Netgear ReadyNAS 500

The Netgear ReadyNAS 500 ready nas 500 is a large and imposing piece of kit. Very professional looking in its black box and standing like it could withstand a nuclear attack.

Two things need saying straight away though. One is that the box is as good as it looks and is probably one of the best nas drives on the market for a user once it is set up. The second point is that Netgears 'setup wizard' and virtually every other part of its set up frontend is an absolute nightmare to anyone given the task of setting the box up. Options are convoluted and obscure, sharing files (with others rather than on your network) is possible, but can take an age to work out. I spent 3 hours just trying to setup a share access to one folder for a relative. It was only in desperation that I went by an obscure route and created a new folder for him that the share eventually worked. The software control of the box is, at the very least annoying. Once you do have a GCSE in Netgear frontends, the software allows for multiple user access by password, file download limits, read access only, limited access, full access, streaming to PS3, media centres, xbox, and even includes a peer to peer client so the box will do your downloads while the pc is off. All in all the unit is a highly efficient and massively adjustble piece of equipment. Like most other nas/network drives, the data can be accessed by mac/pc and even linux apparently. It should be noted though, that out of the box the unit has virtually one of these options available, they have to be turned on during the installation process, or done at a later date via the front end browser access. Automatic computer back up is also an available option.

The unit has a USB port for adding a printer, though my efforts so far have only resulted in the device telling me the driver isnt correctly installed (even though it prints normall if the netgear isnt used). Another plus point is the second drive bay. Though this shouldnt really be considered an upgrade to storage capacity option. The box is set up to use a raid array. So adding another 500 gb drive will add redundancy checking to the system. In the event of a drive failure you wouldnt lose everything you had on the drive. If you add a drive larger than the 500 gb fitted, then the box will automatically transfer files from the 500 gb drive to the newer/larger drive and begin using that.

Setting up the netgear for the first time is a long process. They say it will take around 15 minutes, I have no doubt it would be 15 minutes if you were a netgear engineer. As I am not such an engineer it took me the best part of 40 minutes to set up and go through all the options it threw at me during the software setup.

At times during the setup you would have to input a fair amount of info. On each page, if there was an option, you HAD to fill it in. so in my case, when it asked for company, i left it blank as no company is involved in my registration. hitting send/apply when the rest was finished just kep bringing me back to the same screen. As all youwant to do is get it working at this point, the contant irritation of this was annoying and frustrating. Once I realised why it was refusing to continue and added 'not applicable' in the box, it moved on to the following page.

Another issue is that of having to select apply on every page rather than just continue. It does throw up a message saying you didnt apply the changes, but will then go on to the next page without actually doing the changes. You have to read and re read everything, and always select apply before moving on. very workmanlike way of doing thngs.

One last thing here. When you first turn the box on, you are reminded of a jet turbine. The box makes an incredible racket when you start it up as the fan races up to full speed and stays there for around a minute. Full boot up of the drive completing around 3 minutes after powering up.

After the initial noise of power up, the box finally settles down to a quiet hum. The fan noise being equivalent to that of a laptop. You cant hear it when the pc is on, but in a quiet room, its steady thrum is noticeable. I probably wouldnt have one of these in my front room next to the tv, but in a computer environment it is fully acceptable.

All in all, the netgear box is a good nas drive. Expensive when compared to others, but unlike the similarly sized cisco box there are no hidden costs further down the line. Pund per gigabyte the box loses out to almost every other manufacturer. But in quality of hardware and options, it is unrivalled in the home marketplace.

But the control software and convoluted settings system really does need work.