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NAS CENTER
This review is from : Hawking Technology HNAS1 Network Attached Storage Centr
Easy to set up and use but expect continuous fan noise . I ordered the HNAS1 and had it up and running in relatively little time, considering that this was the first network file server I have ever installed.
The HNAS1 is an attractive little gizmo, only 9" deep by 5.25" high by 2.25" wide. It comes with rubber feet that let you mount it upright (9"x2.25" footprint) or on its side (9"x5.25" footprint).
With this device, you need to buy your own IDE hard drive (less than 250GB) separately, and install it in the drive bay of the HNAS1. The HD that I bought to put inside the HNAS1 was a Seagate 160GB Ultra ATA/100. All I had to do was set the jumper to "Master" on the HD, connect the HNAS1's hd-ribbon cable and hd-power connector to the HD, affix the HD with 4 screws, close the cover, and I was ready to configure the HNAS1.
I recommend skipping the Quick Setup Wizard (the one provided on the HNAS1 CD). Just use the HNAS1's HTML interface to perform set up functions. Power up the HNAS1 and connect your pc *only* to the HNAS1 using an ethernet switch. Visit the HNAS1 with your web browser; the default IP address at power-up is '192.168.1.1'. Enter the admin username and password as shown in HNAS1 manual. Using the HTML interface, set the IP address you want, set host name, set time zone, format the HD, and setup user accounts and folders. Put together your LAN the way you would like it, then make sure you can still connect to the HNAS1. On a PC, under windows explorer, goto "Tools...", "Map Network Drive..." and follow the instructions in the dialog box to mount the HNAS1 from your PC.
The HNAS1 works great, the only problem is the cooling fan, which runs continuously. The fan noise is faint, but if you are in a quiet room with it for a long time, it may drive you crazy after a while. The fan itself only uses 0.4 watts, which translates into about 30 cents' worth of electricity per year... so it is probably not worth trying to modify the HNAS1 (for example, with an Airpax 67L100 PCB Thermostat on the fan circuit). I measured the overall power consumption of the HNAS1 to be 9 watts while idle, which means it will add about $7 per year to your electric bill.
Remember, this is a network drive, so there is no reason for it to be located near your computer (or near you). Locate the HNAS1 in a far-flung corner of your house, attach it to your LAN, and enjoy.
I would give it 5 stars, but I am subtracting a star because of the continuous fan noise.
Easy to set up and use but expect continuous fan noise . I ordered the HNAS1 and had it up and running in relatively little time, considering that this was the first network file server I have ever installed.
The HNAS1 is an attractive little gizmo, only 9" deep by 5.25" high by 2.25" wide. It comes with rubber feet that let you mount it upright (9"x2.25" footprint) or on its side (9"x5.25" footprint).
With this device, you need to buy your own IDE hard drive (less than 250GB) separately, and install it in the drive bay of the HNAS1. The HD that I bought to put inside the HNAS1 was a Seagate 160GB Ultra ATA/100. All I had to do was set the jumper to "Master" on the HD, connect the HNAS1's hd-ribbon cable and hd-power connector to the HD, affix the HD with 4 screws, close the cover, and I was ready to configure the HNAS1.
I recommend skipping the Quick Setup Wizard (the one provided on the HNAS1 CD). Just use the HNAS1's HTML interface to perform set up functions. Power up the HNAS1 and connect your pc *only* to the HNAS1 using an ethernet switch. Visit the HNAS1 with your web browser; the default IP address at power-up is '192.168.1.1'. Enter the admin username and password as shown in HNAS1 manual. Using the HTML interface, set the IP address you want, set host name, set time zone, format the HD, and setup user accounts and folders. Put together your LAN the way you would like it, then make sure you can still connect to the HNAS1. On a PC, under windows explorer, goto "Tools...", "Map Network Drive..." and follow the instructions in the dialog box to mount the HNAS1 from your PC.
The HNAS1 works great, the only problem is the cooling fan, which runs continuously. The fan noise is faint, but if you are in a quiet room with it for a long time, it may drive you crazy after a while. The fan itself only uses 0.4 watts, which translates into about 30 cents' worth of electricity per year... so it is probably not worth trying to modify the HNAS1 (for example, with an Airpax 67L100 PCB Thermostat on the fan circuit). I measured the overall power consumption of the HNAS1 to be 9 watts while idle, which means it will add about $7 per year to your electric bill.
Remember, this is a network drive, so there is no reason for it to be located near your computer (or near you). Locate the HNAS1 in a far-flung corner of your house, attach it to your LAN, and enjoy.
I would give it 5 stars, but I am subtracting a star because of the continuous fan noise.
Hawking Technology HNAS1 Network Attached Storage Centr Reviews
Updated - This is a very nice product but it needs better customer support . December 10, 2006 Update - The device is still running good after a year and half in service.
Reading other reviews about IP reset problems, I have 3 devices that default to 192.168.1.1. I leave the HNAS1 at this default, while the Linksys router and network printer were changed to other IPs. This has caused no problems.
I updgraded to V1.02 firmware and this corrected the date/time problem others reported, but this created another issue. On power up, if the time server takes too long to respond, the HNAS1 will time out, thereafter the Samba server will not accept logins leaving the disk un-mappable. The work-around is to select another time server to something other than the busy default time.nist.gov. Check either www.ntp.org or tf.nist.gov for a list of alternate servers. As long as the HNAS1 can reach a time server before it times out, the Samba login problem goes away.
I agree with others, the device is somewhat slow, but seemed faster when new. I haven't found a way to defrag the drive, as I believe this would help. I want to try the ancient method I once used back in the early 80s on DEC systems, which is to copy everything to another disk, delete all files, then copy the files back. However this is a time consuming and archaic method and I wish another method was available.
Original July 7, 2005 review - Michael Collins wrote a nice review, so I won't duplicate his product description details.
This is a high quality product, but getting various versions of Windows configured to use it takes some skill. I have limited networking skills and I really struggled to get this configured for my computers.
I bought the HNAS1 for use as a home network drive (100base-T Ethernet) for 2 new computers (Windows XP Home SP2) for my wife and I. We wanted to use a common mailbox, and we wanted a place to quickly backup user files. We also have a Windows 95 OS2 machine with a nice backup tape drive to use for backing up the HNAS1 data.
The HNAS1 unit looks nice and is well made. The nice thing about being able to add your own hard drive, is that you can use a high quality drive with this fairly low cost unit. So we bought a Maxtor 200GB 7200rpm Ultra ATA/133 drive on sale at Fry's and installed it. The HNAS1 recognized it and used it without issue.
The browser interface to the unit is clean and well organized. It's easy to use for formatting the drive, setting up users, passwords, user folders, changing the admin password, or changing the device IP.
The HNAS1 uses the wonderfully robust EXT3 journaling file system for the hardrive, which is highly regarded and commonly used in the Linux world. I think the unit might have a Linux core, as the security system behind the scene that's used for setting up the users, folders, and passwords appears very Unix like to me. The unit is also a SAMBA server, which is also common in the Unix/Linux world. It's an FTP server as well.
The struggles I had in setting up both WinXP Home SP2 and Win95 OSR2 to use the HNAS1 as a mapped drive, had nothing to do with the HNAS1. Once I got the software firewalls configured to allow access to the device, I struggled to get Windows to provide the necessary authentication. All this device wants for network authentication when trying to map it as a drive, is a simple login ID and password. The problem is getting the various versions of Windows to supply this simple requirement.
WinXP Home SP2 is purposely designed NOT to remember drive mapping passwords (a reason to buy XP Pro which does remember them, thanks Microsoft), so automatic mapping on reboot was a struggle. I finally used a batch file to solve this problem. For Win95 OSR2, "Network Client for Windows" and "File and Print Sharing" was required to be installed. Even so, when mapping a drive, Win95 can only supply the same login ID that's used to login to Win95. To solve this problem, a user with the same login name has to be setup on the HNAS1. But at least Win95 OSR2 can remember the password for automatic mapping at reboot.
All of this is where the customer service falls short in my view. The manual explains how to setup the HNAS1, but includes nothing on how to get the various versions of Windows to properly map to it. The support section of the Hawking Tech website provide no help at all on the Windows drive mapping issues. I did however get through to a tech support person who was helpful with the Win95 problems. These issues with Windows are the fault of Microsoft and not Hawking Tech, but in my view Hawking needs to provide better support by supplying users with the necessary details to allow all of the supported version of Windows to map to the drive.
Having said all of that, once the drive mapping issues are sorted out, the HNAS1 performs flawlessly. It's very fast over a 100base-T network and seems competely reliable. We have no problems with it at all. We also don't seem to have the noisy fan problem that Michael Collins reported.
I highly recommend the unit, but you may have to research the Internet and call customer support (as I had to) to get the needed details to sort out the drive mapping issues. The supplied install software wizard seems helpful in letting you know that your PC can "see" the drive over the network, but it doesn't seem useful for anything else.
I'm giving the Hawking Tech HNAS1 4 stars because it's a very well designed outstanding piece of equipment. But the poor customer support cost me a few grey hairs, and Hawking Tech 5 stars.
In the end, I love the unit.
Updated - This is a very nice product but it needs better customer support . December 10, 2006 Update - The device is still running good after a year and half in service.
Reading other reviews about IP reset problems, I have 3 devices that default to 192.168.1.1. I leave the HNAS1 at this default, while the Linksys router and network printer were changed to other IPs. This has caused no problems.
I updgraded to V1.02 firmware and this corrected the date/time problem others reported, but this created another issue. On power up, if the time server takes too long to respond, the HNAS1 will time out, thereafter the Samba server will not accept logins leaving the disk un-mappable. The work-around is to select another time server to something other than the busy default time.nist.gov. Check either www.ntp.org or tf.nist.gov for a list of alternate servers. As long as the HNAS1 can reach a time server before it times out, the Samba login problem goes away.
I agree with others, the device is somewhat slow, but seemed faster when new. I haven't found a way to defrag the drive, as I believe this would help. I want to try the ancient method I once used back in the early 80s on DEC systems, which is to copy everything to another disk, delete all files, then copy the files back. However this is a time consuming and archaic method and I wish another method was available.
Original July 7, 2005 review - Michael Collins wrote a nice review, so I won't duplicate his product description details.
This is a high quality product, but getting various versions of Windows configured to use it takes some skill. I have limited networking skills and I really struggled to get this configured for my computers.
I bought the HNAS1 for use as a home network drive (100base-T Ethernet) for 2 new computers (Windows XP Home SP2) for my wife and I. We wanted to use a common mailbox, and we wanted a place to quickly backup user files. We also have a Windows 95 OS2 machine with a nice backup tape drive to use for backing up the HNAS1 data.
The HNAS1 unit looks nice and is well made. The nice thing about being able to add your own hard drive, is that you can use a high quality drive with this fairly low cost unit. So we bought a Maxtor 200GB 7200rpm Ultra ATA/133 drive on sale at Fry's and installed it. The HNAS1 recognized it and used it without issue.
The browser interface to the unit is clean and well organized. It's easy to use for formatting the drive, setting up users, passwords, user folders, changing the admin password, or changing the device IP.
The HNAS1 uses the wonderfully robust EXT3 journaling file system for the hardrive, which is highly regarded and commonly used in the Linux world. I think the unit might have a Linux core, as the security system behind the scene that's used for setting up the users, folders, and passwords appears very Unix like to me. The unit is also a SAMBA server, which is also common in the Unix/Linux world. It's an FTP server as well.
The struggles I had in setting up both WinXP Home SP2 and Win95 OSR2 to use the HNAS1 as a mapped drive, had nothing to do with the HNAS1. Once I got the software firewalls configured to allow access to the device, I struggled to get Windows to provide the necessary authentication. All this device wants for network authentication when trying to map it as a drive, is a simple login ID and password. The problem is getting the various versions of Windows to supply this simple requirement.
WinXP Home SP2 is purposely designed NOT to remember drive mapping passwords (a reason to buy XP Pro which does remember them, thanks Microsoft), so automatic mapping on reboot was a struggle. I finally used a batch file to solve this problem. For Win95 OSR2, "Network Client for Windows" and "File and Print Sharing" was required to be installed. Even so, when mapping a drive, Win95 can only supply the same login ID that's used to login to Win95. To solve this problem, a user with the same login name has to be setup on the HNAS1. But at least Win95 OSR2 can remember the password for automatic mapping at reboot.
All of this is where the customer service falls short in my view. The manual explains how to setup the HNAS1, but includes nothing on how to get the various versions of Windows to properly map to it. The support section of the Hawking Tech website provide no help at all on the Windows drive mapping issues. I did however get through to a tech support person who was helpful with the Win95 problems. These issues with Windows are the fault of Microsoft and not Hawking Tech, but in my view Hawking needs to provide better support by supplying users with the necessary details to allow all of the supported version of Windows to map to the drive.
Having said all of that, once the drive mapping issues are sorted out, the HNAS1 performs flawlessly. It's very fast over a 100base-T network and seems competely reliable. We have no problems with it at all. We also don't seem to have the noisy fan problem that Michael Collins reported.
I highly recommend the unit, but you may have to research the Internet and call customer support (as I had to) to get the needed details to sort out the drive mapping issues. The supplied install software wizard seems helpful in letting you know that your PC can "see" the drive over the network, but it doesn't seem useful for anything else.
I'm giving the Hawking Tech HNAS1 4 stars because it's a very well designed outstanding piece of equipment. But the poor customer support cost me a few grey hairs, and Hawking Tech 5 stars.
In the end, I love the unit.
Hawking Technology HNAS1 Network Attached Storage Centr Opinions
Good price and useful functionality but some flaws . I'm determined after my latest laptop failure to work out a better backup solution for my household. The Hawking HNAS1 Networked Attached Storage Center seemed to be a good solution for this. I had an extra 3.5" disk drive in a drawer, so I bought this unit, inserted the disk drive, set it to Master, attached cables, screwed in 4 screws, and put the case back together. Voila! Network Attached Storage.
Configuring this unit was not as much fun. It does not use DHCP to find a good IP address, and its default 192.168.1.1 is the same as the default Linksys router address. If you simply plug this unit into a Linksys or other router which is already configured with this IP address, then the Hawking and the router fight it out over who responds to this address. After several rebootings I got the Hawking unit to win this race, I logged into the web interface from a PC and quickly changed the IP address to one that isn't used by any other device. Operation became more predictable after this.
The firmware version shipped in my unit (1.01) has a bug in setting the time zone via the web interface. There is a firmware download (version 1.02) at [...] which will correct this. Download the file (about 3MB), then use the Hawking web browser interface to upload the firmware into the Hawking device. It takes several minutes to upgrade. Unfortunately, I found that the login password was changed after the upgrade and I had to hold the Reset button on the back of the unit for over 5 seconds to reset all accounts and passwords on the unit back to their defaults. Unfortunately, this also reset the IP address back to the same value as the Linksys router. Sigh. Rebooting the Linksys router helped me to somehow log into the unit to change the IP address to a safe value outside the DHCP range again. Phew! Using the 1.02 firmware release the time settings appear to stick, though you have to check "Use Time Server" and supply a good server address - I'd replace the default (a server in Germany) with "pool.ntp.org".
You need to format your disk via the web browser interface (it uses EXT3 format for the Linux operating system inside the box). You also need to create one or more shares, and you may want to change the user accounts and passwords. If you give the "guest" account a blank password and supervisor priveleges, then you can connect to the share from "My Network Places" by just double clicking on it. If you want to use accounts and passwords, then users will need to map the share to a Windows drive letter and supply the appropriate login credentials.
Now that the HNAS1 is up and running I'm happier. My biggest complaint, aside from the lack of DHCP and need to upgrade the firmware, is that the fan is annoyingly loud. My office currently has 4 computers running, and the Hawking is louder than the rest combined. I can't easily relocate the device to another room, so I end up powering this down when I don't need it. Unfortunately, this defeats my original intent to run this 24x7 with regular automated backups from all machines. On the other hand, given that "real" Network Attached Storage devices used to cost several thousands of dollars, this unit is amazingly cost effective.
Good price and useful functionality but some flaws . I'm determined after my latest laptop failure to work out a better backup solution for my household. The Hawking HNAS1 Networked Attached Storage Center seemed to be a good solution for this. I had an extra 3.5" disk drive in a drawer, so I bought this unit, inserted the disk drive, set it to Master, attached cables, screwed in 4 screws, and put the case back together. Voila! Network Attached Storage.
Configuring this unit was not as much fun. It does not use DHCP to find a good IP address, and its default 192.168.1.1 is the same as the default Linksys router address. If you simply plug this unit into a Linksys or other router which is already configured with this IP address, then the Hawking and the router fight it out over who responds to this address. After several rebootings I got the Hawking unit to win this race, I logged into the web interface from a PC and quickly changed the IP address to one that isn't used by any other device. Operation became more predictable after this.
The firmware version shipped in my unit (1.01) has a bug in setting the time zone via the web interface. There is a firmware download (version 1.02) at [...] which will correct this. Download the file (about 3MB), then use the Hawking web browser interface to upload the firmware into the Hawking device. It takes several minutes to upgrade. Unfortunately, I found that the login password was changed after the upgrade and I had to hold the Reset button on the back of the unit for over 5 seconds to reset all accounts and passwords on the unit back to their defaults. Unfortunately, this also reset the IP address back to the same value as the Linksys router. Sigh. Rebooting the Linksys router helped me to somehow log into the unit to change the IP address to a safe value outside the DHCP range again. Phew! Using the 1.02 firmware release the time settings appear to stick, though you have to check "Use Time Server" and supply a good server address - I'd replace the default (a server in Germany) with "pool.ntp.org".
You need to format your disk via the web browser interface (it uses EXT3 format for the Linux operating system inside the box). You also need to create one or more shares, and you may want to change the user accounts and passwords. If you give the "guest" account a blank password and supervisor priveleges, then you can connect to the share from "My Network Places" by just double clicking on it. If you want to use accounts and passwords, then users will need to map the share to a Windows drive letter and supply the appropriate login credentials.
Now that the HNAS1 is up and running I'm happier. My biggest complaint, aside from the lack of DHCP and need to upgrade the firmware, is that the fan is annoyingly loud. My office currently has 4 computers running, and the Hawking is louder than the rest combined. I can't easily relocate the device to another room, so I end up powering this down when I don't need it. Unfortunately, this defeats my original intent to run this 24x7 with regular automated backups from all machines. On the other hand, given that "real" Network Attached Storage devices used to cost several thousands of dollars, this unit is amazingly cost effective.
Not the best of its kind but it does the work . I just set it up yesterday and here are my first impressions.
1: Network setup could be very simple in certain enviroments. Unfortunately it was not the case at my home. The problem is that the device default to an initial IP address of 192.168.1.1. Not a problem if you have a switch/hub, or if you have a twisted ethernet cable which can connect directly a PC and the HNAS1. However, if you want to connect both your PC and the HNAS1 to a router, the problem arises. First of all, your current router's network address may not be 192.168.1.0 and you would interrupte other devices connect to the router if the router's network address is to be changed. Secondly, even if you choose to set the router's network address to 192.168.1.0, some routers may insist to take 192.168.1.1 as its own IP, this produces a conflict with the 192.168.1.1 the HNAS1 default to. What a silly oversight.
Instead of playing with the router, I decided to dig out an old ethernet switch, the remaining network setup was no issue.
2: File system: My HNAS1 supports only ext3. This is not a problem if you are going to use a new HD. In my case, I had to back up and reformat my existing NTFS HD and copy files back to the newly formatted ext3 disk. Luckily, I have two spare HDs so I manage without losing data.
3: Speed is reasonable. I copied an entire 160GB disk to HNAS1 in about 14 hours. Also, I can stream two full DVD quality movies(not the compressed dvi's) from it simultaneously without any problem.
4: Construction is solid. They seem to use quality metal frames and cases. The sanded metal surface is unpleasant to touch though.
5: Fan is very noisy. I am running it with the fan disabled. So far its temperature, which I clolsely monitor, is OK.
6: No comment on reliability as this is only the 2nd day I am using it.
Hope this helps.
1: Network setup could be very simple in certain enviroments. Unfortunately it was not the case at my home. The problem is that the device default to an initial IP address of 192.168.1.1. Not a problem if you have a switch/hub, or if you have a twisted ethernet cable which can connect directly a PC and the HNAS1. However, if you want to connect both your PC and the HNAS1 to a router, the problem arises. First of all, your current router's network address may not be 192.168.1.0 and you would interrupte other devices connect to the router if the router's network address is to be changed. Secondly, even if you choose to set the router's network address to 192.168.1.0, some routers may insist to take 192.168.1.1 as its own IP, this produces a conflict with the 192.168.1.1 the HNAS1 default to. What a silly oversight.
Instead of playing with the router, I decided to dig out an old ethernet switch, the remaining network setup was no issue.
2: File system: My HNAS1 supports only ext3. This is not a problem if you are going to use a new HD. In my case, I had to back up and reformat my existing NTFS HD and copy files back to the newly formatted ext3 disk. Luckily, I have two spare HDs so I manage without losing data.
3: Speed is reasonable. I copied an entire 160GB disk to HNAS1 in about 14 hours. Also, I can stream two full DVD quality movies(not the compressed dvi's) from it simultaneously without any problem.
4: Construction is solid. They seem to use quality metal frames and cases. The sanded metal surface is unpleasant to touch though.
5: Fan is very noisy. I am running it with the fan disabled. So far its temperature, which I clolsely monitor, is OK.
6: No comment on reliability as this is only the 2nd day I am using it.
Hope this helps.
Cheap alternative to expensive NAS . I had a PC running 24x7 as a dedicated file server that eat up my electricity bill. I was shopping for an NAS and found this Hawking HNAS1. This would be ideal for me as I had several spare IDE HDDs.
My first unit was DOA. I got a replacement, which was good. Setup was easy. First I installed 120GB HDD. I copied 100GB of files from XP to this on a 100mbit LAN. The writing speed is 25mbps. It took 8 hours to copy 100GB files.
Then I upgraded to 200GB IDE HDD. I thought I can diskcopy 120GB to 200GB HDD using a linux machine as HNAS1 uses ext3 file system, which is standard for linux. Boy, I was wrong. The linux machine can read the files but Gparted couldn't copy the entire disk to a new HDD. (Of course, the CD that comes with new HDD won't work as these CDs only work for FAT and NTFS.) So I spent another 8 hours to copy 100GB files to the 200GB HDD on a 100mbit LAN.
For some reason, XP can't remember the password for reconnection. It will always ask for the password, whenever I reboot the PC. Then I found windows command "net use". I made a batch file that runs whenever windows starts. Now I don't have to type the password each time PC reboots. If you are using wireless LAN, then you have to delay "net use" command until you get the wireless connection first. I'm using "sleep 20" command to pause for 20 seconds.
I have 4 PCs at home that shares the file server. Now everything is more organized with this file server. And not to mention, it will save my electricity bill.
As people complained, this unit is noisy. But mine is in the basement so noise is not a problem at all.
My first unit was DOA. I got a replacement, which was good. Setup was easy. First I installed 120GB HDD. I copied 100GB of files from XP to this on a 100mbit LAN. The writing speed is 25mbps. It took 8 hours to copy 100GB files.
Then I upgraded to 200GB IDE HDD. I thought I can diskcopy 120GB to 200GB HDD using a linux machine as HNAS1 uses ext3 file system, which is standard for linux. Boy, I was wrong. The linux machine can read the files but Gparted couldn't copy the entire disk to a new HDD. (Of course, the CD that comes with new HDD won't work as these CDs only work for FAT and NTFS.) So I spent another 8 hours to copy 100GB files to the 200GB HDD on a 100mbit LAN.
For some reason, XP can't remember the password for reconnection. It will always ask for the password, whenever I reboot the PC. Then I found windows command "net use". I made a batch file that runs whenever windows starts. Now I don't have to type the password each time PC reboots. If you are using wireless LAN, then you have to delay "net use" command until you get the wireless connection first. I'm using "sleep 20" command to pause for 20 seconds.
I have 4 PCs at home that shares the file server. Now everything is more organized with this file server. And not to mention, it will save my electricity bill.
As people complained, this unit is noisy. But mine is in the basement so noise is not a problem at all.
Fine if found for the right price... . I'm typically switching between about 3 computers, so my files tend to be juggled around quite a bit. I finally found this unit on sale for $[...] (after mail-in-rebates and all) so I figured I'd give it a shot. All in all, I'm pleased, but there are many compromises and such that must be dealt with.
First, software and interface. About all I can say is it's junk. As everyone complains, the IP address is static and typically conflicts with other devices. I was rather surprised not to find any DHCP options, but connecting to it using a cross-over cable or hub/switch was easy enough. The web interface is clunky and rather slow. The settings are very basic and sometimes vague. For example, giving a user FTP access seems to disallow them to access folders via SMB. However, lets say a new user is created and you give them FTP access during the creation process, the next step will tell you to enable folder access for the user for SMB. Perhaps I'm missing something, but having accounts for FTP and SMB isn't anything major.
Connecting to the NAS under windows isn't as challenging as some people make it sound. Search for guides and such on the Internet and people discuss how to do so. I made a few quick registry changes on my Vista Home Premium machine, but I'm not sure if that even solved the problem. In the end, I believe it was my firewall causing most of the issues. Once all the ports were opened correctly, I really had no problems connecting to it. I found typing the IP address of the NAS than the user name(192.168.1.50\user) usually allowed me to connect. Sometimes it's finicky, but that could just be vista. I had no issues using my XP Pro or Mac OS X machines.
Performance is fairly poor, but depending on what your needs are, it could suit your purpose. I primarily use mine for documents, images, and MP3s. The only time slow access time is noticeable is when the computer is trying to load thumbnails. Besides that, it's not too terribly bad. Streaming music and videos from it usually works just fine.
A few people complained about its reliability. I've had mine for two weeks, running almost 24/7 and it's been fine. They have been doing work around here and the power was knocked out three days in a row. Unfortunately the device has a soft power button(like a typical PC now-of-days) and will not power back up by itself. But besides that it's been just fine and always accessible when I needed it.
If you're looking to store basic files with only one or two users accessing them at a time, this NAS is perfect. If you're planning on having large files(videos and such) and/or using it over a large network, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
First, software and interface. About all I can say is it's junk. As everyone complains, the IP address is static and typically conflicts with other devices. I was rather surprised not to find any DHCP options, but connecting to it using a cross-over cable or hub/switch was easy enough. The web interface is clunky and rather slow. The settings are very basic and sometimes vague. For example, giving a user FTP access seems to disallow them to access folders via SMB. However, lets say a new user is created and you give them FTP access during the creation process, the next step will tell you to enable folder access for the user for SMB. Perhaps I'm missing something, but having accounts for FTP and SMB isn't anything major.
Connecting to the NAS under windows isn't as challenging as some people make it sound. Search for guides and such on the Internet and people discuss how to do so. I made a few quick registry changes on my Vista Home Premium machine, but I'm not sure if that even solved the problem. In the end, I believe it was my firewall causing most of the issues. Once all the ports were opened correctly, I really had no problems connecting to it. I found typing the IP address of the NAS than the user name(192.168.1.50\user) usually allowed me to connect. Sometimes it's finicky, but that could just be vista. I had no issues using my XP Pro or Mac OS X machines.
Performance is fairly poor, but depending on what your needs are, it could suit your purpose. I primarily use mine for documents, images, and MP3s. The only time slow access time is noticeable is when the computer is trying to load thumbnails. Besides that, it's not too terribly bad. Streaming music and videos from it usually works just fine.
A few people complained about its reliability. I've had mine for two weeks, running almost 24/7 and it's been fine. They have been doing work around here and the power was knocked out three days in a row. Unfortunately the device has a soft power button(like a typical PC now-of-days) and will not power back up by itself. But besides that it's been just fine and always accessible when I needed it.
If you're looking to store basic files with only one or two users accessing them at a time, this NAS is perfect. If you're planning on having large files(videos and such) and/or using it over a large network, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
Latest firmware upgrade fixes problems. . Most complaints people ar having have been solved with the latest firware upgrade (exception is the fan is a bit noisy). This unit is extremely easy to use and the cheapest NAS storage you can find. It is well worth the price.
Cons Review
Not Reliable . I am a PC and network tech and I stay in touch with new technology. When this came out, I got one to try out and possibly start selling to customers.
Upon installing a hard drive that matched it's requirements, I went through all the setup screens to get it ready to use - then found it would not let me change the country code to the United States due to some internal program error. (it uses this setting to keep track of the date and time of files written to it). I emailed tech support at Hawking. After a week, I got an email with a file attached with no instructions. The file ended with the extension ".web" which meant nothing to my computer or me. I tried the update bios feature in the unit and it did use the file, updated it's bios - giving me the ability to change the date to U.S. timezone - finally it worked right...for about a month anyway. One day out of the blue, it reset the IP address I assigned it back to it's factory default - and it's default 192.168.1.1 address is the same as my linksys router - so neither would work until I figured out what was going on and turned it off. I wrote to tech support about it to ask about a fix and the only answer I got back was "we have one here that has been running 6 months." (that wasn't an especially helpful answer)
I logged in to the unit after moving it to a separate PC not on the network and then found it wouldn't keep any settings I entered. I wrote to tech support again and they told me to reset it by pushing a small recessed button. I did this and it erased all the user names and settings. I started over and set it to 192.168.1.200 where I had it originally and it worked normally again for about 3 weeks. This morning I couldn't access it. It was on - but my computer couldn't connect to it - but this time the internet was still working. I figured it had reset it's IP address again so I took it off the network to connect it directly to a PC so I could change the IP address back again. This time - I couldn't access the setup screens at all using any IP address nor it's install software. I pulled the power cord and put it back - and it woke up and was available again. This time, it had kept it's correct IP address and had just simply locked up. Restarting it got it up and running again - but for how long and what will it do next... I put in a top of the line IBM hard drive in this unit and the hard drive has worked flawlessly - but this network device is buggy and I feel I have to replace it if I want a reliable network attached storage device. Due to my frustration with non speedy tech support, and because I feel so little trust for this device and any replacement I might get that rather than ask for a warrantee repair or replacment, I will instead just throw it out to get rid of the problem. The replacement NAS device will NOT be this same brand.
Another comment: A quick look at their website revealed today that they still haven't posted the patch they sent me to correct the timezone problem so if you already have one of these and can't set it to a U.S. timezone - at least you know why and what you need to do.
Upon installing a hard drive that matched it's requirements, I went through all the setup screens to get it ready to use - then found it would not let me change the country code to the United States due to some internal program error. (it uses this setting to keep track of the date and time of files written to it). I emailed tech support at Hawking. After a week, I got an email with a file attached with no instructions. The file ended with the extension ".web" which meant nothing to my computer or me. I tried the update bios feature in the unit and it did use the file, updated it's bios - giving me the ability to change the date to U.S. timezone - finally it worked right...for about a month anyway. One day out of the blue, it reset the IP address I assigned it back to it's factory default - and it's default 192.168.1.1 address is the same as my linksys router - so neither would work until I figured out what was going on and turned it off. I wrote to tech support about it to ask about a fix and the only answer I got back was "we have one here that has been running 6 months." (that wasn't an especially helpful answer)
I logged in to the unit after moving it to a separate PC not on the network and then found it wouldn't keep any settings I entered. I wrote to tech support again and they told me to reset it by pushing a small recessed button. I did this and it erased all the user names and settings. I started over and set it to 192.168.1.200 where I had it originally and it worked normally again for about 3 weeks. This morning I couldn't access it. It was on - but my computer couldn't connect to it - but this time the internet was still working. I figured it had reset it's IP address again so I took it off the network to connect it directly to a PC so I could change the IP address back again. This time - I couldn't access the setup screens at all using any IP address nor it's install software. I pulled the power cord and put it back - and it woke up and was available again. This time, it had kept it's correct IP address and had just simply locked up. Restarting it got it up and running again - but for how long and what will it do next... I put in a top of the line IBM hard drive in this unit and the hard drive has worked flawlessly - but this network device is buggy and I feel I have to replace it if I want a reliable network attached storage device. Due to my frustration with non speedy tech support, and because I feel so little trust for this device and any replacement I might get that rather than ask for a warrantee repair or replacment, I will instead just throw it out to get rid of the problem. The replacement NAS device will NOT be this same brand.
Another comment: A quick look at their website revealed today that they still haven't posted the patch they sent me to correct the timezone problem so if you already have one of these and can't set it to a U.S. timezone - at least you know why and what you need to do.
Not Reliable . 1)It doesn't support US Time zone.
2) It doesn't work at the maximum network speed of 100 mbps. The max speed I get on this device is 28 mbps.
3) If you copy a directory that contains lots of small files...the unit freezes up sometimes.
4) If you stress the unit too much by copying too many files over a long period of time....it freezes up. This becomes evident when I'm performing a 80-100 GB backup through backup software.
5) Noisy Fan.
6) Bad Customer support.
7) No patches in the customer support page.
I don't recommend buying at all.
2) It doesn't work at the maximum network speed of 100 mbps. The max speed I get on this device is 28 mbps.
3) If you copy a directory that contains lots of small files...the unit freezes up sometimes.
4) If you stress the unit too much by copying too many files over a long period of time....it freezes up. This becomes evident when I'm performing a 80-100 GB backup through backup software.
5) Noisy Fan.
6) Bad Customer support.
7) No patches in the customer support page.
I don't recommend buying at all.
easy to use but slow hot & noisy . I found this product to be very easy to set up as long as all I wanted was to use it for sharing files to anybody on my network. Setting it up to limit access to users was trickier and I eventually gave up because it was on a protected network anyway and I didn't really need that functionality.
Downside is that transferring files is slow, the max file size is limited, it never spins down the disk, the device runs very hot and the fan whines. The max file size limit is 4GB, and is a result of using FAT32 on the drive. Figure the data transfer will be about 3-5X slower than a simple 100Mbit network file transfer (30+ min to copy ~1.3GB to it).
Running too hot and the fan whine are correctable. Chip out a big hole on the back plate where the fan is, so it can get air (and maybe reversing it to blow in over the disk) fixes both the heat and fan whine problems. Without applying this fix, I would not recommend this device as it otherwise runs so hot it will likely shorten the life of the disk.
Downside is that transferring files is slow, the max file size is limited, it never spins down the disk, the device runs very hot and the fan whines. The max file size limit is 4GB, and is a result of using FAT32 on the drive. Figure the data transfer will be about 3-5X slower than a simple 100Mbit network file transfer (30+ min to copy ~1.3GB to it).
Running too hot and the fan whine are correctable. Chip out a big hole on the back plate where the fan is, so it can get air (and maybe reversing it to blow in over the disk) fixes both the heat and fan whine problems. Without applying this fix, I would not recommend this device as it otherwise runs so hot it will likely shorten the life of the disk.
Feature Hawking Technology HNAS1 Network Attached Storage Centr
- Functions as both a file server and FTP server
- Can be used to easily share video, music, and data files
- Managed access via three pre-defined user authorization levels
- Supports one user-selectable internal high speed ATA/ATAPI-6 hard drive
- Compatible with Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/XP/2000/NT4.0
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Product Details
EAN : 0603992505777UPC : 603992505777
MPN : HNAS1
Brand : Hawking Technology
Binding : Personal Computers
ItemPartNumber : HNAS1
Manufacturer : Hawking Technology
Model : HNAS1
Publisher : Hawking Technology
SKU : DHHNAS1
Studio : Hawking Technology
Where To Buy
You can buy Hawking Technology HNAS1 Network Attached Storage Centr on Amazon . Click here to Read More
