Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a rather quirky product. I have to say at first I wanted my money back and was so pissed and frustrated at the damn thing (this is why I say it is not for the feint of heart). Eventually after a lot of playing around with the NAS settings, changing settings on my router, and general tinkering around with it I got it to work the way I'd like. The NAS is a very good yet very simple device so it does take a bit of technical knowledge/tools to get this thing working right. The setup is a simple plug-in to a USB port from your external hard drive and a jack into one of your router's ethernet ports. Of course it also needs power but other than that make sure your external hard drive is on and you're in business.
The main features of the NAS include:
1) Media Server that will sync pictures, music, and videos to things like X-Box's, PS3's, Media center PC's, etc.
2) BitTorrent to download all of those media files or other digital content.
3) SMB general file sharing service.
4) FTP file sharing for web based file access.
5) It is dirt cheap compared to most NAS devices which cost upwards of $150 to $200, which means you have to accept the quirks (yes, quirkiness is a feature).
The system is not a flawless one so like I said earlier you really should know a thing or two about computers to use this. Below are a list of things I did to ensure this device will work as well as any "quirks" I ran into:
1) Use at least a 100Mbps router but preferably a 1Gbps router like a Wireless N (a switch or wired router is fine too). Do not use a hub. They are dumb devices and will usually mess up video quality.
2) Enable QoS (quality of service), it is your friend. This guarantess better streaming quality and a consistant file sharing experience.
3) Do not use more than two features of the device at once e.g. FTP, BitTorrent, and media streaming. Though it can be done, the NAS's processor cannot really handle it thus causing it to fail and therefore freeze. The only way to fix it is to reset it by unplugging it for 15 seconds minimum as the internal reset from the web interface does not work at that point.
4) The media server works great on my PS3 and PC, however it only recognize avi files for video and mp3 files for audio. No other video or audio format is recognized despite the server saying it recognizes mp4 which my PS3 can play.
5) When using BitTorrent if your NAS ever gets shut off, interrupted, etc. the NAS will need to start your download all over again. The files downloaded are intact but anything that did not finish is lost which makes the NAS not ideal for very large or important files. On a side note also be sure to run only one or two BitTorrent files simultaneously as this can also crash the NAS.
6) Do not use a complicated or multifunctional USB device with the NAS. The NAS can only recognize one device at a time so more than one will only confuse it. An example would be a external hard drive dock with card reader or some (notall) multifunction printers.
7) If you ever have a problem streaming music or video, sharing files, or downloading BitTorrent always try different things. Resetting both the NAS and the receiving device is a good idea as well as trying different downloads, reuploading the original files, or recoding the video/music to a different format.
In general it works 85% of the time with no problems (now that I know how it works) and requires very little resetting after I got it fixed. This NAS is cheap, does what it says and does it well so long as you are comfortable witha couple quirks. In the end I had to give it a 4 star rating because I like what it does despite the issues, but I still was teed-off that I initially had so many problems. Hope it helps any prospective or existing owners.
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NAS AdapterThe Addonics NAS Adapter is a convenient and economical solution for adding any USB storage devices onto your LAN (Local Area Network). Once on the network, the USB storage can be shared by any network user, just like an ordinary NAS device. When use in conjunction with Addonics Storage Towers or Storage Racks, a Multi-Tera bytes storage with various RAID capabilities can be instantly added to the LAN. With the NAS adapter, you can custom build you own NAS appliance with RAID capability and plenty of storage expansion using Addonics family of Drive Enclosures, Port Multipliers, and IO converters. Come built-in with a USB 2.0/1.1 connection and a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection, the NAS adapter supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols, allowing for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions. For remote users who are not connected over the LAN, the NAS Adapter provides FTP access for up to 8 simultaneous users anywhere in the world with an internet connection. In addition, the NAS adapter can also be used as a print server or as a Bit-Torrent downloading appliance.
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