Customer Reviews

NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay 750 GB (1 x 750 GB) Desktop Network Attached Storage RND2175

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Great product whose price varies widely from site to site. Setup was not easy but not extremely difficult. When I started using my ReadyNAS to serve files to my XBox 360, the large number of files I had caused the DLNA to choke (I had already installed the latest stable firmware on inital setup). I then installed newest beta firmware which not only fixed the DNLA problems but added a feature for auto-updating of the DNLA database on addition or removal of files, which was absolutely key. Installation of a second hard drive was easy but I have not had a failure to test out the RAID X configuration. Prepare to spend a little time on the ReadyNAS site trying to figure out what you want to do.

Big Pluses:

* Size (smaller than a toaster)
* Quiet (virtually unnoticable except on initial power-on)
* Power Consumption
* Easy to add additional drive
* DNLA support (using the latest beta firmware) (serves file to other digital appliances i.e. Xbox 360, PS3, etc.)
* Bittorrent client

Minuses:

* Slow until you follow the tweaking tips on the ReadyNas site
* Hard to set up private shares
* Certificate hassles
* Nonfriendly web interface

This is my second NAS drive. I upgraded from a Maxtor Shared plus drive, (also good). The Netgear was my choice for having the option of expandability and redundancy. I also liked the add on features it offers.
The Drive installed relatively easily. The only problem I have had is the interface for media streaming does not work very well with my Netgear EVA700. I have installed Twonky media to over come this. Very Happy.

I really like this NAS box, I've added a 2nd HD to mine and it was painless. Transfer speeds are great and it's robust. My only complaint would be with the BitTorrent client. It generally works fine, but I find that I have to stop/start it every couple weeks because the service just stops.

This box runs Linux and it's capabilities can easily be expanded if you want to troll the forums and learn the tricks. It's highly tweakable or just plain and simple if that's all you want too. I've tested failover by pulling a drive and it worked just fine.

Product performs well - very well... As a wireless server - I use the system as a music source for a Logitech Squeezebox setup. Love it - but found the installation a bit confusing and it is difficult to find the drive once installed - but going to your computer and finding attached drives is easy enough once you get the hang of it. Manuals and installation tools are poor - I use an iMac and nothing was written for Apple... But once you get through the setup issues - it works like a champ!!