does it quite well. I ordered the 750GB model (with one 750GB seagate ST3750640AS 7200.10 drive preinstalled). I found it noisy (The fan (quite noticeable) adjusts to the drive temperature, and was running quite fast - it's been hot here), and also disk seek noise was very noticeable.





I have since replaced that drive with two Seagate ST31000333AS 1TB drives, and the fan noise has decreased considerably. Seek noise is virtually inaudible on these newer 7200.11 drives. These drives use less power and so don't get as hot as the 750GB one, which was almost too hot to touch when I removed it.





I followed the drive upgrade instructions, and all went without a hitch.





While there is a support forum, you need to be something of a computer geek to understand it. It does not cater to the mug punter like me. Many of the terms used are gobbledygook unless you have a background in computer networking. This is a shame, and something Netgear should address, in my opinion.





While there is a setup wizard, there are some issues getting into it, as it is browser-based, and you will likely get "security certificate" errors trying to get to it. This issue is covered almost intelligibly in the forums/FAQ.





(I don't understand why this should be so, as there are no such issues accessing my modem/router/ WAP.)





Once you get into the wizard, it will start asking you questions you may not know how to answer. One thing you need to know, but nobody tells you, is that you have to be very careful naming your mapped network drives on the NAS.





(If the name you use is the same as the name of one of the "shares" you will have problems.)





I fumbled my way through all this, and now have Squeezebox SqueezeCenter running to stream my mp3 files to my stereo.





I also have a Transfer share set up, so I can share files with my partner, and a Backup share for each of us.





The unit can be set up to email you about any "event" such as a drive failure, overtemperature, etc, and will shut itself down if it gets too hot. (Useful here in Australia, where the ambient temp often exceeds 35C.)





While some of the above might sound like a condemnation of the unit, it is not. But one needs to read carefully the documentation, and visit the home page at http://readynas.com before attempting to install the unit.





On the other hand, if your data is important to you, and/or you want to be able to stream music or video to your home entertainment system/s without running a PC, the ReadyNAS duo is a very good solution, once you figure out how to drive it...





Pros: Does its job/s very well indeed.


Cons: Documentation should be simplified for less technically-inclined users.





Mike in Oz