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 >>
I am writing in this review within a day I got this working. But, I think that its enough time for a techie like me to write a review. Like many of you, I have read the review and brought this product paying $354.I had sea gate USB drive. The USB broke so I decided to get a network drive so that I can store the information on net and things can go smooth.
With in couple of mins I installed the SATA seagate Baracuda which contains almost 325 GB of information which I collected over 5 years.
The moment I started the machine I could see nothing on my drive all it showed was 1 disk with 465 GB of free space, and the second drive was blinking. Wait a second, I did swap the primary drive so that I can get mine booted. Bhoommmm all my 5 years of hardwork wiped in 5 milli seconds.
I called the customer service and waited for 15 mins to get connected to an agent. The agent’s name is Sonia and her agent id is 2723. I told her this and she said that “Netgear NAS” expert would call me in 5 mins. I never understood that 5 mins means on NETgear terms is like for ever. I dint even receive call till now and its now 11:55AM EST almost 15 hrs passed.
I lost and NETgear won. uhooooooo hail this idiot box.
I tried to access files by getting connected as network drive. Of course its INTRANet not internet. I guess Netgear understand as internet when connected to the router and never responds behaving like a remote server.
I am lucky to be the most luckiest guy on the face of earth to get sucked by Netgear.
I don’t wish to hear from others that they are lucky like me. so go ahead and make your choices. All the “applauses” to this one is so true that you don’t want to buy this junk. They are all made up review. What about me? I am not, since I provided with every detail of the customer service agent and her id too. Call her and you will know
Rating: 1 / 5
The ReadyNas duo is supposed to be for home and small office use but setup is way too complicated for the average user. I bought it so I could access my files form anywhere on the internet but in order to make that work you’ll need a static IP and will need to register a DNS to point to the unit, neither of which most folks have. I have some other Netgear products that were very easy to setup and I’m extremely disappointed that netgear advertised a feature that is not really available to the average user. Just know that if you want to use this to access your files over the internet you better have system admin credentials.
Rating: 1 / 5
I really wanted this network-enabled hard drive to work. I have three commonly used PCs at home, and for some time I’ve been looking for an easy and hassle-free way to set up a network storage system which would allow me to easily share/transfer files among all the home PCs. Netgear ReadyNAS, based on all its advertised features and claims, seemed to fit my needs exactly. So it goes without saying, I was excited when I had the opportunity to review the ReadyNAS unit for Vine.
The setup instruction appears to be very trivial: connect the ReadyNAS unit to the WiFi router with an actual network cable, connect the drive to power source with the provided the power cord, turn the unit on, install the software, and viola, you should be up and running. Unfortunately the ease of use stops right after the installation.
First of all, I’m not very pleased with the fact that the only way to access this network drive is to use the proprietary ReadyNAS application. I was expecting to access the same way I would a network drive at work – i.e. simply using the built-in Windows methods to map a network drive and start running. The need for a proprietary application, in my opinion, is a stupid design decision that added nothing but extra complexities and need for extra learning. The proprietary application, RADAR, is also used to configure all aspects of the network drive and services the firmware natively supports. Unfortunately, the configuration interface is poorly designed and poorly managed – calls to mind the setup program running on a 10-dollar router.
The sub-par application program can be tolerated, the fact that there’s no support for directly Windows networking subsystem can be tolerated, but what I could not tolerate was the fact I couldn’t add any additional users to the system very easily. I have added my wife’s email, which in theory should generate an email to her that allows her access too, but the email was never arrived. I have tried a number of things including completely resetting the box to factory settings but to no avail.
In conclusion, this type of home network device is a very, very good idea. Unfortunately the execution of the ReadyNAS left much to be desired.
Rating: 3 / 5
I was excited beyond words to be receiving this product. It sounded like just the perfect device for our family’s needs. My husband and I each have a computer, and our kids generally use whichever isn’t being used by one of us so it would be great to be able to put their music, movies, games and other files on the shared drive and also be able to access those things from grandma’s house, etc.
Right out of the box, we had problems. The device comes with little to no instruction, beyond installing the software and it is very non-intuitive. I’ve had it nearly a month and still can’t get it to do most of the advertised features. A call to tech support was anything but supportive. Right after install, the drive was running so slowly, it couldn’t even play MP3’s without stuttering horribly. It was making a terrible grinding sound and regularly timed out when trying to access files or transfer data. After an hour on hold (and no, I’m not exaggerating), I explained my problem to someone who answered the phone. He had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to explain it 3 more times before he was able to correctly summarize my problem for me. He told me that he couldn’t help me and would transfer me to the correct department. I explained to him that after an hour on hold getting to him, I wasn’t pleased with being put back on hold again, but he assured me that I wouldn’t have to wait to be connected to the correct technician. Nearly 30 minutes later, I was finally talking to a tech support person. This person was no help at all. He informed me that I had a defective hard drive and would need to ship it back (at MY expense!). When I explained that I was not about to pay to fix their defective merchandise, he hung up on me. I received no answers to my questions about streaming, creating user accounts, or any of the other features I still haven’t figured out. At that point, the device was pretty much useless since we couldn’t get it to transfer files to or from the drive so I decided to do a little investigating of my own. I turned the drive off (since I couldn’t access the controls for it, I just held down the power button and it shut down) and removed the drive and drive bays. What I found was a chunk of styrofoam from the packaging lodged deep inside the drive. I cleaned the inside with a can of compressed air, reinstalled the drive and bays and restarted the device. It booted in no time and although it gave me a warning about not being properly shut down, it ran like a dream and hasn’t had a problem with upload or file stutters since. I’m glad I didn’t pay Netgear to ship back the “defective” hard drive.
So, as a hard drive, it’s working fine. I don’t have another drive to load into it at the moment, so I can’t speak to the backup benefits. It would have been nice if it came with 2×250GB drives instead of 1×500GB but that’s neither here nor there. However, the cost of this device just doesn’t make sense if all you can use it for is a hard drive. I should be able to access these files remotely but there is absolutely no documentation on this. I consider myself to be a pretty tech-savvy home user. I’m no programmer or networking specialist but this is the first time I’ve been stumped by a tech gadget. And I’m just that. Stumped. I’ve looked at every setting, every page of the “manual” (ha!) and nothing I’ve tried has enabled me to access these files from anywhere other than my 2 home computers.
Rating: 2 / 5
Nowadays with devices becoming network capable it makes sense to have network storage. From computers to printers, and other peripherals it is no longer acceptable to have to move your data manually with an external storage device. The modern home network needs cetralized storage. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a great solution for this. With NAS you are basically connecting an external hard drive to your network and allowing any devices on the network to access it.
Netgear’s ReadyNAS Duos are a simple way to add NAS to your network. The Duo is simple to install; just plug the ethernet cable into your network hub, install the software and let the software find the Duo and assign it an IP address. It is simple and painless. The small footprint of this device is also nice. Standing barely 5 1/2″ tall the Duo is about the same height as my external HD next to it. I am very pleased with it.
While the Duo was simple to install and easy to use, it is not perfect, and it is not cheap compared to its competition. Comparing it against the competition is the reason I gave this product 3 stars.
One problem with the Duo is that while it has two drive bays allowing you to add a second 500GB HD, you can only setup the drives as a RAID 1 mirroring configuration. In other words, the second HD will be used as a backup and will not add to the overall space of the Duo. Similar NAS drives by competitors like, Buffalo Technologies (e.g. Linkstation Pro 1TB), allow you to configure your NAS in either a RAID 0 or RAID 1 to give you more flexibility.
Second, the Duo can only be connected to your network via an ethernet cable. This may cause issues if your network uses either a smoothwall machine, or you are on dial-up (in which case you may need to connect the Duo to the PC running your dial-up and cause a communications conflict). Most of the competitiors (including the previously mentioned LinkStation) allow USB connection.
Finally, the cost. $400.00 for 500GB of network storage ($ 0.80 / GB) may not seem bad. But compare that to the more flexible and more functional LinkStation that has twice the storage capacity (1TB) and only costs $308.00 ($ 0.30 / GB) and I think you can see why I had to give this device 3 stars.
Without taking into consideration the competition, I would have given the Duo at least 4 stars. However, the fact is that there are NAS devices out there that do more for less money (and made by very reputable companies). I wish this device was more flexible. Maybe the next version will adopt some of these missing features.
Rating: 3 / 5