Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage Reviews

• RAID works, survives hard disk failure

  
  By A9AMA937OOQGQ on 2008-05-17
  What is Amazon Vine and why do these reviewers write so much stuff without saying anything? This review is for people who want to know only one thing: Does this device actually survive a disk failure? The answer is Yes.
  
  My sister recently lost 2 of her external USB hard drives. She had to pay $3000 to a data recovery company to retrieve her data. I figure that $400 for a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo is small change, if it actually did what it claimed to do, which is survive a disk crash. The only way to know was to test it out.
  
  I have about 40 GB worth of MP3 files stored on my Linux server, accessible to my Windows laptop using Samba as a network shared folder.
  
  From my Windows laptop, I started copying the MP3 files into the \media share folder on the Duo. Over gigabit ethernet, I estimated a transfer speed of about 15-20 MB/second. More than I expected, considering the weak processing power of the embedded Linux computer on the Duo, and because there are 2 concurrent network copies going on, from Linux to Windows, then from Windows to Netgear. Gigabit ethernet is awesome.
  
  While the copy was in progress, I inserted a second 750 GB hard disk (a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 series if you are curious; my Duo came with one 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 installed) into the second slot. The Netgear recognized it and started to incorporate it into the RAID system in 2 steps: first, format the drive (an ext3 Linux filesystem I think), took about 2.5 hours; second, synchronize the data from the first disk to the second disk, took another 2.5 hours. During this time, the 40 GB MP3 file transfer continued without a hitch.
  
  Next, I configured the Duo to enable NFS (Network File System) and mounted the /media folder onto my Linux box. Now I had access to both the original and the copy on the Duo. I ran a "diff -r" command to do a recursive binary diff between the two directories. Came out perfect, no file corruptions.
  
  I went back to my Windows laptop, and started another 40 GB copy of my MP3 files to the Duo. While the write was in progress, I _removed_ the 500 GB disk. The Duo detected a disk failure within a few seconds, and sent off a notification email to my GMail account, warning me of a disk failure. You can configure the notification email address to send the message to, say, your SMS on your mobile phone. As before, the MP3 copy to the Duo continued without a burp.
  
  I then inserted a second 750 GB drive into the first slot, while the copying was still in progress. The Duo formatted and synchronized the new disk, and after about 5-6 hours, I once again had a fully redundant RAID system. Did another 'diff -r' just to make sure the data was not corrupted. None found.
  
  When upgrading from a single 500 GB to dual 750 GB disks, the proprietary Netgear X-RAID filesystem makes the process as painless as possible. After both disks are formatted and synchronized, all you need to do is click on a button in the admin web interface (don't remmeber the exact wording, something like "Expand Volume") to take advantage of the bigger disks.
  
  In conclusion, I tested the Netgear Duo through a simulated hard disk crash and hot-swapping disk upgrade, and found that it performed perfectly, did not corrupt the files which were being written to it during the process. The Duo performs reasonably well (15-20 MB/sec write speed over gigabit ethernet) and costs only about $400, far cheaper than what you'd pay to recover your data after your disk crashes. It has an impressive list of other useful features (USB backup, USB printer, NFS, Rsync, FTP, Bittorrent, etc) that you can read about in other reviews. The most important question for me was, will it survive a disk crash? I won't know for sure until a disk really does crash, but based on my testing, I think the answer is Yes.
  
  
  

• Buit like a tank and oozing with functionality

  
  By A3M6TSEV71537G on 2008-05-15
  Netgear's ReadyNAS Duo is one extremely solid piece of kit. From the moment you take it in your hands you'll be surprised at the solid weight, feel and case construction of this little black box. The ReadyNAS Duo feels almost industrial-strength and makes other PC hardware attachments with cheap plastic casing seem like toys in comparison. Right off the bat, as first impressions go the ReadyNAS Duo gets a big thumbs up for exuding sexy form factor design and quality in spades.
  
  Setup couldn't be any easier. Getting it up and running took, literally, less then 10 minutes. Unbox the device, use the included ethernet cable to plug the device into your network router and install the Netgear software to your host PC. Bang, Bang, Done. Once I got my network to recognize the device (no problems there) I was really surprised at just how whisper quiet the drive is while in full operational mode. After spending a few hours transferring various media files I felt some slight heat radiating from the drive but nothing really to be concerned about. In fact, the low power consumption of the Duo is worth noting - in its idle state the Duo uses just 27 watts of power and only a few more when the disk is in use. In disk spin down mode, a mere 12w is used.
  
  My current home network setup consists of a desktop PC, a wireless laptop, a series 3 TiVo, a PS3 and a PSP. The Duo is a terrific addition for my home needs as I was able to fill it with 30 gb's of MP3's, 15 gb's of photo images and a 100 gb's of home videos, etc. and still had hundreds of gigabytes to spare. Because the drive is networked and piped through ethernet cabling transferring large data files from the PC to the Duo is blazing fast. Magnitudes faster then going through USB2.0/firewire which is the speeds I was previously accustomed to. I've now been using the Duo for 2 solid weeks with zero problems or hiccups to report thus far. Using a NAS device for the first time has really been a nice change as I no longer have to rely on keeping the desktop PC powered up 24/7 in order to allow my various networked devices access to my music, photos, videos, etc. Those of you looking for a decent media server option to put your PS3 and set-top media boxes to proper use will find immense value and functionality from the Duo.
  
  In any case I would highly recommed the Duo to anyone in need of a Network Attached Storage device. Sure, the price is a bit higher than your run of the mill external hard drives but what you are paying for is the solid overall construction of the Duo, a terrific 3 year warranty and oodles of various functionality to meet the needs of various types of users. In my 2 weeks of usage I've barely scratched the surface of what the Duo can do as my needs on a home network are fairly standard - but rest assured that the Duo has all the bells and whistles (data backup utilities, BitTorrent functionality not dependant on your PC running, Shadow backups, a full array of email notifiable alerts, easy upgradability, setting user storage quotas, assignment of user logins, power monitoring, etc, etc, etc) that you'd expect from such a RAID NAS device.
  
  

• The ReadyNAS Duo Is Extremely Cool

  
  By A2RN2AO4BE6F4K on 2008-05-14
  The ReadNAS Duo (RND for short) is an extremely cool addition to my network. I had it up and running fast with no problems. The web interface allows you to administer all the settings in both Wizard and Advanced mode. After the initial setup, the RND will show up in your network neighborhood on your network. You can then map a drive letter to it and start copying and sharing files. I moved all our pictures to this device and will eventually start using the picture sharing service. I also moved all our mp3 files to the media share so I could stream them to various devices on the network.
  
  I added a second 500GB hard drive to the RND a week after I set it up. Adding the drive was easy. You just open the front door, pull out the empty cage, insert the drive and plug it back in. All without turning the RND off. You can give the RND your email address and smtp server info and it will email you status messages. When it was done formatting and mirroring the new drive, I got an email that all was well.
  
  I was upset at first that you couldn't set the unit to Raid 0 and add a second 500gb drive to bump up the overall size. I wrote to tech support and the tech assured me (multiple times) that you could do a factory reset and then the unit would allow you to pick a raid level other than Raid-X. Over the next few days, I decided that a Raid X was a good idea since I put all our family pictures on it and having a backup sounded pretty good. So I didn't try setting it to Raid 0. After all if all you want is a terabyte drive you can get a WD one cheaper than the ReadyNAS.
  
  The RND is able to run a bunch of different services. I put our mp3 library on it and use Sqeezecenter to stream to my Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System. After updating the Squeezecenter software on the RND it worked great. This means I don't have to run Squeezecenter on a PC anymore.
  
  What I really like:
  
  - Running Squeezecenter for my Squeezebox Duet.
  - Very small good looking unit.
  - Ability to plug in USB drives and share them through the RND
  - 1gb network speed allows very fast network transfers with a 1gb switch. I upgraded my switches and network cards in order to take advantage of this.
  - Easy setup
  - Automated backup jobs
  - Enough settings and controls to make a computer geek happy
  - Adding a drive is simple and the unit emailed me when it was done
  - Having all my pictures and mp3s mirrored in case of a drive failure
  - After you know the ip address of the unit, you can access the web interface from any computer on your network without installing any extra software.
  
  Possible Concerns:
  
  - Price - It seems high, but this isn't just a USB drive. It's a stand alone hot swappable raid device that runs various network services. It is not your standard home network add on. It can do a lot of cool things.
  - Noise - I did notice the noise level, but it didn't bother me.
  - Updates - The plugins/services that the ReadyNAS shipped with will need to be updated as soon as you get it. This is a new device and they improving and fixing things on a daily basis.
  - I've had no hardware or software problems over the 3 weeks the unit has been up and running.
  - When picking a drive to add to the RND make sure to check the drive compatibility chart on the NetGear site.
  
  
  

• What a great product and Amazon Price !

  
  By A18XCAOEPJKVM1 on 2008-07-04
  I purchased this Netgear ReadyNAS DUO RND-2150 to replace a D-Link NAS DNS-323. I wanted the ability to increase my drive size without having to restore the current files from an off NAS backup. (Not available with the D-Link product. I had read several reviews and I was impressed with what I had learned from the reviews.
  My oreder from Amazon arrived within 2 days and I was up and running with the Originally Purchased hardware. The RND-2150 comes with 1 500 Gig HD. After I had set it up and got it working, I was up and running in 15 minutes, I copied the files over from the D-Link NAS and then checked to make sure everything was as it was supposed to be, I took down the D-Link NAS. My next step 3 days later, was to install a 750 Gig HD and see what happened. This is where the wonder started. The RND-2150 is hot swappable. So I installed the newer larger drive in the removable drive tray and plugged it into the device. The RND-2150 took care of the who thing automatically. Mirroring the new drive did take about 5 hours BUT the unit was still accessible while the mirroring was going on. A week later, I wanted to replace the 500 Gig with an identical 750 Gig. With the system running, I removed the 500 Gig, secured the new 750 Gig into the tray and plugged it in. Once again the RND-2150 was off and running automatically. Progress is monitored by a Windows Netgear Interface "RAIDAR" that comes along with the package and buy e-mail notifications sent out buy the RND-2150 as things progress.
  Everything turned out just perfect after I did a reboot of the NAS after the mirroring was completed. The RND-2150 expanded the mirror to utilize the full size of the mirrored 750 Gig drives.
  Now the 500 Gig drive is off to ebay and I am extremely happy.
  I am using StorageCrafts ShadowProtect to do weekly backups of the 2 main home computers and I am using the included NTI Shadow for ReadyNAS to do realtime backups of both systems My Documents. Along with storage for the Music and Family Photos, this is a great product
  
  

• When Stuff is This Cool, I Get Excited

  
  By A14JBDSWKPKTZA on 2008-04-24
  Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (Network Accessible Storage) Home Media Server for music, photos, videos, and it also doubles as an ideal backup server. It comes with a second drive bay with a removable rack, so you can easily make it a RAID secure environment, instantaneously making a mirrored copy of everything. It comes with NTI Shadow software, enabling each workstation in a network, whether it is a PC or a MAC, to be set up for continuous backup. This is way more than just a backup device. It thinks. With 256 Meg of SDRAM, and 64 Megs of flash memory built in, it becomes a backup, and media streaming server with a ton of usable capabilities.
  
  Setup couldn't be easier. Plug the Ethernet cable into your router, and then plug the power supply into an electrical outlet. That's it. Press the button on the front, and the cool blue light goes on, blinking until it configures itself. Drop the CD into any PC in your network, it automatically scans and detects the ReadyNAS. Click on setup and customize it to your preferences, by turning on any or all streaming media options, including PS3, Xbox 360, and Squeezebox.
  
  I immediately backed up my individual PC's to it using Windows backup. It worked without a hitch. Included in the package on the CD disc is "Shadow for ReadyNAS" for your Mac or PC, which is an advanced network backup application. For example you can use the Quick Restore feature in case you inadvertently delete an important file. It enables you to continuously backup files as you are working with them. Click on Quick Restore and choose amongst several earlier versions of the same file. You can also push the backup button on the front panel, and automatically do a complete backup of every PC in your network, in step fashion, doing one at a time.
  
  For security purposes, access is password protected. When I first logged onto the ReadyNAS, it had a checkbox in order to save the password. After that I could back up the machine without having to worry about a password dialogue box interrupting a scheduled backup.
  
  The ReadyNAS duo comes with a single 500GB Sata II hard drive. The duo means that there are 2 removable trays built in, one for housing a second drive such as the Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive if you wish to take advantage of the RAID. RAID gives you the added security of mirroring your data instantly, and continuously, to another drive. If your first one should fail, you can hot swap it out with the secondary drive in only a minute, and not lose a beat. So the ReadyNAS duo is suitable for high demand applications.
  
  If you wish to add additional storage, you can daisy chain a second drive through one of the ReadyNAS USB ports. Case enclosed portable USB drives such as the popular Iomega Desktop Hard Drive 500 GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Hard Drive are available for only a few dollars more than the drive itself. I caution you against using a USB case enclosed drive for long term, always on use. They do not have the breathing space, or the air flow capacity of the ReadyNAS, nor do they have the built in email warning system to alert you to any problems. USB drives are good for spot transfers, enabling you to have a universal plug into any PC. Want to take some files over to your buddy's house?
  
  With ReadyNAS photos, you can connect your digital camera directly into the USB port, and download them. Share your photos with the built in album, and postcard invitation to friends feature. The network recycle bin comes in handy if you inadvertently delete a file. Compatibility with the most popular media streaming devices, as well as file compatibility with PC, MAC, and UNIX makes the ReadyNAS the most flexible for media streaming, bar none. I finally have a backup device that enables me to do complete, and incremental backups, without having to keep a full backup server PC running. With its green ready power saving feature it draws only a quarter of a full PC's electricity.
  
  I wish I had some detractions to report, but I don't. This thing is superbly engineered, utilizing the latest technologies, and it worked perfectly right out of the box. I am looking forward to making life more entertaining, and streamlined, by discovering the ins and outs of the many features. For example the programmable backup button, built in Torrent client... the list goes on. For me, I have spent years with tape backups, hard drive removable racks, extra hard drives mounted in other PC's, and this ReadyNAS is an ideal solution. I can finally get into a regular backup regimen, with complete, and incremental backups. With the continuous backup feature, I can even have the safety of every saved file being instantly recorded on the ReadyNAS. Sweet. If you have ever had a hard drive crash on you, taking years of data with it, you will truly enjoy the safety, and ease of use. (Not to mention being a great addition to your home media center arsenal.) I highly recommend it.
  
  
  
• An effective file and print server for a household of laptops.
  By A1VKAY0XWLA2CY on 2008-05-14
  There are countless ways one can use this product. The built-in BitTorrent functionality, for example, makes this a standalone seeder or leecher that can work in the background while other machines are differently tasked or offline. While I'm not using it that way, I certainly appreciate the potential.
  
  We use it, effectively, as a desktop replacement in the capacity of a print and file server. We back up from the laptops automatically and regularly to the ReadyNAS using Windows Live OneCare 2.0. We have our printer hooked up directly to it, which gives us the freedom of being able to place it virtually anywhere in the house -- not something that would have been practical had it been tethered to a large desktop computer. The ReadyNAS has a small footprint, and it's virtually silent, so placement potential is nearly unlimited.
  
  While 500GB doesn't feel like a lot of storage space these days, it's easy enough to replace the drive. Access for such a change couldn't be easier as you simply open the front panel, release a carriage, attach the drive to it, and slide it back into place. A second slot is available in the case for the sake of data redundancy.
  
  You control the ReadyNAS through a browser interface on any other computer on the network, much the same way you might connect to and change the settings for a router or cable/dsl modem. The UI is intuitive and well-organized, and it's a breeze to enable new services (such as the aforementioned torrent handling, or the Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System server), or disable old ones.
  
  Perhaps the best part of this product is that you don't have to be technically adept to get it online and working, but for those who are, there are a wealth of options and settings available to tweak and configure as you see fit.
  
  The reviews on an item like this are going to be as varied as the different uses people have in mind for the ReadyNAS. If you have a few laptops around the home or office, and want a centralized file and print server, then I can offer the experience that this one has served me very well in that capacity.
  
  
• Easy to setup, but mine is defective
  By A1DSRM2P0WGQNS on 2008-04-23
  This would be a great network appliance if I were able to use it. Simply plug it in to your network, run the setup disk on a networked PC, and you're good to go. You can even plug in a USB printer to do printer sharing.
  
  IT took me maybe 10 minutes to set the whole thing up, and it worked great - for another 30 minutes.
  
  As part of the setup process, you enter in up to 3 email addresses to receive messages from the unit (another great idea). At the 30 minute mark I received an email message that the internal temperature of the drive had reached 60C 140F and should be shut down immediately for service. I shut the unit down for a few minutes and then restarted it. 5 minutes later - another temperature warning.
  
  Basically, this renders the unit entirely useless. I made sure there was nothing obstructing the ventilation, and that nothing was on top of the unit. The temperature of the room the device is in is about 70F - nothing abnormal.
  
  I am assuming that I have a defective unit. If they all worked this way it would be a big problem.
  
  
• Not overly impressed
  By A23GY2BFXCYHSD on 2008-05-15
  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 2x250GB drives instead of 1x500GB 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.
  
  
• Good NAS (with a big issue)
  By A13NJ7V8VEO9HC on 2008-04-23
  The Readynas Duo's second disk can only be used in mirror mode. The second disk cannot be used to increase total capacity of the NAS i.e, JBOD mode is not supported. This means that you can only have 500GB of space (unless you replace the existing 500GB disk with a bigger one)
  
  Other than this issue, the NAS drive seems to perform well. Big file (> 10MB) transfers gave a consistent 12MB/sec on my 100Mbps LAN. I also upgraded the Slimserver 6.5 to Squeezecenter 7 without any issues. SSH access is available too
  
  May 08 update:
  Upgraded my LAN to gigabit. Read speed is ~39MB/sec and write speed is ~28MB/sec. Impressive! Vista settings I had to make to get this speed
  1. Install Vista SP1
  2. Disable Vista network throttling by setting value to FFFFFFFF ([...])
  3. Set PC Ethernet controller's "Jumbo Packet" size to 9014 bytes (Default was 1514 bytes on my controller) and enable Jumbo frames in ReadyNAS FrontView
  
  
• Works well after I updated
  By A1WR20ETKUGKAV on 2008-04-26
  My ReadyNAS Duo shipped with a version of the BitTorrent client that has been known to use 100% CPU even when you are not using it. This caused my device to be VERY slow for the first day I used it. Prior to sending it back to Amazon for a refund I did a little digging and eventually found a version that fixed the issue. I was a bit disappointed with the issue and the amount of research it took to fix (Netgear does not have anything on their site about it. I eventually found something in a forum).
  
  After updating the device everything is working great and I am quite happy with the speed and capabilities it has. I had a single-disk product that died after 14 months on a 12 month warranty. When looking to replace it, I was looking for something that had drive mirroring, something longer than a 1 year warranty, and something with a few extra features. For me, the ReadyNAS Duo seemed like the best value.
  
  Things I like:
  * 3 year warranty
  * Simple drive mirroring
  * OS X Support
  * BitTorrent client
  * It emails you about issues
  * Support for talking to a UPS
  * Easy to setup but there are a lot of advanced options if you want to tinker
  
  Things I don't like:
  * Out of the box experience for me was poor
  * It is a little loud (see my comment to this post for more details)
  * The web interface could be faster and easier to use
  
  
• Great device, but falls short of the competition
  By A3K93OWHKHGI9V on 2008-05-13
  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.
  
  
• Very, very good idea, poor execution
  By A2RW587355CMVA on 2008-05-15
  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.
  
  
• Best Home NAS Solution for Mac Users....Period!
  By A1D5MU237XV66N on 2008-07-14
  I purchased this device a couple weeks ago and can't believe how impressed I am. As a Mac user exclusively at home, this device exceeds my expectation. I have several Mac's in the house that can connect to this NAS effortlessly, with no incompatibility issues. Further, no naming convention issues like I've found on other NAS devices that only use the SMB/CIMB protocol.
  
  Best Features:
  
  1.) Can use AFP protocol exclusively for all connected Mac users. This means when I pull up the finder, there it is with no constant logging in or SMB issues. There it is, no fuss.
  2.) Speed. Once I enables the Jumbo Frame option, this thing is like copying from Mac to Mac over the network at true gigabit speed. Wireless is not to shabby either.
  
  3.) Can setup an iTunes server using the Firefly add on (comes with) so I can connect all Macs and my Apple TV to pull from this one resource. No longer have to keep track of multiple iTunes libraries on multiple Macs...and constantly having to keep iTunes App running on the requested computers.
  
  4.) Set this thing up in like 15 minutes.
  
  5.) Backup Redundancy - I use a second hard drive in the NAS to mirror the first hard drive. So I can now pull out the second hard drive and replace with another to store away from home... my own home disaster recovery.
  
  One Negative Comment:
  
  1.) Cannot configure Time Machine to use with this NAS or rather no documentation explaining how to do it...even when I Google it. However, it does come with it's own Mac Native backup program that will schedule jobs to copy your Home folder and at specific times. To tell you the truth, this is an Apple Mac OS limitation and not a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo issue. I suspect in the future this will be corrected.
  
  Finally, I couldn't ask for a better device. Netgear, you did a great job designing this product. This should be considered by anyone who is looking at Apple's Time Capsule as it does a whole lot more and staggeringly faster speeds. Sure, no Time Machine, but it does have scheduled backups and e-mails me when complete, and / or if there are any issues.
  
  
• Your little black box
  By AMUP8DYE7EAN2 on 2008-04-24
  The Netgear ReadyNAS duo is a scaled down version of the ReadyNAS NV+, designed to accommodate the needs of home network users in either PC or Mac environments and, assuming the documentation is accurate any combination thereof. I am not a Mac user, so that functionality will not be addressed here. This 2-bay version comes preloaded with a 500gb HD and a tray for addition of another HD for mirroring and redundancy. Users who anticipate or desire higher capacity may opt for 750gb or 1Tb units at greater expense, or if needs continue to escalate, larger capacity disks may be swapped at a later date. Another feature is the ease of expansion and growth to the NV+ models if appreciably greater volume capacity is indicated. The same disk trays used here are fully compatible with the larger units. The ReadyNAS employs Netgear's X-RAID version of RAID technology.
  
  PROS:
  
  1. Streaming of data and media files from nearly any device (PS3, Xbox, PCS, etc.) resident on a home network without interface with a server PC.
  
  2. Viability of NAS unit as print server allowing consolidation of printing needs in home environment.
  
  3. Possibility to back-up all networked PCs and Macs, although total available capacity must be evaluated. The NAS will also support continuous backup of multiple file versions from each networked device. Backups may be defined online via the resident backup manager facility and locally via the NTI shadow application. Default backup to flash drives is viable as well once pararmeters have been defined in the backup manager. Creation of a disk image for a 40gb HD took just under 4 hours.
  
  4. Easy and fast basic setup. The unit was installed and online with file transfers initiated in less than 20 minutes, with one caveat. I have a router as well as a couple of bridge/access units. During installation the unit was located in the same general area as the router (Netgear 834b) and PC wireless adapter (Broadcom G). I began to experience signal loss and low signal broadcast disabling my internet connectivity. After moving the NAS to another area and connecting it via Ethernet to an access unit, the signal interference subsided.
  
  5. Bit Torrent client utility to queue downloads during more convenient hours without the need to keep the computer connected to internet. I have not tested this facility to date.
  
  6. Easy file transfer. Media files may be moved or copied by drag and drop to the ReadyNAS. Transfer of a 9.5gb music folder took about 2 ½ hours across the network at 54mbps.
  
  7. Direct uploading of digital photos from camera with USB connection, and ability for remote users to download from ReadyNAS, if authorized on network.
  
  8. Quiet operation. Front panel Led lights are basically the only indication the device is even functioning. During read/writes a very low pitched click may be noticed.
  
  9.Email alerts of change in status like disk failure, fan failure, overheating, etc.
  
  10. Compatibly with external USB HDDs.
  
  
  
  CONS:
  
  1. The power on button is single purposed. In order to power off the unit, instructions have to be entered online. That being said, in the event of disk failure, hot swapping is supported.
  
  2. Power timer scheduler is only recommended for use in conjunction with UPS system, therefore without that capability, the unit has to run 24 hours although it does not consume as much power as a PC.
  
  3. Continuous backup may impact performance on PCs with slower processors and modest memory. However, the election of the facility is user defined.
  
  Even in the short time I've had the unit in operation, it has become clear that it is worth the investment, offering functionality and conveniences that will continue expand as my system needs evolve. I would not hesitate to recommend the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo to anyone who needs high capacity storage and media sharing capability in the home environment. The only reason I lower my evaluation to four stars is the signal interference I encountered, and that may be endemic to my configuration and not necessarily applicable to other users.
  
  
  
• Netgear ReadyNas 500GB - Semi-Pro Storage Devices for the Wired Home or Small Office / Branch Office
  By A17BUUBOU0598B on 2008-06-19
  
  I have put the Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage through the paces and for me it has passed with flying colors. I own a lot of external storage, and I've configured plenty of NAS devices for work and for home use. While the Netgear lineup of ReadyNAS devices are expensive, the extra features will put them over the top for many demanding users.
  
  So ultimately, you will have to decide whether the extra features you can use with this guy are worth the cost. Alternatively you may decide you would rather stick to the external USB or firewire drives connected directly to you PC like the Western Digital 750 GB 7200RPM 16MB External Hard Drive. And there are middle of the road options like Drobo that offer some of these features at slightly lower cost. For me the answer to whether the ReadyNAS features are worth it is undoubtedly "Yes."
  
  For starters, one of the biggest features isn't something many people will do right away, but rather something for down the road. You can change your drives yourself! That is a huge feature, that will allow you to add larger drives as they become cheaper. Alternatively you can add a second hard drive for RAID mirroring to give you an instant backup of your backup.
  
  The ability to schedule downloads is going to become more and more important to people over time. I can tell you after testing it exptensively it has worked for me.
  
  Also the easy networking really does allow you to set up secure shares very quickly. This is much easier than sharing an attached external hard drive like you can through your computer OS software. Many people never even get to the point where they are comfortable with those configs.
  
  The connectors also allow you to daisy chain additional external drives off the back to add storage. Or you can hook up a USB printer for a print server. Once again, some other drives offer some of these features, but none offer all of them.
  
  And installing this guy is "relatively" easy, although I still wouldn't be surprised if total novices still sought help. For the most part, once you set things up they will run on their own.
  
  Unfortunately, you can't allocate both drive bays for online storage, at least not in a supported configuration. Still, I've got a pretty good feeling that limitation won't last forever. A minor firmware change to the raid controller bus along with a software update could easily make that possible.
  
  Yes, the WD drives I love and LaCie and every other external hard drive is more economical. But none of those allow the easy expansion and longer useful life you will get out of this. When you add in the world of features this guy is ahead, it's clear that this is for more demanding users.
  
  So if you have storage needs for your wired home or small / medium sized business office, check out this ReadyNas product family.
  
  
  Enjoy!!!
  
  
  
• Oh, I *really* love this... :)
  By A3R19YKNL641X3 on 2008-05-01
  This is probably one of the best "toys" I've received as part of the Amazon Vine review program... The Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage device. Having never had a network storage device to use at home, I was a bit unsure as to how useful I'd find it. In less than a week, the answer is "how did I live without it?"
  
  First impressions... I expected something much bigger. The largest dimension is 8 inches deep, while being only 4 inches wide and 5 inches high. So in terms of footprint, there's not much there to take up desk or counter space. I plugged it into my Netgear wireless router, ran the set-up software, and it immediately was recognized once I ran the RAIDar software to interact with the administration console on my Windows XP machine. With little effort and no directions, I was able to set up accounts for my wife's machine and Ian's Macbook. I didn't have a clue as to how I was going to walk him through the setup, but by designating the AFP protocol on his share, he found it automatically and started downloading to it right away. He even complained when he couldn't transfer files over 100 MB, as that was the share size limit I had set him at. Evil Dad... :) Now that I know that worked, I bumped him up to 100 GB.
  
  The 500 GB gives me a ton of extra space for backups, media downloads, etc. There are two bays in the unit, one of which is used in this setup. If you added another 500 GB drive, it would use that to set up a RAID configuration. Some have complained that they'd rather have it equal 1 TB instead. If that's important, you can buy a larger configuration that goes to that amount of space, but the second drive is always going to make it a RAID device. Being this is my first NAS device, it's not a big deal to me. In terms of noise (or lack thereof), I'm really happy. It sits across the room from me (about 12 feet away), and I can barely hear the unit. In fact, my Dell desktop is slightly more noisy than the NAS, and I thought the desktop was already pretty quiet to begin with. The only sound that threw me off was when I started doing some downloads on it, and you'd hear the read/write heads moving around. I knew that wasn't a "normal" noise for my office, and it took me a second to realize where it was coming from. Given about a week, I'll probably not even notice the small pops.
  
  The feature that I really like is the built-in BitTorrent client. You can start a torrent download on the NAS, and it'll run independently from there. So instead of having the torrent client taking up cycles and memory on your regular machine, the NAS is just chugging away on the download for you. It's an ideal set-up if you have to move around a lot, or if you're disconnected from your network for any length of time. The BitTorrent client is pretty bare-bones, but it controls all the critical functions, such as throttling the transfer rates in both directions.
  
  I'll dive into the manual this weekend to see what else I can do with it. I know there is automatic backup software you can use, but I currently use an online backup service. I'm torn as to whether I want to maintain that (backups available from anywhere) or save the money (but know I could lose both the computer and NAS in the event of a disaster). But even if I didn't use too many other features of the device, I'd be very happy with it. And if I can keep Ian out of the admin console and restrict his media files to 100 GB, I'll be doing well. :)
  
  
  
• Necessary addition to a home network
  By A1STGL1IPGKLBE on 2008-06-11
  Going into this purchase, I was simply looking for a way to safely back up my data (pictures from my wedding and my daughter primarily). Quite simply, I could have just set up a mirrored RAID array in my PC box, and this solution would have been better than buying a single USB drive. (this search was prompted by my waste-of-money USB drive making scary noises)
  
  The more I dug around, the more I realized I could do so much to improve my data security and access. My wife and I have two computers on a gigabit network at home. If she wanted access to the newest media, my computer had to be on. If I wanted to print, her computer had to be on. If the baby was sleeping in her crib, we had neither computer on...
  
  Now, I have one small very quiet, very cool, low power device sitting on my network that protects my data while serving as a print server, a local and remote file server, and I'm starting to use the bit torrent client it has. (it can even manage that possibly dying USB drive I mentioned earlier) Hopefully, I'll soon start using it to stream video/music/pictures to my TV (so we can watch movies when the little one is sleeping) once I've decide upon an appropriate media center interface (PC or otherwise).
  
  Note that adding another disk drive does not grant you added capacity. It operates solely as backup. There's a common, valid complaint that it doesn't do raid0 or JBOD. Honestly though, for access speed (the benefit of RAID0), the bottleneck is the network connection. And while the increased disk capacity would be nice, if you really need more capacity than the 1 TB version can offer, you're going to look at 4 to 6-disk NAS housings or other 'small business' solutions.
  
  It's also worth mentioning the community and support this product has behind it. Overall, a great device.
  
  
• Ready Set, CONFIGURE !!!
  By A3D2VIUT2HWP0Z on 2008-05-04
  Connect your NAS, follow the instructions, then setup your basic software from the CD that comes with your ReadyNAS Duo( RAIDar, and NTI Shadow );amazingly, if not deceptively , easy.I deliberately tried to give this unit a working out on a home network, and found that if you have a fully configured ( and configurable ) Firewall, then you need to
  set up trust relationships with the firewall.If your Parent PC ( in the case of the network I have running) is an XP Pro OS, then you will need to start the necessary network services, which is usually a little more advanced than a basic setup procedure.I deliberately pushed this into non-recommended areas, and found that this will run under a secondary PC running Windows 2000 and does it beautifully, if you mainly want to transfer files ( say, if one machine does one task well, and another machine does a second task well, like when my main PC had its CD burner die during my tests , and I needed a unit with good software and high burn rates with files using high bitrates... all the reasons a network exists).
  After the basic setup, you register the unit, then you get to advanced mode in the file server.After setup you are forced to change the password, so the idea of good security is there, however the details of a good password are not really stated.
  Installation in a home network environment places the icons in the sys trays and in the network world of other PCs on that network( Windows 2000).In some PCs, the network will just show the NAS as available.After this, You can then start any one of many services, FTP, HTTP, STREAMING.Time to put the file server to work !!
  BitTorrent is brilliant; finally organised legally , it shows all you can rent or buy as well as a massive range of free downloads and its all legal.The client for this seemed annoying, and without the full setup I describe above on a secure network, the downloads fail consistently.This runs counter to what I had thought to be one of the
  big selling points in the bittorrent client on the file server, that it could run with the PC shut down ... well, not that I found, since everytime I attempted to start the firmware download client, not a thing happened, and only with the settings as described, and with the PC on could I download with the Server.
  I tested the streaming of a digital file from a wired part of my home network to a wireless part, and the file streamed beautifully, no wow and flutter, full video consistency, in fact just like the base video file.
  With all the other services on the File Server, I found no problems.I tested these as much as I could over a 7-12 day period.I made comments on services that I found to be either a problem, or extremely good.
  The Hard Drive is consistently temperamental.Whilst I was consistently getting the "Blinking disk" error, the only utility available to me was a check disk and bad sector check done after a reboot of the file server itself when done in the firmware admin mode.I found no way to get to the SATA drive to run any kind of rudimentary utility, which I think is a potentially bad thing for preventative maintenance.The Hard-drive can and does spontaneously reboot, with no option to cancel out of the reboot.
  Whilst this File Server looks like a mini version of a large scale server, and has many features in the firmware of fully fledged, it also has some of the quirks of a first generation version of a product. There is probably a lot I have yet to learn about this machine, but I put this little server through a lot of tests to see if it has the content.Its part of the way there.
  
  
  
• Great!
  By AIIR8E34EDKCQ on 2008-05-15
  I know that these days hard drives are getting smaller and smaller, so storage space is not really a question of whether one can accommodate one more thing near their workspace. This said my first thought was that the NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo looked so large, not so in real life, this little thing can be put anywhere and it gives me the freedom to stockpile my favorite music, movies and games with no worries of running out of space. I am not some computer expert, just a simple home user that loves to play a lot of games like The Sims and I always find that speed gets slower and the space runs out if I only had my computer at home for hosing the games, with this device I can really enjoy, buy expansion packs and download to my hears desire.
  
  The BitTorrent client was another nice plus, my bf found this very helpful and is really enjoying the benefits.
  
  
  
• Best NAS I've owned.
  By AO8NH0BV82XIE on 2008-07-27
  I've owned 3 NAS (HP,Buffalo, and this). This is the best one for many reasons. First off, it's tiny, and quiet. About the size of 3 bare drives in width and about 1.5x the drive in length. Construction is out of metal and looks very sturdy. Metal should help with heat dissipation as well. The hot swappable drive is unique in this price range. I do wish that the drive's status light is a bit bigger.It's like a tiny dot.
  
  The reason that I like this drive the most is that it's the first one I've used that is completely trouble-free in setting up. Adding a second drive is as simple as popping in another HDD. It recognizes the drive and automatically builds a mirror. Software works great. It detects the drives right away and every function works without a flaw. I've had all sorts of set up problems with the HP and buffalo. Transfer rate is as good or better than all my current NAS.
  
  I've had the 500g drive for a couple of months and it served my 8 station music system without a hitch. I bought 3 more for use in the office as a file server, and it's a hit. Tiny, silent, cool running and totally reliable up to this point.
  
  
• Easy Setup For Mac users
  By A3KTVBELW3BQ46 on 2008-06-12
  This is a great product. I looked around, read a lot of reviews, checked out a lot of websites. As a Mac user (PowerBook G4 15" 1.25GHz) one worries about compatibility issues--for me they were not existent. After reading the setup info I plugged in the 2nd drive (Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive), installed the software (there's a widget that provides monitoring of the drives 'health', setup, and access), and went through the setup process. It was EASY. On a 1-5 scale where 5 is most difficult it's definitely a 1. The initial transfer of the 120gb of music, audiobooks, movies and backup files took about 6hours. I went to bed and it was done when I got up. My wife and I can now access each others itunes libraries. My daughter's PC also has access.--GO FOR IT!
  
  
  
• Great Device With Minor Flaws
  By A1H33PGW8PKT9G on 2008-07-23
  PROS:
  Initial setup is very simple and straightforward
  Very quiet
  Very small footprint
  User interface is intuitive and easy to navigate
  Speedy network access once configured correctly - see below
  Forum support is helpful
  Music and video playback is smooth and reliable
  
  CONS:
  Network tweaking is almost a must - this is a heavy forum topic. The tweaks for the device are straightforward, most changes need to occur client side
  
  Full scan of your media can take quite awhile - 2 to 4 hours. Also, there is no built in way to do a quick scan of your media to index deletes or name changes, this requires a full scan
  
  MP3 track output to a 360, what I'm using, is sorted alphabetically - NOT by track. I have an open thread in the support forum regarding this but have not received a response from the developers yet.
  
  OVERALL:
  I wanted a device to take over the job of delivering media to my 360 that was redundant, fast and reliable. This device was able to meet all of my needs. If it werent for a few minor annoyances I wouldve rated this device a solid 5.
  
  
• Nice Product with a few potential improvements possible.
  By A3J5L6UEFFMBG2 on 2008-07-28
  This was pretty easy product to setup and worked flawlessly with my desktop PC delivering transfer speeds of 12-15MB/s when connected via a D-Link DGS-2208 Gigabit switch. There is a bit of low pitch whine from the fan and it's scary noisy when you first boot it (it calms down after it is done booting) but overall it's very quiet.
  
  I had some trouble setting it up until I realized that you have to create a DLNA media share directory in order for the PS3 to see the files. Confusing because the bittorrent samples were visible, albeit the PS3 played them without sound for some reason. Needless to say the manual is non-existent and the help is pretty useless if you don't know what you are doing. I'm a computer engineer and managed to figure it out, others might not be so lucky.
  
  It works well with my two Playstation 3s with the exception that when you add new music or video the PS3 won't see it until you go into services and run 'rescan' under UpNP. Annoying because that takes about 10 minutes on my collection and odd because I thought the PS3 was a DLNA device.
  
  The down side is my Yamaha RX-V3800 doesn't see it at all. Not a major problem because navigating a large music collection on the Yamaha is like doing butterfly through the red sea but it would have been nice if it worked. Their higher end models have third party drivers for the Yamaha but the Duo seems to be out of luck.
  
  Power wise it's very good, with plenty of options for putting the drives into standby and even shutting the unit on/off at fixed times. I just don't get their rationale for not allowing two drives to be used to double capacity, even if it's two volumes it would be better than nothing. Sure, RAID 0 is dangerous if one drive goes down you lose the lot but give me a choice, I know what I'm doing and my data is already backed up elsewhere.
  
  Lastly their pricing is stupid, I bought the 500GB for $359 but I would much rather have gotten the 1GB. At $600+ though it's cheaper for me to buy a ($180) WD 1TB Green Drive and put it in than buy their 1TB configuration - and then I have to throw away what is at least $100 worth of 500GB drive (because they cleverly prevent me from using it in the second slot). Dear Netgear Marketing department, please get a clue.
  
  
• Very disappointing, slow drive
  By A2VVEMVK3E9ELB on 2008-08-23
  While I agree the drive looks nice, appears to have a solid case, and a lot of great functionality; mine is just painfully slow to use. Periodically I've had to reboot it just to get it to respond at all. It seems at times it gets so hung up with some internal process that it just doesn't have the bandwidth to respond at all. (The disk light was flickering constantly.) Even when I asked it for some very simple information, like right clicking on "properties" over a few folder to see how big they were, even that took forever. So, I know it's not my machine because that process should happen locally, and the connection speed shouldn't affect how fast the drive can count up its own files. Even worse, a few times I went to move some large files within the drive - i.e. I wanted to move the large files that were already on the ReadyNAS to a different folder, also on the ReadyNAS. Instead of this taking 3 seconds like it does on a normal drive, it took 3 hours. The ReadyNAS copied the files from one location on its own drive to another. This has been an extremely disappointing and time-consuming purchase for me. If you're considering buying a NAS device, think long and hard about how you might do it a different way; and research your options thoroughly. I'm returning mine.
  
  
• Data loss; recursive MEDIA folder
  By A2M7ZMEM8KLMR9 on 2008-10-01
  I bought my ReadyNAS Duo 1 month ago. I wanted a product that will
  1) protect my data
  2) allow me to access it from my various devices within my home wireless network (laptop, PS3, mobile phone)
  
  Less than 1 month after using the Netgear ReadyNAS, this is the consequence:
  * I now have lost 400GB+ of data stored on Netgear ReadyNAS, including pictures and videos of my precious baby boy -- something which is now forever lost
  * In that one month, I had to put up with a ReadyNAS that is very unstable and very often, i lost the connection to ReadyNAS in the midst of trying to access data
  
  
  Other things that you should consider:
  - ReadyNAS has a "media" folder, which recursively reproduces everything within itself, including all the content (I'm not sure if it actually occupies that same amount of disk space). I tried deleting it, but it keeps coming back, like Freddy Krueger. It is a mess to deal with. You can find countless consumer posts about this problem online. Unfortunately I didn't know till I've bought the ReadyNAS
  
  - ReadyNAS makes loud whirring noises after a period of operation, and then I'll have to reboot it
  
  - I called international IDD to get help from NetGear ReadyNAS tech support and their advise caused me to lose all my data (I was told, if I hold the RESET button for 5 secs, it will perform a normal reset. But I was warned that holding the RESET button for 30 secs will cause all data to be erased. I figured I have a 25-second buffer before data erasure occurs --- quite a safe margin, so I performed a reset over the phone with Netgear Tech Support's guidance; to cut the long story short, I realized I still couldn't access my drive, and after several calls to both local and international Netgear helplines, I finally was escalated to Level 2 support where a guy apologized and told me I've to seek help from a local data recovery center. I had to pay the cost of the data recovery myself. It was hinted that the previous Tech Support guy gave me wrong information --- data erasure happens after SIX seconds of holding the RESET button, not 30 seconds as I was told. I spent > 3 hours on IDD phone calls with Netgear tech support, plus additional time spent following their instructions which mostly didn't work for me, and in the end, I lost all my data)
  
  I understand there are many other good reviews of this product, so consider carefully. Netgear has offered me a replacement product, but I'm not taking it
  
  
• An UltraSPARC server
  By A359T9R7B5QU10 on 2008-10-13
  The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo appears to based on the old UltraSPARC architecture, complemented with a SATA controller. It runs Debian for SPARC and Netgear permits root access to the box to install whatever you want. The box is quiet nice. It does Netgear's own proprietary XRAID mirroring (but not RAID 0). XRAID apparently allows the automatic upgrade to more then two drives, if you would use it in a Netgear box, which supports more then two drives. Unlike with other home office NAS, the firmware is saved in a flash and not on the drives itself. The drives are hot swappable and rebuild themselves automatically unlike with many other personal NAS products. The NAS can share directories via CIFS, NFS, AFP, and HTTP. It also can do FTP and TFTP, which comes in handy in the lab. The ReadyNAS comes with a print server, which is useless as it does not support bi-directional communication, required by most printers these days. You can also share USB 2.0 HD or flash drives, which the ReadyNAS will make available as a share. It can be configured via the WebUI or via standard Linux CLI at your own risk.
  
  It comes with some "services" pre installed: iTunes server, Logitech Squeezecenter, and industry standard Home Media Streaming server and UPnP AV server. It features the BitTorrent server and some proprietary photo sharing server. Since it is Linux you can run your own Webserver. Apache is preinstalled and Netgear tells you how can activate it via CLI you. You can also use it as DNS or DHCP server but you need to install it via CLI yourself. I would be careful to activate too many services as those tax CPU of course. It is a server, but by modern standards a small one. Performance is decent though.
  
  I notice some time lack when opening a file but read and writes are just under 9 MB/s, just about under 100Mbps Ethernet. Writes are a bit slower when journaling is turned on. You can also turn off journaling and connect the box to an UPS. It works with the newer home and commercial APC UPS with USB port. You have granular control over rights and quotas in the framework of the EXT Linux file system. You can manage those rights via the WebUI or the good old Unix way via CLI.
  
  The most important application for me is the built-in backup. It does RSYNC, FTP, HTTP, NFS and a CIFS based clientless backup. You only need to share your files on your notebook/desktop/server, and it will diff it every night and you do not have to worry to loose any files in case your HD should crash. I am still backing up to DVD on regular intervals.
  
  Basically it is Linux server, based in the UltraSPAR, a top of the line server technology 10 years ago. It is better then just building a Linux server, because the box is small, cheap, and only uses up 20W opposed to 200W or more of a real server, which makes a difference when it runs 24/7. The box is slightly larger the two 3.5" HDs stacked. The ReadyNAS is very quiet. When it first was formatting the drives the fan ran at full speed and was noisy but then they slowed down to 1500 RPM and you hardly can hear it. The box stays cool. Most people will not use the Linux CLI but rather the intuitive and easy WebUI.
  
  It is cheaper to build your own then by the loaded version. Believe it or not the 500GB version is cheaper then the on without drives. I configured the system with mirrored 1TB drives:
  
  - Netgear ReadyNAS RND-2150
  - 2x Seagate ST31000340AS
  - Crucial CT12864X335 1GB RAM
  - APC Back-UPS ES BE750G
  
  The ReadyNAS is reportedly very picky on hardware combinations and you need to check Netgear's hardware compatibility list.
  
  
  
• Look for
  By A37Y9D7H7NLY48 on 2008-07-25
  Great product whose price varies widely from site to site. Setup was not easy but not extremely difficult. When I started using my ReadyNAS to serve files to my XBox 360, the large number of files I had caused the DLNA to choke (I had already installed the latest stable firmware on inital setup). I then installed newest beta firmware which not only fixed the DNLA problems but added a feature for auto-updating of the DNLA database on addition or removal of files, which was absolutely key. Installation of a second hard drive was easy but I have not had a failure to test out the RAID X configuration. Prepare to spend a little time on the ReadyNAS site trying to figure out what you want to do.
  
  Big Pluses:
  
  * Size (smaller than a toaster)
  * Quiet (virtually unnoticable except on initial power-on)
  * Power Consumption
  * Easy to add additional drive
  * DNLA support (using the latest beta firmware) (serves file to other digital appliances i.e. Xbox 360, PS3, etc.)
  * Bittorrent client
  
  Minuses:
  
  * Slow until you follow the tweaking tips on the ReadyNas site
  * Hard to set up private shares
  * Certificate hassles
  * Nonfriendly web interface
  
  
  
  
• A good network hub
  By A2CWIYIETNBAK3 on 2008-05-15
  As my home network grew in size and functionality, my need for a hub or central locus device like the Netgear NAS became obvious. With three PCs and several smaller devices like an iPod Touch and a Blackberry all WiFi enabled, and with several WD external storage devices rapidly filling with data, I am now able to connect them all via the NAS. It is easy to retrieve data thru the NAS (you can connect external storage devices via USB). You can also network your printer, stream music using iPod clients, regularly schedule backups and attach a music streaming device obviating the need of your PC. There are creative things that can be done with the included Bit Torrent client, though I haven't as yet had sufficient time to investigate. Set-up was easy enough and the footprint is relatively small. All in all, given the discounted price, this is an extremely worthwhile, multi-functional device whose uses offer good value for the money.
  
  
• Very impressed, but could be more user friendly
  By AEWYUPCNDV7HY on 2008-06-03
  So far I am very impressed with the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. Not only does this have more storage than both of my laptops put together, but it provides valuable storage for my family photos, videos, and documents. I was instantly able to access it from all three home computers. The documentation was light, I wished Netgear had been more thorough in providing step by step instructions to set up specific tasks. Instead, it actually took me several hours to set this up properly. Sizewise, this is extremely small even though it looks big in the picture. It takes up no more of a footprint than my wireless router, although it is taller.
  
  This also serves as a print server, so I have been able to stop emailing myself documents. I just print from any home computer and the printer in the office prints the document.
  
  I was also able to set up the photo server, so now my friends and family can access the kid's pictures and print them in full resolution, or order them online without the hassles of uploading to an online photo service, losing valuable time while the photos upload, and being limited in file size. With the ReadyNAS Duo I can upload the pictures straight from the digital camera, and they are the full file size without any loss of quality.
  
  Since I am no longer storing my photos on my computer, and instead storing them on the ReadyNAS Duo, I will have to buy another drive to backup my ReadyNAS. It provides a good amount of peace of mind to not have to worry about losing family memories because of hard drive failure. That appears to be running about a hundred dollars.
  
  Oh, one last thing. I also put my music folders onto the ReadyNAS Duo and now they play through my 1. Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System right on my home stereo. No more need to make CD's or hook my mp3 player up to the stereo.... heaven!
  
  
  
• Empty Promises
  By AIJEXPU1ZRZU9 on 2008-10-25
  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.
  
  

• Seagate 500GB 16MB 7200 RPM Bulk/OEM Hard Drive ST3500630AS
• Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB Barracuda Sata 7200 Rpm 32MB Cache 8.5MS Hard Drive
• Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive
• Western Digital 500GB 3.5", SATA, 16MB Cache Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD5000AAKS
• D-Link DGS-2208 8-Port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch