Customer Reviews

120GB Etherfast Nas/print/ftpserver 1 Open Bay for Addl HD

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I installed the Linksys EFG 120 in my small office about three months ago. It's an expensive way to buy additional disk space, but it offered the promise of easy-to-use networked storage. The basic file server functionality has worked OK, but the FTP functionality (which would have allowed us to access files from outside the office) has never worked. Several of us took turns spending an eternity on the phone with Linksys technical support, but they could never solve the problem. The technical support people were very difficult to understand, they knew very little about the product, and the phone connections were terrible. We had similar issues with the print server functionality. It was poorly documented, and the technical support people were of little help, but we eventually managed to get the feature working (although you should be warned that the Linksys EFG120 supports only parallel printer connections, whereas USB connections are the standard for printers these days -- odd choice on Linksys' part). In short, the idea of a $700 easy-to-use networked storage box is great, but this product isn't ready for prime time. Key features are not reliable, technical support is weak, and it's hard to find some of the accessory products you need to get the most from the product (like trays to facilitate swapping in an extra hard drive). The "new" knowledge base on Linksys support site has only one entry for the EFG120 storage product. If you enjoy beta testing, and are willing to pay retail prices for the privelege, this product will have great appeal. Personally, I wish that I had waited longer for Linksys to work the kinks out and get the technical support in shape.

Problems experienced include:
1. EFG "disappearing" from the network in the midst of large backup transfers (This happened on every large transfer except for one. When it happened, afterwards the EFG was pingable but it was no longer responsive in any other way to the network. Had to reboot the EFG to "fix" it and in several of the instances I also had to reset it).
2. Disk 1 or 2 or both occasionally showed up as Not Installed after rebooting the EFG or resetting it. Subsequent rebooting and /or resetting would "fix" this, eventually.
3. Disk 1 suddenly showed up as "Unformatted" in spite of having been in use and having 48GB worth of files stored on it. No amount of rebooting, resetting, or reseating (of the drive) would "fix" this. I had to reformat the drive to make it useable again!
I would very strongly recommend avoiding this product, period. I returned mine for a refund. P.S. Linksys technical support was "supportive" but had nothing to suggest beyond resetting, rebooting, reseating. They concluded the unit was defective - I say it was flaky.

I purchased this unit and an additional 120GB drive. Found the unit installs quickly and comes up quite nicely. I had some issues with the automatic back-up configuration. Their help line was polite, but not very knowledgable about the product. They finally decided that I had to upgrade the system ROM. Following their instructions, I attempted to do this and it failed mid-way thru the upgrade. I decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to try and resolve it thru their support, I'd just wait a few months until they had some more experience.

Now I have had the network connection die and I'm unable to connect. Calling support again, I was given a return authorization and told a new unit would ship within 24 hours. Alas, it will be two weeks, because the unit is on backorder. In addition, their policy is to charge you for the new unit and refund the money when they receive the broken one. Shipping takes 2 weeks, charging takes 5 minutes!!!

Being somewhat self-sufficient, I decided to just remove the drive and install it in a USB enclosure, so work could continue. Wrong again, as the EFG120 uses a stripped down version of Linux and the disks aren't compatiable with anything but Linux.

Every other piece of Linksys gear I have (which is a lot) works great. I'm sure this will get better over time, but right now this product needs to mature, before the average user buys it.

I am the not-so-proud owner of this model as well as a couple of its previous incarnations. Of the 4 I've had in my possession, 3 have died without explanation, and without any kind of manufacturer support beyond "ship it back and we'll replace it for you". I don't know that I should expect any more than that given the nature of the device, but it is indeed frustrating for that to be every problem's answer.

Additionally, the Linksys tech I first talked to after it failed told me that my data was simply "gone" beyond any ability to recover it. I asked to be moved up to the next support level. The new tech support person told me that the data wasn't gone, but he couldn't find out what filesystem the disk used when asked.

(XFS, for those who find themselves in need of that information. `mount -t xfs /dev/hdb1 /mnt/`. The data is in the directory of the same name). If the filesystem is ok, this should allow you to get your data back.

Had major issues with this due to file locking settings (oplocks)
This unit will not work with FoxPro programs and multiple users properly, and Linksys does not give access to be able to change the oplocks configuration.

I was lured to this product through an ad-slick stuffed in with my LinkSys network card packaging. In retrospect it was really too good to be true - a NAS for under $700, with group rights assignment, built in backup, print server and gigabit network card! I started thinking about all the old small office servers I could retire using this device. "Huge Mistake!" Why, oh why did I not research this product before I invested in it? Just the reviews here would have alerted me to the imminent falibility of the EFG120. With 5 EFGs deployed to various locations finally the hammer fell. The largest of the 5 locations using the EFG120, (that recently replaced their aging Novell server) called to say that the device was no longer responding. I tried a VPN connection session with the EFGs web interface and got the interface up. Drive1 status reported "Not Formatted", and Drive2 status reported "120GB 100%Free". What?! To make a long and very sad story short; the "backup" system had never made a copy of disk1 to disk2. Drive1 lost the shares and users configuration and even restoring the configuration from the .bin file I made did not give us access to the files which are locked away in the Linux file system. LinkSys tech support immediately directed me to contact Maxtor (the drive maker) to retreive the data and said I should call back. I refused to be passed on and forced the poor Indian guy to work with me. He clearly knew very little about the device and had to put me on hold several times to answer basic configuration questions I had. I'm having a PC shop that has a linux box try to recover my data. If I'm lucky and the data can be retrieved rest assured that it will NOT be going back on the EFG120 (should be re-christened the POS120). If your data is even mildly important select some other device to host it, ANY other device - a thumb drive, an old '95 box, ANYHTING but the EFG120. This was a great idea but poorly, poorly executed. The online, phone and printed support is woefully scant. If it were possible I would give this product - (negative)-5 trillion stars.

This is a piece of garbage. It stopped reading the harddrive about 14 months into usage. Cisco support is based in India, they bounce you around like a hot potato and then after 1 hour tell you that it is out of warranty. It has turned me off to Cisco and Linksys products completely. I used to be 100% Linksys -- not anymore.

BTW, I finally did get some support out of Linksys, but it was not easy and definitely not worth the hassle.

I got one of these and set it up on my network. I quickly
found that it was not as billed. For one thing no one but Admin can upload
files to it via web interface, so unless you are going to make every user on
it an admin, and toss security right out the window, you have to put their
files on it for them. Secondly, command line FTP just plain does not work. I
can connect to it from my servers at work, and login, but that's all I can
do. If I try to put files on it the session locks up or I am disconnected. I
have called and written Linksys support numerous times. When I call I am
routed to India, and end up talking to people who have to go ask someone
else every question I have and get back to me. If you are considering this
unit keep shopping, there are better NAS units out there. I wouldn't do it
again. It would seem to me that this product was rushed to market before it
was ready and without adequate testing. Other limitations of the EFG120 are
also evident, for instance you can only put one of them on your network for
remote access. This is because the web interface will serve up only one
version of the login script, LOGIN.CGI. If Linksys/Cisco would make
available to the admin account the file under different names, such as
LOGIN1, 2, 3....CGI, you could put more than one of these on your LAN to be
accessed by different URL's. Well, you could, if the Linksys router would allow you to put more than one IP address in the DMZ, which it will not. Both issues need to be addressed. That they have not done this I find to be
somewhat short-sighted. When I am on the phone with the kid in India I am
told that fixes should be available in the next version of the firmware,
perhaps in a month or two. When I used the support chat utility on the
Linksys page, I got some jerk who, when he could not address my questions,
simply, and quite rudely, disconnected me. I must honestly say I would not
recommend this product to anyone.

I have had my EFG-120 for about 5 months. I have bought the unit used. The unit sometimes looses connection with the network and needs to be reset. I have never had the FTP feature going because i dont use FTP. Over all i love the unit. I think alot of people keep playing with them and they go screwy.. Set it , leave it alone, and access the drives...

I got one of these last week. It takes longer to get it out of the box than to install it. I added a second 120gb disk to it and now I am thrilled at how easily I can add and manage disk space. It's set up so that one disk holds all my MP3s and the other disk is an automated backup of the first.

Highly recommended product!!