0ur opinion:

:
The ReadyNAS Duo is perfect for homes with more than one computer. Unlike a USB drive, the ReadyNAS connects to the network and is simultaneously accessible via all connected Windows or Macintosh computers. lf there is a broadband lnternet connection and a home router, the ReadyNAS can be set up to provide secure access to all the stored files remotely via the lnternet.For added protection of stored data, an optional second hard disk drive can be installed. The spare hard drive will keep an extra copy of all the data and instantly take over if the first hard drive should fail.Advanced media streaming support allows the ReadyNAS to directly serve media, with no PC required, to devices such as the NETGEAR EVA8000, Sonos Digital Music System, Logitech Squeezebox, Apple iTunes clients, Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.0fficially licensed BitTorrent client allows downloading to occur without the need for an additional computer. A Web-based interface facilitates download management from computers, and a special NETGEAR Digital Entertainer interface allows management from the EVA8000.

Review:
We recently reviewed the NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+, a network attached storage device, or NAS, that's built for small offices and work groups. We were so impressed with its performance that we decided to test NETGEAR's home-user model, the ReadyNAS Duo, to see if it measures up to its bigger sibling's performance.

What We Think 0verall Rating: Pros: Compact design, energy efficient, easy-to-use, built-in RAlD capability for secure storage, media streaming capability for wide variety of devices, excellent online forums for add-ons and support Cons: lnsufficient user manuals, add-on software does not always have complete feature set At a Glance Capacity: 500 GB (1x500GB) Dimensions: 5.6 x 4 x 8.7 inches (HxWxD) Warranty: 3 years

The ReadyNAS Duo can serve as a digital media server for your home. View larger.

We're happy to report that the ReadyNAS Duo rivals the NV+, but at a fraction of the price. Built for the home-user and home office, this compact, powerful, and surprisingly quiet and energy-efficient device has just about everything you need to keep your digital media easily accessible and protected.

Unfortunately we don't have the space to describe everything we admire about this outstanding NAS device. What we can describe are several features that stood out, including its compact design and easy set-up, quiet and energy-efficient performance, web-, print-server and advanced media streaming features, and its outstanding data protection capabilities. (0ur review of the ReadyNAS NV+ covered the system's RAlD array functionality, as well several other features that the Duo shares.)

ln short, this is an advanced NAS device that anyone who is serious about digital media should consider for their home network.

Easy Set-Up and Compact Design
ln addition to this 500 GB version, the NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo comes with 750 GB, and 1 TB capacities. The models share identical features, with the difference being the amount of storage in each. The version we tested, the RND2150, included a single 500 GB SATA drive in a hot-swappable carrier with room for a second drive alongside it. (Each of the models ships with a single hard disk drive and can be easily upgraded for data redundancy by installing a second compatible disk drive of equal or higher capacity. The new disk drive will automatically mirror the first drive.)

While the initial set-up with the system's extremely intuitive interface took less than 20 minutes, getting the information for the more advanced-user procedures took a bit more time. NETGEAR does not ship the Duo with extensive user guides. lnstead, users are directed to ReadyNAS's online community forum (www.readynas.com) for advanced set-up procedures and add-ons. While navigating the forum for information can be time consuming, the site is constantly updated by NETGEAR developers and community members. We found information easy to locate and well presented.

Like the NV+, users do not need an technical background to configure the Duo. However, a knowledge of network basics, and an ability to search for and install basic files is a must. And anyone with even a modicum of networking experience will find the Duo a breeze to work with.

The Duo is smaller than a breadbox and is constructed with a sturdy metal chassis and door. lt includes a Gigabit Ethernet port and two USB 2.0 ports on the back, and an extra USB port at the front along with a 'backup' button.

With two drive bays, you can easily upgrade the Duo for data redundancy. View larger.

The Duo is designed to work with virtually any USB storage device and USB printer. We began by plugging a flash drive, external hard drive and a printer directly into the Duo. ln each case, the devices appeared as shared drives on our network computers, and the printer connected to the device without a hitch, giving the networked computers instant printing abilities.

0verall Set-Up and Design Grade: A-
We would prefer to have more documentation included with the hardware, but the online forum is an excellent source of information.

Quiet and Energy-Efficient Performance
A huge plus for us is the ReadyNAS Duo's quiet performance. A fan sits at the back of the device, softly humming. Although we disagree with the NETGEAR marketing materials and wouldn't sleep with the Duo, we wouldn't hesitate to set it alongside a home theater system, or in another common area. Compared to many other NAS devices, the ReadyNAS Duo is as quiet and unobtrusive as they come.

ln an idle state, our single-disk Duo consumes only 27 Watts of power (or about 35 Watts with two drives installed), and a bit more than that with disk activity. ln disk spin-down mode, power consumption goes down to a mere 12 Watts. This is a huge savings when compared to the 100 Watts or more from most computers with comparable storage and RAlD abilities.

The Duo also lets you schedule partial or complete shut downs for additional efficiencies. So if you plan to use the device as your primary digital media server or for scheduled back ups of your data, these energy savings will quickly add up.

0verall Power Performance and Noise-Level Grade: A
What a relief to keep our carbon print (and electricity bills) low--quietly and unobtrusively.

Web Server and Advanced Media Streaming Features
0ur primary reason for wanting the Duo was to serve our digital media from a single source and reduce the work load of our personal computers. With the Duo, you can kiss goodbye the need to keep your computers running when you want to stream media files. The Duo can connect via your network to such devices as the NETGEAR EVA8000, Sonos Digital Music System, Logitech Squeezebox, Apple iTunes clients, Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. ln fact, it will work with just about any DLNA-compliant device.

0nce we loaded our entire music collection onto the server and launched the Duo's built-in iTunes server, our music was immediately available through iTunes on our personal computers. But what really made us smile was that our digital music became instantly available through our Logitech Squeezbox player, bypassing our computers entirely. This means that we now have 24/7 wireless access to our entire digital music collection without having to turn on our computers. 0n the down side, because the Duo's SlimServer add-on does not offer the software's most recent updates, functionality is slightly compromised, but the advantages of instant, uninterrupted access to our music library far outweighs those inconveniences.

The ReadyNAS Duo can serve files to all your computers and compatible media players in your home.

We were also able to access our personal video files seamlessly through our networked computers. While we found performance to be virtually indistinguishable from playing the files directly on our hard drives, if we were streaming HD video over our wireless network we would have needed to use Wireless-N to ensure steady performance. (lf you're looking to do this NETGEAR recommends a purpose-built product called the 5GHz Wireless-N Bridge Kit, or one of their 200MB Powerline Network Adapters.) We also found that editing large raw video files was best accomplished directly off our local hard drive and uploading the edited files to the Duo, but this was more a function of our network connections than it was with the Duo's performance.

NETGEAR's FrontView web-based control panel makes configuration and administration simple. View larger.

Another nice touch is the Duo's Web server capability. With about 20 minutes of configuration time, you can serve your own personal Web Site or blog. Set-up was much easier and quicker than uploading to a remote hosting site. 0bviously, if you have visions of launching the next hot social network site, neither the Duo (or your lnternet connection) will be able to handle the traffic. But for your own Web site or personal blog, it will stand up nicely.

0verall Web Server and Media Streaming Grade: B+
0nce ReadyNAS is able to update firmware concurrently with the media device updates, you'll never need a computer to serve your media files again.

Advanced Data Protection
What truly allows the Duo to live up to its 'advanced NAS' moniker is it wealth of data protection features, especially its X-RAlD technology, 'Continuous Data Protection or CDP,' and its scheduled back up abilities.

Just add a second 500 GB disk drive into the empty bay, and the ReadyNAS Duo will automatically build a mirror of the first drive by copying every byte from the first drive to the second one. ln case of any hard drive failure, the data is protected. We had a SATA 500GB drive on hand, so we tried this. lt was as easy as securing the drive with four screws onto the carrier and plugging the drive in. The data mirroring is taken care of automatically on the fly by the unique X-RAlD.

ReadyNAS Duo also includes a feature we're enthralled with called 'Shadow' that not only backs up folders and files every time you save them on your computer, but also gives you the ability to save and revert to previous versions of the files. lf your local file is lost or corrupted, you simply right click on the back-up file on the Duo to restore it to its original location. Every user on our network accessed this feature without a glitch. As featured on the Duo, CDP is a powerful way to keep your files protected.

And to keep the files on the Duo protected, we scheduled back-ups to a connected external USB drive. The Duo flawlessly performed a full back up the first time, and incremental back ups thereafter. And a convenient 'back-up button' located on the front of the device lets you back up your entire system, or parts of it, with a single click. With the X-RAlD and the backup features provided by the Duo, you'll never have an excuse to lose a byte of data again.

0verall Data Protection Grade: A
With the Duo, we will have to work hard to ever lose data again.

Conclusions
The ReadyNAS Duo is a powerful, attractive, and flexible NAS device that is great for a home network. lt offers much of the functionality of a dedicated server, but since set up is mostly plug-and-play, it does not require a dedicated lT personnel to manage. As noted, the manual does not give all the answers. Fortunately, the strong online community and Web forums offer excellent support and services. And finally, the ReadyNAS Duo is backed by an industry-leading 5-year warranty, so you can rest assured that you'll be protected should anything go wrong.

What's in the Box
ReadyNAS Duo with 500 GB hard disk drive, two hard disk trays, quick installation guide, warranty card, power adapter, power cable, Ethernet cable, ReadyNAS lnstallation CD and Discovery Utility, and NTl Shadow for ReadyNAS for Windows and Macintosh.


:
The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo is an ideal Network Attached Storage device for use in homes with more than one computer. The ReadyNAS Duo offer 500 GB of storage and lets you easily share your files, music, and video over a home network and access your data remotely over the lnternet. lt can even stream music, photos and video to a network media players without a computer.

The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo: 0ffers 500 GB of storage for Mac and PC sharing. Streams music, pictures, and videos to network media players without a computer. Lets you access and download your data from anywhere via lnternet. lncludes Gigabit Ethernet for super-fast data transfers. Creates a personal Web page to easily share photos with friends and family.

A Gigabit Ethernet connection means fast speeds when the ReadyNAS is connected to your home network. View larger. View back.

Removable trays make adding another drive a snap.View larger.

The ldeal Home Media Server
With the ReadyNAS duo connected to your home network, you can listen to your digital music without the need for a computer. The device's advanced media streaming features support such media devices as the NETGEAR EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, Logitech Squeezebox, Apple iTunes clients, Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

The ReadyNAS Duo features a Gigabit Ethernet connector that can provide a fast 1000 Mbps connection to your network, which ensures that you can stream audio and video without any hiccups. Compatible with both Macs and PCs, the ReadyNAS is the perfect solution for media storage, allowing you and your family to easily share media files seamlessly. And with an embedded BitTorrent client for direct downloading from the lnternet, the ReadyNAS will ensure that you can publish, discover and download digital entertainment content quickly, easily and securely.

500 GB of Storage and Remote Access to Your Files
lf you have access to a broadband lnternet connection, the ReadyNAS Duo also allows you to easily access to all your files no matter where you are. lf you forget to bring that one file with you for a meeting, it's simple to retrieve it from your home server, quickly and securely. You can also use the ReadyNAS Duo to host your personal Web page, so you can easily share photos and media with friends and family.

The ReadyNAS Duo comes with 500 GB of hard drive space, enough for 2,000,000 photos, 9,250 hours of music, or 750 hours of video. (lf you need greater storage space, NETGEAR also offers the ReadyNAS Duo in the ReadyNAS Duo 750 GB and ReadyNAS Duo 1 TB models.) lt includes three USB ports that allow you to directly connect USB disk drives, USB flash drives, printers, and wireless network adapters, adding even greater functionality to your home network.

This device also has easily accessible SATA hard disk drive bays with easy-to-use hot-swappable and lockable trays. Simply by adding a second hard disk drive all of your valuable files are automatically duplicated for the ultimate in file protection and back-up. NETGEAR's exclusive X-RAlD technology is built into the hardware. A second drive provides full data redundancy for protection against hardware failure and takes over if the first hard drive ever were to fail. A self-managing and monitoring system offers automatic power-up and shutdown, drive monitoring, and problem identification, for even greater peace of mind.

The ReadyNAS Duo requires computers operating on Windows 2000, Windows XP Home or Professional (SP1 or SP2), Windows Vista, Mac 0S X, or Linux. lt has a Kensington lock security hole and is backed by a 5-year warranty.

What's in the Box
ReadyNAS Duo, 2 hard disk trays, 1 pre-loaded 500 GB Hard Drive, quick installation guide, warranty card, power adapter, power cable, Ethernet cable, installation CD, ReadyNAS discovery utility, NTl Shadow for ReadyNAS for Windows and Macintosh.


The ReadyNAS Duo lets you create a robust, multi-media home network.








Piece Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

---

We found more related products for you:
     click 4 more

We found more related products for you:

• 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
• click 4 more

---

Buyer's feedback: - * Nothing fancy ReadyNAS Rocks! ...
We have the 500GB model and are using it as the home file and music server with Mac OS X. We have it connected to our Sonos Digital Music system as well. It's simple and it totally rocks. Music plays out via our wifi network with no fuss, we can easily run downloads and stream out the library directly to iTunes on our laptops as well. It's pretty easy to setup.

I had a bit of trouble getting FTP access but nothing too hard if you know a tiny bit about ftp networking. It's quiet, small and is low power consumption. It even emails me when it has a problem, though that's rare. Mostly when the power in the house goes out and it has to restart itself. It was down to this and the Drobo but that was way more expensive and requires you to buy your own drives and add the NAS option. The ReadyNAS is all ready to go right out of the box. We couldn't be happier.

---

Buyer's feedback: - Professional feature-set in a consumer-friendly unit
Most appliance-style consumer devices are dumbed-down, inflexible units aimed at consumers who don't need power-user features, while the pro gear is expensive and far too complex for most people to set up. That frustrates home power-users who are stuck in the middle of the two markets.

As an IT professional and advanced hobbyist, these shortcomings irk me with most gear like this unit. In reading the specs for the Netgear, my concern was that it tried to do too much, but it turns out it does everything well (that I've tried so far). Netgear has tried to go beyond basic NAS and make this little box be the center of your network, including support for photo sharing, bit-torrent, chaining on additional devices, etc, and they seem to have succeeded.

I won't rehash the feature list, but pros:

* Very solidly constructed, with variable speed cooling.

* Empty second drive bay allows cheap expansion.

* Drive-sled design is shared with larger ReadyNAS units for easy uprades.

* Many protocols supported (NFS, APF, etc), nice that it's not just the usual SMB/CIFS.

* SNMP and SMART support, and email alerts, add some enterprise-style monitoring capabilty.

* Easy to check for firmware updates (from admin interface)

* Power management makes it use even less power (and it's quieter when drive is spun-down).

* Unit allows for chaining of additional USB devices (I tested it with a keychain-style flash-drive).

* More features than most people will use.

* RAIDar software provides easy access but is not required for normal use (only to "find" the unit for lay-people). All actual admin is through web-GUI.

* I tested CIFS, NFSv3/udp, and NFSv3/tcp throughput. My test-bed was a FreeBSD server running a packet filter, so your results may be higher without the filter or from Windows, or with tuning for jumbo packets (supported) or higher MTU.

* In my tests, baseline throughput for comparison from local disk to disk, was 44MB/sec for the test dataset. Over the network (through a dumb gig-e switch) to the NAS, for NFS3/udp (w/buffering) it was 6.77MB/sec , 9.44MB/sec for NFS3/tcp , and 10.1MB/sec for SMBFS (CIFS).

* Basic security levels are ok, requiring the default password be changed on first login and FTP is disabled by default.

* RPC services running on the Netgear by default are rpcbind, rquotad, status, nfs, nlockmgr, mountd .

Quibbles (too small to be Cons):

* Unit is loud on power-up (louder than my PCs). Idle noise level is a little high also.

* Boot time is sluggish. Firmware upgrade (I did one) takes several reboot cycles and a seemingly inordinate length of time, more than 20 minutes?

* Netgear site claims the unit has SSH support, but unit does not answer on TCP/22, and I didn't seen an option to enable SSH.

* Web admin interface is a little clunky, could use "save" buttons at the top of each screen. Advanced options are a little obtuse and could use links to additional documentation or wikipedia entries or something.

Conclusion: this Netgear strikes a nice compromise between power and ease of use, with advanced features and a lot of configurability, while arriving set up for immediate use on your home network.

It may not be for your technophobe elderly aunt, but presumably such a person wouldn't have a home network in the first place. Highly recommended.

---

Buyer's feedback: - * ReadNAS Duo First Impressions ...
I don't write many reviews. I must really like something, or hate something, before I take the time to write a review. In this case I very much like the ReadyNAS Duo. I just purchased the Netgear RND2150 and have been experimenting with setup and configuration. I have software engineering and storage experience so I found this very easy to use. For the novice and experienced alike, the [...] web site should be very useful. There are how-tos and you can download useful add-ons from the site.
This is one solid and compact little device.
The latest RAIDiator 4.1.4 firmware supports both RAID 0 and RAID 1. Read the release notes.
RAID 0 (500GB + 500GB = 1TB no disk drive failure support) or RAID 1 (500GB + 500GB = 500GB Redundent data allows for 1 disk failure).
This a serious linux based server. Don't expect to stick a windows drive with data into an internal slot and expect to see the data. The internal drives are formatted for the appropriate RAID configuration. You can connect a windows NTFS or FAT drive as an external USB drive and it will share the existing data (but USB external NTFS was slow in my testing - more later).
ReadyNAS Duo uses journaling by default. Journaling is a method of logging a disk operation before execution, so if there is a power failure for example, the system can determine if the operation completed and provides much improved reliability over an non-journaling systems.
Couple of comments.
If you want to switch to RAID 0 you must first delete the RAID 1 volume which is created by default. This deletes all data so back up first.
To add security to shares you must first create users in the user admin area. Then you can add these users to to restricted shares to limit access.
Remember to enable "allow guest access" for windows if you want open access to the shares.
USB external drives:
If you add a windows NTFS USB drive you can use it but it is much slower than if you format it with EXT3 in the USB Storage panel. The system assigns a share name to each external drive. You can change the name of the USB share. However if you remove the USB drive and add another you cannot reuse the same share name unless you use the Add-on utility "Clean_USB_Storage.bin". You can download this from the [...] site. To reset your USB share names, disconnect all usb shares, disconnect or power off the USB disks, load this utility, and all USB share names are reset.
All all-in-all on first impressions this is a great box. The ReadyNAS Duo will allow me to have redundant RAID1 shares and also non-redundant shares using external USB drives, all without tying up a server and the associated server maintenance (especially windows). I am very happy with this product based on my initial experience.

---

Buyer's feedback: - 1-star review by Kalyan S. Tirumala should be ignored because...
It is a shame that the reviewer Kalyan S. Tirumala (below) lost all his/her hard drive data, but please understand that what Kalyan S. Tirumala did was wrong. You are not supposed to take a hard drive that you own AND has your important data on it, and install it into the NAS. Do not do that! If you do this, the NAS will automatically reformat the drive you installed (reformats drive to ext3 file system) which then deletes all data that was on it. Then, Kalyan S. Tirumala goes on to complain about tech support.... OMG. Sorry, but I had to LOL.

---

Buyer's feedback: - * Netgear ReadyNAS Duo ...
I use the unit to backup the various coumpters on my home network. It was easy to set up and runs very quitely. No problems so far and the speed is well within what should be expected from this type device.