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Show floor video: Netgear ReadyNAS stores and plays it all

netgear readynas tuaw videoNetgear's ReadyNAS is a NAS, yes, but it comes pre-configured with an iTunes server, bittorent, wireless disk and printer support and more. Quite the plug-and-play darling, Netgear was kind enough to create some Mac-friendly tools to manage the thing (it's got a Widget!). You can configure the thing to your heart's delight , which makes it that much more versatile. The ReadyNAS line was previously sold by Infrant prior to the Netgear acquisition, so the products are distinct from Netgear's earlier NAS products.

There are several flavors of ReadyNAS: a rackmount server for business folk, the Duo series, and the terribly gorgeous NV+ series -- Netgear also sells a cute entry-level NAS called Storage Central. The sweet spot for most people will likely be the Duo or NV+, as the Storage Central doesn't have the extensive RAID tools every other model does (and as noted by our commenters, the older/cheaper devices can't be administered from Mac OS X).

Prices for the NV+ with a whopping 4TB of X-RAID storage ran from roughly $2,000 to $3,000. By comparison, the old Storage Central lines can be found online for around $70 (hard drive not included, $90 from Netgear), but the new line, Storage Central Turbo, was floating close to the MSRP of $200 (shows $189.99 on the Netgear store).

Check out the demo with Scott after the jump.




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Netgear's ReadyNAS is a NAS, yes, but it comes pre-configured with an iTunes server, bittorent, wireless disk and printer support and more....
 

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Thom Brooks

I love my ReadyNAS NV+. Bought it from eaegis and they were great. Got the 1 GB memory expansion and 4 x 750 GB drives.

I recently updated to 4.0 OS and now really love being able to ssh into the file system and see the root of the fs as the admin user (just like a Mac). I can finally change group permissions from the command line, which I was really needing before.

I also enabled Time Machine's "unsupported network volumes" support for backup (see infrant's forums for how to do this) and am successfully backing up all three machines (wirelessly even) to the NAS. Much more peace of mind!

January 26 2008 at 1:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alva Elver

All I've heard is horror stories on Windows about the SC101.

You're better off using something like NASLite.

Awesome, and super cheap, and supports AFP.

January 25 2008 at 5:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Catt

Weee that's a lot of storage... and er ah cash!

January 25 2008 at 5:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maxwell

@Pauldy
Joe said specifically that the low-end ReadyNAS boxes do not support Macs. He is right. You need WinXP to manage them, and there is no AFP support. The high-end boxes do have Mac OS X management and support AFP. Different boxes, different specs. The TUAW post gave the impression that all of the ReadyNAS boxes were Mac-friendly, and that is not the case, as Joe thoughtfully pointed out. The fact that an Intel Mac running WinXP under Bootcamp might play nice with a server, but not the same Mac running OS X, just makes the distinction more annoying.

January 25 2008 at 2:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maxwell

@tves,

At least do Joe the courtesy of following the link he posted, where you will see, for the SC101:

Windows® 2000(SP4), XP Home or Pro (SP1 or SP2), 2003(SP4)

NO MAC. Just as Joe said. What makes you think different?

January 25 2008 at 2:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to Maxwell's comment
chris

thats a horrible shirt

January 25 2008 at 2:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tv

Joe,

There's Mac hardware support.. There's no OS X ( or earlier) support.

OSX Mac

January 25 2008 at 12:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/NetworkStorage/SC101.aspx?detail=System+Requirements

Requirements:
# Windows® 2000(SP4), XP Home or Pro (SP1 or SP2), 2003(SP4)

January 25 2008 at 12:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jemaleddin

I don't think I really understand these systems. I get being able to offload your files and use them for back-ups, but the iTunes server seems strange. You'd still need to have your files on your actual computer if you wanted to sync them with your iPod, right?

January 25 2008 at 11:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Jemaleddin's comment
akatsuki

The Netgear acquisition basically added a couple of hundred dollars, reduced support, and added a longer warrantly. Overall not as good of a deal. Plus Thecus has the faster throughput and Synology and Qnap have better support reputations nowadays.

BYO might be a bit harder, since it is hard to get the low power draw which is essential for these boxes, but it is half the price and twice the performance (use something like FreeNAS as your software...)

January 25 2008 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to akatsuki's comment
Bryan

What's the deal with Synology and QNAP? Some of the products are very similar in model number and specs, which makes me wonder if they're related.

And why is the ReadyNAS considered to be so slow? and what kind of throughput should I consider good or great?

January 25 2008 at 2:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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