Thursday, May 24, 2012

NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220


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The NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra series deliver the power you need to run bleeding-edge applications and the flexibility you want to store, share and protect your prized multimedia collections. Two Gigabit Ethernet Ports deliver ultra-fast connections, while three USB ports offer the flexibility for users to connect other devices with a USB connection (e.g., printer servers, external USB storage devices or digital cameras). These multimedia desktop storages are ideal for media enthusiasts with large digital media libraries who want to take their media files wherever they go. X-RAID2 - Manage volume expansion automatically as you add new hard drives or replace existing drives with larger capacity drives. ReadyNAS Remote - Get secure drag-and-drop remote access without complicated network setups. ReadyNAS Vault - Backup critical files off-site for added security and peace of mind, then access and restore them remotely online. Rsync - Replicate and synchronize files between two ReadyNAS devices. TiVo compatible - Archive your favorite television programs and play them back to any TiVo DVR in your home. Media shifting with Skifta - Access multimedia content from your ReadyNAS while you’re away from home on connected DLNA devices. Transcoding with Orb - Convert multimedia content for optimal streaming on mobile devices. Automatic backups - Back up three computers (PC or Mac) continuously using Memeo Premium Backup and restore any previous version of a file with a simple right-click.

This review is from : NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220
The Solution I've Been Looking For . It has been a while since I've gotten a new NAS system, and I am totally impressed with this unit. It has been almost totally painless. Now all the computers at my house can have plenty of backup storage, and easily share all the data, video, photo, and music files you are likely to have.

MY ENVIRONMENT

I am a Computer Engineer - been in the field for 35 years, so I'm fussy about my hardware. I have a house hardwired with CAT5 plus a WiFi router. The main machines are Macs, but there are some Windows computers too. This unit supports Time Machine - and the support works perfectly and painlessly. I also have a couple of DLNA media devices, so that is an important feature. The ReadyNAS also lets you plugin USB drives and they instantly become available on the network as well - so all my old external USB drives are not useless with this upgrade.

THE GOOD (Great, actually)

* This device is as close to plug and play as I've seen in a long time. There is a somewhat lengthy setup - but we're dealing with Terabytes of disk space that has to get organized and set up properly for the X-RAID striping.

* You can plug in new drives to expand capacity as needed.

* Works seamlessly on a mixed Mac/Windows/DLNA media environment

* Redundant storage keeps going even after a single disk failure. I feel all my photos and videos are now safe (although I still keep an extra off-site backup, just in case.)

* Fast - almost as fast as a directly connected USB, but now available to all the computers in the house.

* Can install extra software to securely access your data from the web anywhere.

THE LESS THAN GOOD

* There is a setting on the Network Interfaces called MTU. The default setting didn't work quite right for Macs - changing it to 1492 fixed things. But a call to NETGEAR's support actually solved the issue, so I'd rate their support very good.

* Not cheap - but I've spent years generating all my video, photos, and music - and I think the easy interface to this all is worth the price.

* The concept of 'Shares' is not really explained as well as I would have liked.



WHICH UNIT TO GET?

I decided I would spend a bit more for this unit - it is the latest technology - over the older NETGEAR units. I decided the 4 disk unit and single core unit would probably have the best cost/benefit ration. With this unit, using Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARS (they seem to work flawlessly so far - even though the aren't yet on the compatibility list for this unit), you can get up to 6TB of redundant storage (recovers from a single drive failure). I'd guess they will eventually support 3 to 4 TB drives.

NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220 Reviews
Pricey but ease of use features speed . I'm a network engineer and I chose the diskless because I wanted to control my drive specs.

In general avoid power-saving, "green" drives. There have been a lot of issues and power-savings translates into slowdowns managed by the drive's internals. Similar to how CPUs lower power consumption and heat by slowing down. If you want speed, green is not a "go".

I bought 2 x 2tb 64mb cache drives. I have a third, same spec at home, which I need to migrate data off first.

I plugged the Netgear into the Verizon FIOS wireless router(six 100Mb LAN ports) and my laptop was plugged into this. I transferred 500 Gb of data to the netgear and it sustained just about 80 mbps network transfer rate across the network. That's about what you can hope for on 100MB. Depending upon switch & pc hardware and transfer protocol I have seen higher, but often highspeed transfers max out at the 80% mark. Once I bring a gig switch to the house I'll see if I can push further. At some point I will max out read or write. Just not sure when and whose limits.

The Apple support is excellent. I-Tunes found my 20,000 song library on the netgears. My shares automatically showed up on Macs. Windows mapped without issues. DLNA worked, but I don't have a good DLNA client. I think my blueray player may have some capability there. I'll update once I get it wired up to the network. I'll be buying a Tivo, so I'll be able to test out Tivo support as well.

Unlike complaints of the lower end model, the admin interface on the Ultra is quick and responsive. I showed the unit to an earlier model ReadyNAS owner and they see a big difference. I'll be buying a second one to have them sync and backup eachother across the internet later this month.

A week after I got the unit NetGear emailed me that a new code is available. The update was easy and worked as expected. The ReadyNas sends me alerts via email for changes and problems.

I'm going to share out a printer or two to see how well that works.

I'll update later.

Completely happy with the purchase. More money than many would spend on the shell, but in minutes I had services running without knowing Linux or compiling or installing or anything. By the time I buy the hardware and spent the time building researching, trying different software... this saved tremendous time.
NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220 Opinions
Solid NAS but Pricey . I got RNDU4000 Ultra about 4 weeks ago, (Diskless) Loaded it with couple of Seagate 1TB each. The ReadyNAS did all the Formatting and initial volume configurations. It was effortless. I then installed the memeo backup apps and all our 5 pcs and 2 notebooks were configured for backups. I attached my UPS USB cable and the Ready NAS ultra saw it it. Once I setup all the media devices plus my Samsung 8000 3D LED 55", BD 6900 and few other DLNA devices we have, it was a ready go. Since I have a Central Panel for all our network stuff the little noise from it I only hear when I go there. So far it has been a wonderful and solid media NAS server.
I am currently looking into how to setup the orb capability.
Note: The Memeo say I have 30days, as such I don't know yet if they shipped the NAS with memo trial version, if so, that would suck.
A bit pricey at $600 (Diskless) In all, I would greatly recommend it.

-Dayo, Austin TX
Check the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Hardware Compatibility List! . I purchased this unit with four (4) 2TB Western Digital WD20EARS drives because Amazon offered a $70.00 discount for purchasing it together with specific advertised drives.

Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARS

However, these drives are not on the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). When the drives were inserted and the initial setup was complete, the following message was displayed on the unit:

"Vol C lifesupp!"

I was not able to work through this with Netgear technical support. So, I plan to return the drives and will purchase ones that are on the list.

[...]
Works great after four months . I've been using this unit with 4x 2TB hard drives for four months now, and it has performed flawlessly. The user interface software (RAIDar) is incredibly easy to use, and I had no trouble setting the unit up just the way I wanted it. I use it to share files over a wireless home network with 3 laptops, 2 smartphones, a DLNA TV and a DLNA DVD player. I had no trouble whatsoever getting these devices connected to the NAS.

I especially like the power saving features - I set the unit to turn off at midnight and back on at 7 a.m. No sense leaving it on while I'm sleeping. You can fine-tune this feature to set different on/off times for each day of the week. I also set it to "spin down" the hard drives after 10 minutes of idle time. That way they are resting and not using much power if I'm not on the network.

I also like that the unit will email me with problems or updates about completed backups, etc. It will also communicate with my battery backup so it knows when the power is out and can take appropriate actions to shut down when the battery is low. Finally, there are a lot of add-ons (basically, "apps") that you can download to expand the functionality of the unit. I've found several of these to be useful.

The drawbacks are that this is not a cheap piece of equipment, especially if you add four big drives. I will also agree with the other reviewer who said that the concept of "shares" could be explained better.

The bottom line: I was willing to pay for a reliable NAS that worked well and didn't require constant tinkering to keep working. This NAS fits that description for me. As the saying goes: "Buy quality, cry once; buy cheap and cry often."

Great speed features support all rolled into a tiny box! . I bought the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 after weeks of serious searching and reviewing. Here is what pushed me into buying this product:

- Value
Major review sites drool over the offerings from Synology such as the DS1511, but what they fail to take into account is that you will be paying 30% more for a single additional bay and a significant speed increase. However, with the ReadyNAS Ultra 4, I'm seeing transfer speeds of 60-70MB/s over my LAN which is more than adequate for my needs. An additional bay would be nice, but four 2TB drives is going to last me a long time. Keep in mind that when you use Flex RAID, one of your drives is going to be used for redundancy (so if any one of your four drives kicks the bucket, you don't lose any data) so with all 4 drives installed, I actually had a little over 5 TB for storage.

- Support
There is a lively ReadyNAS community available to answer support questions. There are also a lot of interesting mods that can be done with a ReadyNAS device, such as running a web server. Firmware updates bringing new features appear to be frequent. Shortly before writing this review, an update was released that added support for 3TB drives (not that I will be swapping out my brand new drives anytime soon, it's nice to know that I have an option for increasing my storage in the future).
Build quality issue and you better know your networking . Came in pristine condition shrouded in no less than three boxes. Was very easy to install four hard drives in enclosure. Ran into an issue with the backup button on the front panel. I needed to actuate the button in order to reformat the installed hard drives but the button was DOA. It had a green LED on but pushing the button would not access the formatting menu. Kept at it for about twenty minutes and nothing worked. I arranged a return and replacement. When I figured a replacement was on the way, I became a little more "agressive" in pushing the backup button. On perhaps the 50th push of the day, the menu system was responsive. It looks like I killed the LED that is imbedded in the button but the backup button now scrolls the system menu. Since Netgear is charging $500 for a diskless 4 bay model, you would think they could spring for the $.01 plastic backup button instead of the $.00001 button that feels like the plastic nub that is left when you separate the model parts from the grid holding them together (A reference to 1970 model building). I cancelled the return and kept it, sans glowing green light. Everything else is as advertised. On line only documentation is good and necessary as the setup is not intuitive for the casual networker. Netgear does have step by step instructions that should get most through the setup and operation.

Cons Review
Problems when syncing two drives (volume lost) & really bad support . Received this unit two weeks ago, and it worked great on one drive. When adding a second drive, the sync process would go through, and then would lock the NAS unit up losing shares, etc.

Thought I troubleshot the initial issue down to one bad drive, and had Amazon cross ship me a new drive as I sent the other back to them. I got my new drive, popped it into the ReadyNAS. The NAS recognized the new drive, and went through the sync. Came back several hours later to find that all the shares are unreachable again, just like the last time with the original suspected bad drive. I could get into the web console and restart the unit. When the unit came up, it said that the volume scan failed, and could not see any of my shares or data. Was on latest firmware, etc...

I ""TRIED"" to work with Netgear support with this issue. Went through the phone tree 5 separate times being careful to press the write numbers to get to the right division for my ReadyNas Ulta 4. First person I talk to tells me I am in the wrong department, and this is where the fun begins. I get bounced around to literally 6 different people each telling me I am in the wrong department. Three times, I thought I was making progress, but always got hung up on. The other two times I get transferred to some area that had a really crappy phone connection (static, garbled, etc...).

I am returning the thing, and getting a different brand. I have to say that Netgear has the worst support that I have ever seen. Reading tech reviews, some of the Synology units sound to be good.
Avoid this product and Netgear! . My initial installation went smooth, but then the unit got really slow and I was unable to use the NetGear RAIDar utility. After an endless email exchange with support, they asked me to call them for help. I did. Things went down hill from there.

NetGear's support is the worst I have ever encountered. I was willing to pay for support to resolve my issue. However, since I purchased this particular product and did not fully populate it with drives, the support team refused to assist me after spending almost 1 hour on the phone answering their ridiculous questions and being pitched to purchase longer support contracts.

The money is not the issue here. The refusal to help me is. I'm sure whatever my issue is can be resolved by a competent support person. And I was happy to pay for it. But after being passed around to multiple techs whose English was poor, phone connection faint, and I was put on hold for at least 50% of my conversation, they finally refused to help me.

I thought I bought a premium product. NetGear has my money and I have a dead end product. I RECOMMEND THAT YOU STEER CLEAR OF THIS PRODUCT AND NETGEAR.
What a nightmare. . I've had mixed luck with Netgear products over the past ten years or so and I'd already learned to stay away from their soho routers. Their workgroup switches are mediocre at best but do the job.

Recently I decided to get 2 of their ReadyNAS RNDU4000 units a try, simply because they were cheap, small and relatively mobile (which was one of my factors in buying these unit), plus 8 2TB SATA HDDs that were on the compatibility list.

The first one was dead straight out of the box. The only thing that appears on the screen is "FACTORY RESET" which will no go away no matter what I try. I've even verified the drives as working on the second system so the drives aren't the culprit. So I'll be shipping this one back.

The second one I've spent the better part of an hour trying to get it to accept a DHCP request from our DHCP server. The quickstart guide says that "by default the IP address is retrieved using DHCP". I'm sitting here watching our DHCP server receive the request, over and over but the NAS won't accept the IP.

For some unknown reason, eventually it assigns it OWN IP address of 192.168.168.168 and shows up on the RAIDAR utility (thanks for letting us know that, Netgear). However in order for me to access it, I have to add an IP on my interface to the same 192.168.168 subnet. Why support DHCP if you're not going to use it to begin with ?

Ok so moving on. Finally within the RAIDAR utility I was able to set the RAID level and it begins to format the drives. Then for some unknown reason the device drops off of the network, the RAIDAR utility loses visibility on it and the device states "no network link" despite the fact that the link light is solid and I see traffic on the interface.

I've still not been able to get the interface to come back up after multiple reboots. A factory reset is next. I should've known better than to try another Netgear product but you know the old saying - you get what you pay for. If you buy cheap products - expect cheap performance (or no performance at all).




Product Image


Feature NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220

  • Blazing fast performances for bleeding-edge applications
  • Best software partnerships to provide best store and serve user experiences
  • First TiVo compatible DVR network archiving and storage device storage device
  • Continuous backups from PC/Mac with Memeo Premium Backup
  • Built in iTunes Server




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Product Details

EAN : 0606449073232
UPC : 606449073232
MPN : RNDU4220
Brand : Netgear
Weight : 16 pounds
Height : 10 inches
Length : 13 inches
Width : 12 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Netgear Inc
Model : RNDU4220
Publisher : Netgear Inc
SKU : SY2734424
Studio : Netgear Inc

Where To Buy


You can buy NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (4-bay, 4TB: 2 x 2TB) Network Attached Storage, latest generation RNDU4220 on Amazon . Click here to Read More