Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 1 TB Desktop Network Attached Storage RND2110

• Network attached storage device offers 1 TB of storage with GigaBit Ethernet for fast data transfer
• Stream music, photos and video to network media players without a computer
• Access files from anywhere via Internet connection; host your personal Web page to share with friends and family
• Support for extra hard drive, allowing X-RAID data protection
• Measures 4.0 x 5.6 x 8.7 inches (WxHxD); 5-year warranty

Product Description
RND2110 ReadyNAS Duo(1 x 1000GB) Network Attached Storage Device -- Directly streams music, photos and video to existing network media players without a computer. Creates a personal webpage to easily share photos with friends and family. Insert optional "spare" hard drive for automatic file protection and back-up.Amazon.com Product Description
The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo is an ideal Network Attached Storage device for use in homes with more than one computer.... More >>

LaCie 301420U 1TB 2BIG Network Attached Storage Gigabit Ethernet Hard Drive with 2-Disk RAID

• 1 TB Network Attached Storage (NAS) provides storage accessible whole home or office network
• Dual drive bays for multiple RAID configurations
• Gigabit ethernet; accessible via PCs, Macs, and Linux computers
• Sleek design by Neil Poulton; aluminum construction
• Measures 3.5 x 7.8 x 6.7 inches (WxHxD); 3-year limited warranty

Product Description
The LaCie 2big Network offers professional, reliable, central storage for instantly storing, sharing, and backing up from any computer on your network. Manage your home or small office network easily with this full-featured file server. With the 2big Network, you can share files among Windows, Mac, and Linux users, thanks to its SMB and AFP support; or connect remotely through FTP, HTTP and HTTPS file systems. Easily and quickly select your RAID modes with the manua... More >>

Buffalo Technology LinkStation Pro 1 TB Network Attached Storage LS-XH1.0TL

• 2X the performance of all other single-drive NASes tested.
• Use the LinkStation Pro with Time Machine
• Easily stream your favorite music and videos directly from LinkStation Pro to a PC, Mac, or DLNA media player.
• Direct Copy feature allows you to automatically upload images from your digital camera or digital camcorder directly to your LinkStation
• Scheduled Backup via USB to external HDD and support for Time Machine Functionality

Product Description
Buffalo’s LinkStation Pro is a high performance, dependable, shared network storage solution with fast transfer speeds. It is easy to install and lets you store and share your music, photos, and videos on your home or business network as well as online. Stream your favorite music and videos directly from the LinkStation Pro to a PC, Mac, or network attached DLNA media player. Access and share your multimedia collection from anywhere at anytime using Web Access. An... More >>

LaCie 301423U 4 TB 2big Network Attached Storage Gigabit Ethernet Hard Drive with 2-Disk RAID

• 4 TB Network Attached Storage (NAS) provides storage accessible whole home or office network
• Dual drive bays for multiple RAID configurations
• Gigabit ethernet; accessible via PCs, Macs, and Linux computers
• Sleek design by Neil Poulton; aluminum construction
• Measures 3.5 x 7.8 x 6.7 inches (WxHxD); 3-year limited warranty

Product Description
The LaCie 2big Network offers professional, reliable, central storage for instantly storing, sharing, and backing up from any computer on your network. Manage your home or small office network easily with this full-featured file server. With the 2big Network, you can share files among Windows, Mac, and Linux users, thanks to its SMB and AFP support; or connect remotely through FTP, HTTP and HTTPS file systems. Easily and quickly select your RAID modes with the manua... More >>

Western Digital My Book World Edition II – 2 TB

• Offers 2 TB storage capacity in an elegant, small footprint design
• Easy access allows you to open the case and replace a drive
• UPnP enabled, makes network configuration easy and convenient
• 2TB = 2000GB Hard Drive Capacity
• Configurable to RAID 1 (Mirrored)

Product Description
Western Digital presents the WD My Book World II 2TB Network Hard Drive Storage Device - WDG2NC20000N, a superior STORAGE product. Designed for home users, creative professionals, workgroups, and anyone looking for shared storage, WD's My Book World Edition II offers a surprisingly simple and secure way to access and share your data, presentations, and photos at home, in the office and anywhere in the world, even when your local computer is turned off. The dualdrive... More >>

Buffalo Technology LinkStation Pro Duo 2-Bay 2 TB Network Attached Storage LS-W2.0TGL/R1

• LinkStation Pro Duo; Setup CD-ROM; Quick Setup Guides; Ethernet Cable; Power Cord; Warranty Statement
• Duo includes RAID 1, Active Directory support, Web Access, and a built-in FTP server with Dual Hard Disks
• LinkStation Client Utility allows easy setup and administration from a PC or Mac.
• Active Directory support
• Web Access and a built-in FTP server let you access your files remotely.

Product Description
Buffalo's LinkStation Pro Duo is the ideal solution to keep important files safe! The Pro Duo is a 2-drive NAS solution that can be configured in RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for redundant storage. If one drive fails, the other still has a copy of the data. As an Active Directory client the Pro Duo can integrated into any business network and Web Access makes remote file access easy!... More >>

Iomega Home Media 1 TB Network Attached Storage 34337

• Simple to use: Three step set-up ¿ simply plug into your router, power on, and install the software CD. Friendly web screens for easy management
• Sharing: Access files from any networked Windows PC or Apple computer for easy file sharing
• UPnP AV Media Server: Compatible with DLNA certified media players, able to stream photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices like game consoles, audio bridges, DMAs (digital media adapters), picture frames and more
• Torrent Download: Torrent is the new standard in peer-to-peer file sharing. Direct file transfer to your StorCenter is easier, faster and more reliable - especially with large media files
• Remote Access: Access and manage your data from anywhere in the world via remote browser access

Product Description
Enjoy your digital life! Easily share and access files, photos, videos, and music between all your computers, with friends and with family using the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive. Powerful and fast, the three-step set-up is very simple, even if you've never used a network drive before. Ideal for centrally storing and sharing all your media files, the Home Media Network Hard Drive has a built in UPnP AV Media Server (DLNA certified) and iTunes Server so that... More >>

Buffalo Linkstation Pro 1 TB Review

Buffalo Linkstation Pro Features

• Simplified File Sharing For Home or Small Office Network
• Active Directory Support: Works as a client in an Active Directory domain allowing LinkStation Pro to utilize the domain users and groups.
• High Speed Processor, DDR2 RAM, and Fast SATA Hard Drive
• Control Access With Group and User Level Security
• Access Data from any Windows or Macintosh Computer on Your Network
• Two or More LinkStations Can be Used to Back Up Each Other Over Your Network
• Easy Setup Does Not Require Drivers
• Scheduled Backup via USB 2.0 to External Storage
• Expand Storage by Adding a USB 2.0 Hard Drive
• Auto-Sensing 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
• Gigabit JumboFrame Support (4k, 8k, 15k)
• Memeo™ AutoBackup Software for Windows PC Included. Download Memeo™ AutoBackup.
• Minimal Power Consumption
• Trouble Alerts: Get an e-mail when the drive senses a fault
• UPS Support: Auto power down in case of a power failure

This NAS is a very full featured device. It's missing some media functions but it's a solid drive for the price.

To install the Buffalo NAS Navigator put in the included CD and run Setup. On my system it had mapped a drive letter L: to the default share named share.

From the Buffalo NAS Navigator you can map network drives, change the Linkstation's IP address and access the browser based manager.

The Manager screen exposes the wealth of options available to you. Out of the box you can use the drive without changing a thing. For the general home user that's probably fine but the more security conscious will want to setup users and groups and secure their shares from prying eyes.  After you login with the default user (admin) and password (password) you'll see the home screen.

From the Manager you can setup USB drives as additional NAS storage, reset the device to factory settings, add users, groups and shares. The Manager interface is very speedy and responsive.

Benchmarks

I speed tested this drive and was very pleased. Some NAS drives have poor quality network ports and slow CPU's and this will show up in network performance. To test, I copied a 1GB file from my system to the Linkstation Pro at various network speeds. Each test was done 10 times to allow for variances in network conditions. My system and the NAS were plugged into my D-Link Gigabit switch so there were no other devices between my test system and the NAS. I also copied 1 GB worth of 256K files to the NAS.

Device	Large File Test	Small File Test
Buffalo Linkstation Pro 100Mb	87.6 secs 91.3 Mbps	280.59 secs 28.47 Mbps
Buffalo Linkstation Pro 1000Mb	63.96 secs 125.07 Mbps	273.92 secs 29.16 Mbps
Buffalo Linkstation Pro 1000Mb (4k)	52.47 secs 152.47 Mbps	237 secs 33.7 Mbps
Buffalo Linkstation Pro 1000Mb(9k)	48.81 secs 163.88 Mbps	222.7 secs 35.87 Mbps
Simpleshare 160 100Mb	211.05 secs 37.9 Mbps	392.25 secs 20.36 Mbps
Windows PC 100Mb	105.6 secs 75.76 Mbps	205.5 secs 38.9 Mbps

The Linkstation Pro is the fastest 100Mb device on my network. If you don't have gigabit networking yet then this is a great choice.

As you can see setting the device to use Jumbo Frames makes a large difference in performance. This device says it supports 15k frames which I could not test because my NIC only supports 9k frames. Unfortunately I don't yet have another gigabit device on my network to compare the Linkstation Pro's performance to.

All in all the device worked very well and was speedy and responsive. I played back and XVid avi and MPEG from the device with no jitters or pauses. It worked great. I paid $170 with shipping for the 1 terabyte device and it is well worth it.

Made for TV Media Drives

Interesting article over at the Washington Post.

Made for TV Media Drives

Included are reviews of:

Synology Disk Station DS209+

HP MediaSmart ex487

Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB

Linksys by Cisco Media Hub NMH410

Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive

ZyXel Central Digital Media Library NSA-220 Plus

Iomega ScreenPlay Pro HD

Iogear Portable Media Server Player GMD2025U120

Enjoy!

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How Do NAS Drives Work?

Long ago, if you wanted to share files, you copied it to a floppy and gave it to whoever needed it. Simple, effective, but inefficient. How would you share those files with 10 people? Well you'd create 10 floppies. You can see how this isn't any fun once you try to share with a large number of people.

Enter the network. The network allowed PC's, printers, and other devices to "talk" to one another. Along with the network came the concept of the "file share". One PC or server would share it's files with other PC's connected to the network. I'm sure you can see how this is much more efficient than the "sneakernet" described in the first paragraph.

Today's PC's and networks are tens or hundreds of times more powerful than those of 10 years ago. This older technology that worked just fine not long ago is being used in the NAS drives of today.

Today's inexpensive NAS drives are a computer dedicated to sharing files. The CPU's aren't as fast as modern PC's but it's good enough for the sole purpose of sharing files. The small NAS drive computer runs a version of the Linux or FreeBSD operating system using the Windows compatible Samba file sharing system.

With old parts and hard drives you may have laying around your house, you could build your own NAS device using something like FreeNAS as the operating system. It would be a fun little project for those inclined to take up that challenge.

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