Cisco-Linksys 1 TB Media Hub with LCD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Everything you read about the features and setup of the LinkSys by Cisco NMH410 MediaHub is true: it is very easy to set up and to configure other computers and it does offer a browser-based way to access your media.
The problem is that most of it doesn't work. The lion's share of the software is broken, buggy, or simply incapable of doing what it is supposed to be doing. A quick glance at the support forums will confirm this, and unfortunately it appears to be endemic for many of the models of MediaHub, not just the NMH410. The problems that you will encounter are:
1) The Media Hub Online tool will not "see" all of your files. They will be physically visible when you use a computer to browse folders, but they will not properly share or index, even if they meet the stringent requirements (no long names, no special characters in the names, must be in one of the supported file formats, etc.).
2) The Hub will continually rebuild its index of your files. In other words, "now you see some files, now you don't". It regularly "forgets" what's on the hub and starts over, one by one, re-reading every file. You have no control over when it does this.
3) The Media Hub will not respond when it is busy. I can play an album that I manually launched from the folder, but if I try to open the File Browser, look at Configuration, or even just click a bit too fast browsing the media, the MediaHub Online will throw me "MediaHub is Disconnected or not Responding" errors and stop taking any commands. I have to randomly try again and hope to get lucky and get in.
4) The website for Remote Sharing (in other words, logging in to your device through the Internet from another location) regularly has Server Timeouts. You never know when it will let you in or when you will just get a dead white page.
5) Some features reboot the hub without warning. You choose the option, it says, "Resetting the MediaHub" and the next thing you know, the browser interface fails, the hub loses all of its indexes, and it starts all over again crawling through your files and not responding to your clicks.
It's very distressing to see aggressive releases of software and firmware updates, whose release notes claim to have solved these problems...only to find that all the "fixed in this version" problems are still there. If these issues really were considered fixed by the company, then Linksys/Cisco's problems are much larger--they may need to consider a recall. Thus far, the only features that truly work are the ability to view files and folders on a computer and the optional computer backup program (which should only be used for files and not as a full system backup).
It should tell you a lot that there are actually two pieces of software embedded in this hub: the Linksys by Cisco software, and a third party tool called "Twonky Media Server". Twonky is better, but still not what this product promises above. Both have really bizarre problems that should never have made it to the sales floor.
I'm reaching the point of complete surrender. I managed to get indirectly engaged with the hardware/software development team and have offered them access to my hub to try whatever it takes to solve the problem.
As of October 19, 2009, my unit was used for the Beta and the new Firmware was released. If you own an NMH and are having the above problems, you should give it a try. Unfortunately for me, the best I have seen with this new firmware is that the fixes are spotty: almost seems to mostly-work one day, then it's back to completely acting up the next. The cruel part is that one day I'll discover an amazing new feature or two that I'd never seen before...and the next day it's gone again. Content appears and disappears, and the system is always rebuilding itself. I have spent many, many hours on and off support calls struggling with this device and I'm sorry I bought it. It's November 19th, 2009, and my NMH410 Media Hub is now back in the original packaging waiting to go out the door back to LinkSys. I've lost over 4 months trying to get this to work and I can't recommend it to anyone.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cisco-Linksys 1 TB Media Hub with LCD

Enjoy your digital music, photos, and videos throughout your home! The Linksys Media Hub stores your favorite media files, and lets you view and listen to them on any PC, laptop, or TV¹ in the house, or through the Internet anywhere in the world! The pre-installed hard drive holds thousands of photos or songs, or hundreds of hours of DVD quality video, and the empty second drive bay and two USB ports let you add even more storage as your collection grows.The Media Hub presents your music, photo, and video collections in an attractive "catalog view" from most web browsers. There are no confusing network addresses to remember; give your Media Hub a personalized "name" (i.e., "Smith-Media"), and just type it into your browser to view the catalog. Use the same name to log in to your Media Hub from a web browser anywhere, and get the same easy-to-use access to your media.³

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Cavalry Storage CAXM Series 500 GB USB / eSATA External Hard Drive CAXM37500 - Includes eSATA Kit Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using this for a few months and I'm probably going to get another one soon. I've checked out other drives with esata, and they were more expensive and/or didn't have the esata accessories. Also, some of the esata drives didn't have USB 2.0 and just had esata. I don't use USB to connect to the drive but if I need to I'd like the option. Not all motherboards have the hookup. The esata bridge goes directly to one of your slots on the motherboard.
PROS
Definite pros are the speed, size, and cost. Also, consider that you don't have to buy any additional cards to use esata. My machine doesn't have any firewire ports and the cards cost roughly third the cost of this drive. I've read the drive gets hot, but mine is really cool. Maybe this is because I have mine sitting vertically. Also, it's really quiet even with the fan. Esata is roughly 300% faster than USB 2.0, firewire.
CONS
It was slightly tricky to install with Vista. I turned mine off serveral times before I saw the drive.
I reformatted the drive to one FAT32 partition and I couldn't do it from Vista, I had to use a machine with XP. But this is not the drives fault.
The light is really bright. I cover the light up and never really touch the button. My drive is always on.
The esata bridge takes up a PCI slot, sort of as stated before it goes directly to the motherboard not into the PCI slot. There is only one esata port. If I buy a second one I would either use another PCI. However, I bought a bridge that has two esata ports with two cables that plugs to each of my free motherboard sata ports for less than 10 dollars.
I think the MyBooks look better, LOL.
All in all this is a smart buy. The pros definitely outway the minor cons.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Cavalry Storage CAXM Series 500 GB USB / eSATA External Hard Drive CAXM37500 - Includes eSATA Kit

The Cavalry CAXM37500 3.5-Inch 500 GB SATA External Hard Drive is superb external mobile solution for all your data storage needs. The hard drive features an aluminum casing to keep the pre-installed 500 GB SATA hard drive nice and cool to extend the life of the drive. The CAXM37500 supports an incredible transfer rate of 3 Gbps (SATA) and 480 Mbps (USB 2.0), making it easy to add storage to any system with either SATA or USB connectivity. And with it's portable design, and plug and play, hot-swappable connection, Cavalry makes it hassle-free to take your data with you anywhere.
What's in the Box Cavalry CAXM37500 3.5-inch 500GB SATA external hard drive, power adapter, power cord, eSATA to eSATA cable, USB cable, and vertical stand. The latest drivers and resources and be downloaded at http://www.cavalrystorage.com.

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Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2-Bay 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage ST340005LSA10G-RK Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I feel like I'm in a good place to review this item because I own both the Seagate 220 and also the Western Digital MyBook World Edition, and they are competitors. Both are inexpensive network attached storage appropriate for a home office or for home use. For both machines the only feature I use is reading and writing to the hard drive through windows sharing (from either a windows computer or a linux computer). For that reason I will not comment too much on some of the features like automatic backups, media sharing, etc. For the most part on machines of this level those features are gimmicks. They don't work very well and they degrade overall performance of the NAS, as you will be able to read from other people's reviews. When I want to play media from my NAS, I just mount the drive through windows sharing and play what I want. When I want to back up my computer, I copy stuff myself. For the reason I have a generally more favourable view of both of these machines than other people.
Anyway, on with the review. First I will mention two issues I had to overcome before this NAS was reasonably functional for me.
1. This is the big issue I had to fix: This Seagate NAS does not work well with just any gigabit switch. I originally had it plugged in to a TP-Link switch. I could write to the NAS at full speed, but when I wanted to read from it, the speed was horrible. Maybe 1/20th the speed at which I could write to the NAS. After spending a good deal of time researching the issue online I found out the NAS doesn't play well with some routers and switches. Notably it does not work with D-Link switches. Well, I will add TP-Link to the list it doesn't work with. If I plugged the NAS directly into my Linksys router, the problem went away, but that's only a 100-megabit connection. The funny thing is that the traffic still had to go through the TP-Link switch. In other words, the device this is directly plugged into matters, the rest of the network really doesn't. Anyway I tried various solutions (changing the frame size and so forth). They don't work. The only solution was to buy a netgear switch. If your network has a TP-Link or D-Link switch or router that you'd like to plug this into, budget for a netgear gigabit switch. They aren't real expensive, but I was very annoyed at this problem.
2. This is a small issue, and partly windows' fault: If you create a shortcut to this shared drive in windows and then play a movie from the NAS, it will disconnect 20 minutes into the movie. I originally thought this had to do with the NAS going into sleep mode, but I disabled that feature and it didn't change anything. I didn't notice the problem when playing from my linux machine, and the WD NAS doesn't do this. Anyway, the solution is to actually map the drive in "My Computer" instead of just using a shortcut to get to it. You'd think there would be no difference between those two, but the former works and the latter disconnects after 20 minutes.
Having overcome those two problems, the NAS now functions very nicely for me. The main thing I use this NAS for is to play movies that I have ripped from my DVD collection. They play perfectly on any computer in the house and I can even play two movies on two different computers. Actually I'm not sure how many movies I can play at a time. Nor have I tried playing any HD movies yet, so I can't comment on that, but the speed over my gigabit network seems more than adequate for that.
A couple of comparisons with the Western Digital:
1. This machine is significantly faster than the Western Digital. When I upload to this machine from my Linux box I sustain about 18 or 19 megabytes per second. On the Western Digital I get about 11. This may not sound like a big difference here, but when copying a large file or backing up a whole computer, it makes a very noticeable difference. I don't pay a lot of attention to my download copy speed, but it is above 30 MB per second, whereas I get more like 19 from the Western Digital. I am running this in a RAID 0 configuration. However, I also did a speed test using JBOD and the speeds were exactly the same, so the gain is not really from the RAID (the WD I use has only one HD in it, so there's no RAID option).
2. The Seagate is significantly louder than the Western Digital. It's not loud compared to most hardware, but you can hear the drives spinning if you get close and listen, and when they start up or go to sleep you can hear a click that is pretty noticeable. Sometimes it clicks when no one is using it and you would think it would just be sleeping peacefully. At first I thought this was a hardware problem but it turns out that my NAS is fine. It's just louder than expected. Of course, WD sets the bar high for silence. It is almost impossible to tell if the WD machine is on or doing anything if you ignore the lights on the front (or disable them, as I have).
3. The Seagate is much larger physically. It's not big on an absolute scale, and I don't keep it on my desktop, so it's not a problem, but it's much larger than the WD. The WD is just a hair larger than the actual drive inside it. The Seagate looks like a UPS or something. Anyway I think it looks nice, but one should be aware that it's not as minimalist as some others.
4. The Seagate doesn't try to accommodate tweaks from expert users as much, and it has a much smaller and less active user base. Both machines run Linux under the hood, so if there's a problem with them an experienced user could get in and change things up. On the Western Digital you can enable ssh access through the web interface. And there are bunches of tutorials online about how to fix the technical glitches this comes with and even install new hardware on it. Personally I went in and disabled their media playing software and the software that runs an apple network. Apparently on the WD these things run even though you disabled them and they mess the machine up. Anyway, there is no ssh option on the seagate, so in principle you can't go in and change things. There aren't really help pages for experts. However, recently a user did figure out a way to enable ssh. He wrote an update to the firmware. I used it and it works great, but I can see how some users may not feel comfortable upgrading their firmware in order to get ssh access. Anyway after ssh'ing in, I found that there is one windows bug that the NAS wasn't dealing with well. That is, windows clients delete the last character of the share when they are reading and it causes a bunch of errors to the log, though it still seems to work ok. The workaround is to create another share on the NAS that is not visible, called "Publi", which refers to the same directory. So I'm glad to be ssh'ing in now. Still, for tweaking, it's a better bet to go with the WD. It's been vetted by more linux people.
Anyway, this drive works very well for me. It's my larger and higher performance network attached storage and it is quite reliable for me. When I purchased it, this was cheaper than the equivalent capacity in WD (I use the 4 TB version). In part I believe I'm happy with it because I don't try and use the features that get touted in ads. I just use it as network attached storage. That's true of both drives, and it's what I recommend. The forums for both these machines are full of people ranting about how their device doesn't do what they want and that no one at the company seems to care about them---that's why I say just use it as a remote hard drive. Based on my perusal of the forums, Seagate seems to support their NAS customers less (at least on the forums), though neither company is real great in that respect.
I love both of my network storage devices and I use them both all the time. This seagate is a great buy. When I bought it, at least, it was the cheapest NAS available with this capacity and it turns out to be a very good performer. It's really nice to be able to back things up or store all my large files in one place and be able to access them from any computer in my house. If I were to buy a third NAS, it would probably be another Seagate, just because it's cheaper and faster than the competition.
But make sure you plug it into a NETGEAR device, not a TP-Link or D-Link. I'm not sure about other brands.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2-Bay 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage ST340005LSA10G-RK

4TB Blackarmor NAS220

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Netgear Stora 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage MS2110 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What's not to love about the Netgear Stora? On description alone, this sounds like a great product for home users to back up their computers and store their music and picture libraries. Perfect, right?
Although this is marketed for the non-technical user, after my experiences, I don't thing Grandma would ever figure this one out.
When I first installed the Stora I thought everything was going to work just like indicated. I had the stora set up, registered, password created, and had even added a couple of music files to test it out. Music was streaming perfectly. Then.. I tried to go online to read the owners manual and that is where the fun began. I found when the Stora was turned on that it hijacked my router and blocked Internet access from any other device in the house. Even computers that had never even accessed the Stora or had the Stora desktop applications installed were blocked as well as my squeezebox.
I turned off the Stora and cleared the cookies from my computers and restarted them, and I was able to get back onto the Internet. Then I turned the Stora on and it immediately blocked Internet access. I worked for a few hours on my own trying to diagnose the problem and find a workaround. Having no luck, I contacted technical support.
I found that Netgear surprisingly had 24/7 technical support, which was excellent at 2:30 am, except for the forty minutes of hold time. The first tech support specialist was a joy to work with. He was patient beyond what could be expected of saints. He went through every troubleshooting idea he could come up with. After spending two hours with me, at my suggestion he agreed I should try to assign an IP address to the Stora rather than allowing my router to auto-assign an IP address. I knew the IP address should be along the lines of 192.168.1.1xx but the tech support specialist told me to set it to 192.168.1.1, and against my better judgement, I put that in. At that point, my router decided he'd had enough and flipped out and kept flashing lights non-stop. My Internet AND Stora access were blocked. The tech support specialist set up a time for a higher level tech support specialist to call me back, and right on schedule I was contacted by Patrick. Patrick quickly ran through the notes and tried a few more things to help me, but finally ascertained that he couldn't fix the problem and suggested I either RMA it or return it to Amazon. He also understood that the Stora and the last tech support specialist made the problem worse so he tried to help me get my network working again even after we had taken the Stora off of the network. It didn't work, but I did appreciate his willingness to help.
The technical support specialists we talked to never addressed the issue of a possible hardware conflict, such as my router, but I got to thinking that might be the problem. We run a home business and in a fret of worry about not being able to print out and access tomorrows business I had my husband run to Sam's Club and purchase a new router. I did a system restore on all of the computers in the house to three days prior (and made sure the Stora was not connected in any way to my network, lol). I then installed the new router and my network was resurrected.
That got me to thinking.. maybe my router was not compatible with the Stora. Making a leap of faith I printed out tomorrows business and reconnected the Stora. Like magic, I did not get kicked off the Internet. The Stora was still working. I uploaded dozens of albums to the Stora and started streaming music around the house. I finally figured out that my router was incompatible with the Stora. Others on forums have complained that the Stora running blocks their http access. I would suspect that the problem lies in the router, how it assigns IP addresses, and that interacts with the Stora.
I don't feel that this product was ready for prime time. I did some backups, but found they did not create what I consider to be a mirror backup. I couldn't scroll through the hierarchy of drives and files like on my Seagate replica, but instead it's the type of backup you would use to restore a system. I also found the backup on this product to be incredibly slow compared to other competing products I've used.
I still like using it for streaming music and will probably add another 1TB drive to safeguard my files, but I don't know if the average person would persist through the many hours it took me to get this working correctly.
My other complaint is that the PDF user manual was "included" on the setup CD, but in fact it needed to be online to read. In other words, when they say the user manual is on CD, you have to be connected to the Internet to read the manual at their web site. It's not a stand alone PDF accessible straight from the CD. That REALLY frustrated me when I was having problems.
One more complaint, if the music folder is a folder within a folder it won't play. For example, if you have eight Michael Jackson albums contained within a folder called "Michael Jackson" and click "autoplay" it won't play any music. You have to manually drill down to get to the album you want.
Some reviewers have reported having to open ports on their firewall. I suppose experiences will vary. I set up my Stora using a Windows 7 64-bit operating system with Windows firewall and MSSE. I never had to adjust anything to complete the setup and my network is still secured. Perhaps there are compatibility factors that cause workarounds like disabling your firewall or opening ports.
I haven't yet set up the remote access free trial, but plan to give it a try once I have more loaded onto the Stora. I'll update my review and experiences after I try it out.
I hope that Netgear improves the Stora software because it has a lot of potential, but in it's current state it has basic functionality, basic storage, basic backup, with remote and network access. With better firmware and software, this product could be a must-have.
Pros:
Inexpensive
90 days free phone support
3 year warranty parts & labor
1TB storage
Remote access for only $20 per year
Ability to add another 3.5" SATA drive and utilize RAID feature
No need to install the desktop apps on additional computers, just access it's assigned IP on your network (192.168.1.?)
Can use this as a network printer server by connecting the printer through USB
File upload is very easy - just drag and drop
Cons:
Mirror backup is not a mirror- it's just a backup
Incompatibility with some routers
Folder management is pretty basic
Slow backups
I feel the 90 day free phone support should be longer, at least six months

Click Here to see more reviews about: Netgear Stora 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage MS2110

Includes one 3.5-Inch SATA drive and one open hot-swap bay. Add a spare disk drive at your convenience for automatic data mirroring. Acts as a multimedia hub that serves music, video, photos and files to any device on your home network. High-speed network connection for fast data transfers and streaming performance. Access files and play or view content at home and over the Internet. Integrates with Facebook, iTunes, Picasa2 and Web-enabled phones2

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NetDisk 351UNE 3.5-Inch USB/eSATA/Ethernet Enclosure For USB or Network Storage Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
The Iocell NetDisk 351UNE is a poor product. The name makes everyone believe this device is a "Network Attached storage" device (commonly called a NAS device). This is NOT a NAS device. This device is a 'NDAS' device.
A NDAS device is a made-up word by Iocell/Ximeta to mean their version of a networked storage device. With the Netdisk 351UNE - Using NDAS- the storage device requires every computer to install the 'Netdisk' install utility.
Once done only ONE computer with THEIR software installed write to the drive. The rest can only READ from the drive. With newer versions of their software multiple people may have permissions (beta version). With the upgraded beta versions of the software- the 'host' computer (first computer to have write access while installed) must ALWAYS-BE-ON for other drives to access the data and write to the drive. The included software that ships with the drive only allows for ONE computer to write and is only compatible with Win98/2000/2003 Server for network access. Vista drivers included are only for e-sata/usb.
The Netdisk 351UNE does not support ftp/bit torrent servers/ ect as there is no IP address assigned to the networked drive ever. There is no configuration web page available and no drive statistics to view. To 'mount' and 'unmount' the drive you click on the drive icon available in the task-bar at all times.
Summary:
Do not buy this expecting a NAS device (A drive enclosure that you could simply turn on and have a drive available on the network to save files to retrieve files). The NetDisk 351UNE is not a NAS device. The NetDisk 351UNE is a network gimmick for a poor-mans networked hard-drive at a comparable price.


Click Here to see more reviews about: NetDisk 351UNE 3.5-Inch USB/eSATA/Ethernet Enclosure For USB or Network Storage

3.5" USB/eSATA/Ethernet Enclosure For USB or Network Storage

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Cisco-Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender WMCE54AG Review

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(More customer reviews)I really like this product. I really like Media Center 2005. But more than anything else, I LOVE the IDEA of this product -- a networked device that helps unite the living room to the home office, giving you one place to put your pictures, videos, and music. This is a great generation one product. I can't wait to see what the next couple of generations bring.
That said, here are the things to be aware of when purchasing:
1) You need to know (or find someone to help you who knows) the basic fundamentals of home networking and Windows. This is not a completely plug and play installation.
2) You must have a very strong network connection between your Media Center 2005 device and your Media Center Extender. Ideally, you would have a wired connection (i.e., using old fashion cables). But I use the Wireless-G option and it works great now -- but I had to spend a good deal of time tuning the placement of my wireless router to ensure optimal connectivity between PC and Extender.
3) Be aware: TV content labeled as Copy Protected will not play on the Media Center Extender. For me, this means one very bad thing -- I can't watch 99% of the shows on HBO on the Extender. This is very disappointing for our family, because we enjoy HBO and actually use the Extender on our main TV in the house (with the Media Center 2005 PC in our home office). Pay TV channels are the only area we have had problems with this, though, so if you don't need to watch these channels on the TV where you are putting the extender, don't worry about it.
4) There are a few other things you can do on the Media Center PC that you can't do on the extender. Mainly for me--the extender can't play content on your Media Center PC DVD drive (I get around this by first burning the DVD to my hard-drive using a product called Pocket DVD -- a perfect solution to put my son's frequently watched kid movies in a place that's easily accessible).
Overall, if you already have Media Center 2005 -- buy this product--it's really cool to have a central hub for all this content with multiple TVs hanging off it.
If you don't already have Media Center 2005, and are considering it -- I recommend it. But be forewarned that it's still what I would call an "early adopter" solution. Be prepared for a few stumbles and bumps -- but it's sure to wow your techie buddies.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cisco-Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender WMCE54AG

Bring your Windows Media Center PC's digital movies, live and recorded TV, pictures and music out into the living room! The Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender lets you bring the digital entertainment available through and stored on your Windows Media Center PC to your Home Entertainment Center, without running cables through the house.Using a Wireless-A, Wireless-G, or wired Ethernet connection, the Media Center Extender displays home-made or downloaded digital movies and your digital photographs on the TV for the whole family to enjoy.And your digital music collection is finally freed from those little computer speakers and can play in full glory through your stereo system.You can also watch and pause live TV shows, or record them digitally for later viewing.Finding something to watch is easy with the free on-screen program guide.

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Cisco-Linksys Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The others have said it as well as I can. I agree with almost everything written (except the brief 2 line review that says it stinks). But here is my pro/con/comment report:
Pros: Very easy to setup. Very easy to install SATA drives (no cables, just slide in like a hot-swappable scsi drive). NO CLIENT SOFTWARE needed to map drives (just connect to \\nas200\sharename). Web based configuration so no software needed to manage. Option to power down hard drives after 10/20 minutes of inactivity, then another option to power down internal fan 10/20 minutes AFTER hard drives power down (to allow case to cool, I guess. This option makes the unit completely silent when not in use (this wasn't mentioned in other reviews). Inserting a USB hard drive (even one previously formatted as NTFS) results in instant detection, AND instant default share created (\\nas200\disk_1_1 for USB1). (to remove the usb external drive while the NAS is running press the small eject button next to the appropriate USB port. If you pull the cable or shut down the external drive, the NAS needs to be reset to see ALL shares). RAID1 option for protecting that precious data (it recommends configuring as individual drives, but no way would I do that. Why wouldn't you select RAID1 if available? Protect those precious family pictures, guys!). Small footprint, stacks with other linksys gear (routers, switches, APs, etc). Option to automatically shutdown every day or a given day of week at a set time. As nice as that is, the fact that the drives and then fan shutdown after inactivity makes it quiet and power saving anyway. Smaller and quieter and easier than using a separate computer (if you were considering making a Linux file "server" out of that spare tower case you had lying around). You don't need client software to map drives, however, the included client software, if you choose to install it, is very helpful and makes mapping drives very easy (adds a system tray icon to quickly map/unmap drives). Also, the software lets you attach the external USB drives from the NAS as if they were local USB drives (which I thought was very cool).
Cons: somewhat slow. I did 6GB in 30 minutes, so figure over an hour for 10-12GB of data over the 100Mb network. I think people are expecting too much from FastEthernet. Especially if you are using wireless! Here are the numbers: 100Megabits per second = 12.5megabytes per second = 750megabytes/minute = 45,000megabytes/minute = 44(real)Gigabytes/minute (assume 40 because FastEthernet really only gets around 90Mb/s in real world). So this unit is running around 25Mb instead of 100. But I wouldn't throw it out because of that. Also, if you are on wireless, well then your network is only really going around 12Mb/s at its best (over 802.11g) real world numbers. To display the list of files in an explorer window sometimes takes 10-20 seconds (but sometimes the files pop right up in a few seconds). When you have gigabit file sharing at work, the NAS is excruciatingly slow. No support for usb printer (the SLUG unit that linksys sells, basically this device with only 2 external USB drive support, has an active community writing Linux firmware that adds all kinds of features, including print server and firewall. I wonder if anyone is working on open source firmware for the nas200?). I digress. More cons: no provision to backup internal drives to external drives (another item on my Linux wishlist). For some reason, I thought that was mentioned on the spec sheet. If you pull an external drive, all shares disappear and you have to power cycle the unit. Takes almost 2 minutes to boot up. No option to power down external USB drives after inactivity, so even when the nas200 fan and internal drives shutdown, the external drives are still humming along. Not as feature rich as making a Linux file server out of that spare computer case you have lying around ;-).
Conclusion: I like the unit. I think it's really 3.5 stars. Its a little slow, but quiet and small, and it holds as much as you put in (I got two 320GB SATA drives, $80 each). If the USB ports could be print servers, that would be one less device in my linksys "stack". If the box could automatically backup internal drives to the external USB, that would be a little more peace of mind. I use it as my picture, document, and MP3 primary storage. The raid1 protects my data, and I use external USB drives to backup (but it's combersome because I simply map drive letters to both the internal drives and the external drives, then copy from one to the other. It would be nice if that feature was built-in). Its nice to have a unified file storage system at home, where I have 4 laptops and a desktop (for gaming :-), and to do it for about $300. Considering the small outlay, its worth getting to fool around with. If in the end, the speed is too slow for your home/SOHO network...you are only out $140 (and you can put the SATA drives in your beefy gaming rig).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cisco-Linksys Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200)

Now you can quickly and easily add storage space onto your network with the Linksys Network Storage System. This stand-alone network appliance features two available SATA hard drive bays so you can attach as much storage as you need now, and add more later as your storage needs grow. For even more expandability, there are two USB ports that let you connect readily available USB 2.0 hard drives for even more storage space -- or plug in a USB flash disk for a convenient way of accessing your portable data files.

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D-Link DSM-G600 Wireless G Network Storage Enclosure Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you don't mind wired speeds of 5.8-6 Megabytes / Second or Wireless 54g speeds of 1.5 Megabytes / Second then this is the device for you. D-link should not market this as Gigabit, it's just not true. I have a gigabit network infrastructure and from computer to computer or computer to other gigabit storage devices I get real-world speeds of 20-22 Megabytes per second transfer rates, BUT going from the same computer using the same network, the transfer speed to the DSM-G600 is 5.8 Megabytes per second. This is awful if you plan on doing anything useful with this device.
I thought I got a bad one, so I even took it back to get a new one and I get the same speed. I verified this with a friend who has the same model, same 6MB/Sec speed. I spoke w/ D-link level 3 support and they told me today that 6MB/Sec is what they have seen with this device and that if a firmware upgrade was available; it would only marginally improve this. There are reports on the internet of speeds between 20-25MB/Sec, so something is going on and D-Link needs to address this issue. BTW, I have Hardware Rev B1, Firmware 1.00
Other than that, the idea for this product is great and the price is right, just don't expect gigabit performance, heck it doesn't even reach 100 megabit speeds. What a shame.
The choice is yours.
11/22/2006 - I thought I owed everyone an update on this box. Since Jan I've been messing w/ this thing just trying to get it to work as advertised. I have tried all 3 Rev. B firmware: 1.00, 1.01, 1.02 (just released) and unfortunately 1.01 and 1.02 are worse than 1.00 - you will experience the web-gui pages only loading ½ way before the box reboots on you. So, now I'm stuck because I can't edit my wireless settings because the box won't stay alive long enough to edit anything. As usual, I will have to downgrade to 1.00 for it to be somewhat functional, although that kills uploading any file > 2gb. I really gave d-link a try on this one, but I would advise people to just stay away from this thing and wait for something better from some other company who offers true support and more frequent and accurate firmware updates or check out freenas, google "freenas" and build your own NAS box for free (minus the hardware) or if you are stuck w/ this google "fun_plug" to at least make this thing somewhat useful. Too many cons on this one:
1.Poor Tech Support
2.Lack of quality, tested firmware
3.Very long delays between firmware revisions
4.NOT GB speeds, way too slow for anything useful except word documents, etc.
5.Wireless has issues with WPA w/ TKIP and sometimes WEP (depending on what firmware you are running)
6.Hard drive doesn't spin down, so you waste energy and hard drive life
7.Very noisy, the fan is so loud you have to keep far away
8.Power button doesn't work right, they tried to fix it in firmware 1.02..
9.List goes on..


Click Here to see more reviews about: D-Link DSM-G600 Wireless G Network Storage Enclosure

Share files and digital media with everyone on the home or office networkAttach up to 2 USB 2.0/1.1 drives for additional storageGigabit Ethernet portAccess point functionality - creates an 802.11g wireless networkBuilt-in FTP serverProtect important files by making regular backupsIncludes detachable antenna power adapter Cat-5 UTP Ethernet cable and software

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NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Well I purchased 4 of these units, hoping to make this stack of 40GB, 80GB and 120GB drives I have laying around the house useful again. So far, buying these was not a good idea. I attribute most of my problems to there not being enough real technical review of the product available, and all documentation simply glosses over technical details in exchange for sales-speak. First, I'll say these are niftily crafted units that might have been pretty slick if they'd worked the way I expected them to. Problems encountered and gripes mounted include:
* These are not NAS devices, as some of the documentation might lead you to believe. A NAS device (network attached storage) typically offers clients the ability to connect to the device, using it's native fileshare method. CIFS for Windows, NFS for Linux/Unix, etc. These devices offer none of that.
* Device is available to Windows clients on the network only. If that's not bad enough, check the following gripe.
* Every PC that wants to access the device needs to have the software CD installed. Usually a NAS device will offer a shared filesystem that can be mounted in the OS's native method. With this box, all the PCs need to have a driver installed in order to see the device.
* DHCP only. There is no option to have a static IP address on the device. It is DHCP only.
* On first install, lamely worded error message hindered the install. After installing the device and the driver, it kept failing with the error "Unable to enumerate drive". The help file was useless. After an hour of messing with it and finally deleting all of my mapped drives, the installation suceeded and I was able to use the device.
* You MUST use the included software. Although the device seems to be listening on port 80, there is no web interface to configure it. The included software, running on Windows is the only way.
* Non-Windows systems are out of luck. This is a Windows only device. Do not try to connect to it with Mac OSX or Linux (both of which I have). The device can be connected and re-shared by a Windows PC, allowing Macs and Linux to get to it, but this has proved painstakingly slow.
* Painstakingly slow. I connected the device to an older Windows PC and the best sustained data transfer I could get (read or write) was around 3MB/s. Hardly a speed demon. My linux fileserver on the same network can easily sustain 10MB/s. I am going to connect the device to a faster Xeon based system and see how speedy it is then.
* Simple security. I saw no method of creating usernames or any kind of security on the device other than the single password that can be setup to access the device. Probably because this is designed for the home where there are not a bunch of users and passwords to manage.
Now this is a pretty new product, so hopefully it will get better with time. It seemed like such a good idea (obviously, I bought 4 of them), but I'm not convinced it was the best execution. Buyer beware.

Click Here to see more reviews about: NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central

The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is an expandable storage system that allows shared access by all computers on your network. With space for two IDE hard drives, you can set the device up to mirror each other so you have a backup of all your files in case either one fails.
Excellent Value and Easy Setup Unlike other network-attached storage (NAS) devices, the SC101 does not come with any drives but requires you to purchase your own. This allows for considerable cost savings. Opening up the SC101 only requires turning a latch that can be done with a quarter; no tools are needed. Attach the power connectors and IDE cables, set the jumpers, and slide the drive into place, and that's it.
After the hard drives are installed, plug the device in, attach it to the network, and install the included software. The software guides you through setup step by step. When everything is ready to go, it looks like a new hard drive has been installed on your PC and you use it just as you would any other hard drive. Backup software is included for users who don't already have their own preferred software. Please note that the SC101 is only compatible with Windows machines and won't work with Macs or Linux.
Outstanding Performance with Various Storage Options The SC101 connects to your network via a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection for fast data transfers. When you connect two drives to the device, you have the option of having them "mirrored" or "spanned." Mirrored storage lets you keep two copies of every file, one on each drive, so that everything is backed up in case of drive failure. When two drives are set to span, they appear as one volume so they are easy to work with and the device will automatically find your data across both drives.
The front panel has three LEDs to let you know the status of the power, hard disk and network at a glance. The NETGEAR SC101 Storage Central is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box SC101 Storage Central, resource CD, power adapter, Ethernet cable, installation guide, SmartSync Pro Backup Software CD, and warranty/support information card.

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Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Going on three months of use. I do wonder about some of the posts about this thing dying after 18 months as this particular model (dual band) has not been in existence that long...
As a router, this thing is tops. Used it to replace a Linksys N router. I get much better range and much faster data now on my macbook. Before, in my bedroom, less than 50 ft away from my router, I couldn't watch standard def Hulu videos at all. Now I can stream high def videos without any delays or pauses. Part of it is because I also have G devices (Wii, iphones, etc) and the old linksys was forced to operate on that slower frequency. This thing effectively gives you a separate G router and N router- so my macbook finally can operate at full N speed but still provide service to older devices. This thing smokes the linksys in range and speed.
As a time capsule it works. I backup my iMac and my Macbook to it. I had a Seagate drive before that died after 9 months. So now I have a time capsule and another external hard drive, I rotate between the two to have redundant data for WHEN one of them fails. All Hard drives fail at some point. I do wonder about heat, there's no fan, but it never gets very hot to the touch.
Very happy with it so far.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand

Time Capsule is a backup device that works wirelessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It automatically backs up everything, so you don t have to worry about losing your digital life. Time Capsule is also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station. Every computer in your house can work off a wireless network at blazing speeds. And they can back up wirelessly to the same Time Capsule. What's in the Box : Time Capsule, CD with AirPort Utility (Mac and Windows), AirPort Disk Utility for Windows, Bonjour for Windows, Power cord, Printed and electronic documentation.

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