I have been looking for a good solid SOHO Network Attached Storage device for a while. I was all set on the Lacie 2big 1.5TB Network device, it is attractive does what I needed - not much more than share files - and supports multiple drives.
Problem is I have since discovered that Lacie UK are the most incompetent people on the planet. I placed the order with them after their site showed they had the unit in-stock on a 3 days delivery time, after placing my order site said the same so I was confident it was all in order. Needless to say the device never came. I emailed their sales lines, no response, I emailed their supports lines, no response. I called them (after spending about a hour tracking down phone numbers) they didn't reply to voice mails.
After about 10 calls I eventually spoke to someone who was unhelpful to say the least, I was told next-week, next-week etc a few times, next week came and went and no drive unit so I eventually just canceled my order. No more Lacie devices in my future ever that is a certainty.
Some searching later I found a few excellent reviews over at SmallNetBuilder for this and other devices, they even have a very awesome tool for comparing different NAS devices for speed etc, I decided based on their review to get the QNAP TS-209 pro.
The TS-209 pro is an attractive yet very well built little system, all the screws and connectors are proper solid bits of kit like you'd expect on real hardware. It is a Linux box and you can ssh to it:
That GBP50 is money really well spent in this case. The device has hot swap drives - I tested it by yanking one out live without any problems, a few beeps, a few emailed alerts and log entries:
The device has a ton of features, the usual SMB shares are there but also NFS, Appletalk, FTP, Web access. It has a MySQL server built in, a webserver with php so you can deploy whatever you want on it. An iTunes server for your MP3s and a typical UPNP media server that will work with your PS3 etc.
This is a really capable device built on solid technology, so far I am very happy with it and will recommend to anyone. If anything significant change on my experiences I'll post more later but I suggest you read the review linked above and seriously consider this for your SOHO NAS needs.
Problem is I have since discovered that Lacie UK are the most incompetent people on the planet. I placed the order with them after their site showed they had the unit in-stock on a 3 days delivery time, after placing my order site said the same so I was confident it was all in order. Needless to say the device never came. I emailed their sales lines, no response, I emailed their supports lines, no response. I called them (after spending about a hour tracking down phone numbers) they didn't reply to voice mails.
After about 10 calls I eventually spoke to someone who was unhelpful to say the least, I was told next-week, next-week etc a few times, next week came and went and no drive unit so I eventually just canceled my order. No more Lacie devices in my future ever that is a certainty.
Some searching later I found a few excellent reviews over at SmallNetBuilder for this and other devices, they even have a very awesome tool for comparing different NAS devices for speed etc, I decided based on their review to get the QNAP TS-209 pro.
The TS-209 pro is an attractive yet very well built little system, all the screws and connectors are proper solid bits of kit like you'd expect on real hardware. It is a Linux box and you can ssh to it:
So a proper little box then, I put 2 x Seagate 750GB drives into it for the same amount of storage as I would have had in the Lacie, the total price ended being about GBP50 more or so.# uname -a Linux vault 2.6.12.6-arm1 #2 Thu Nov 1 03:31:14 CST 2007 armv5tejl unknown # cat /proc/cpuinfo Processor : ARM926EJ-Sid(wb) rev 0 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 332.59 Features : swp half thumb fastmult # cat /proc/mdstat <snip>
md0 : active raid1 sdb3[2] sda3[0] 731423296 blocks [2/1] [U_] [==>..................] recovery = 10.6% (78181504/731423296) finish=144.0min speed=75574K/sec
That GBP50 is money really well spent in this case. The device has hot swap drives - I tested it by yanking one out live without any problems, a few beeps, a few emailed alerts and log entries:
The device has a ton of features, the usual SMB shares are there but also NFS, Appletalk, FTP, Web access. It has a MySQL server built in, a webserver with php so you can deploy whatever you want on it. An iTunes server for your MP3s and a typical UPNP media server that will work with your PS3 etc.
This is a really capable device built on solid technology, so far I am very happy with it and will recommend to anyone. If anything significant change on my experiences I'll post more later but I suggest you read the review linked above and seriously consider this for your SOHO NAS needs.
Still happy with this NAS? I'm thinking of picking up the TS-209 Pro II. I'd love any feedback...