Customer Reviews

ZyXEL NSA210 Digital Media Storage Server

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

 

 

I purchased this item on a leap of faith, as I couldn't find a review anywhere. I think I may be the first on the entire www. It is a great little device. Granted most people looking for a true backup solution will shun this for only having the single bay, but for my simple needs, I was fine with a single bay. I just can't bring myself to make a backup of a backup. I figure I'm ahead of the game for having the one backup. The unit itself is metal, and very easy to load the HDD (I am using a spare 750 gb I had laying around). Installation of the software was also very easy. I can mount various sub-folders within the server, which will make network backups a snap. The options for how you set this thing are limitless, and it really is not that difficult. I haven't tried to stream any media yet, but based on what I have seen thus far, I 'd say it will be great. If you are looking for a media server/NAS this can't be beat.

This network drive enclosure has excellent features - background downloads, multimedia server, http and ftp servers - pretty much what ever you want to do is in there, and the price can't be beat. It has a cooling fan but runs very quiet, unnoticeable in my family room.

Cons: Performance as a network disk drive is slow (I measured write speed at about 6 MB/s), not like accessing a true network server. I also find that every once in a while the unit would simply stop sharing the volumes, and a reboot is needed to correct it. I've also had difficulty getting external esata drives to work reliably, and now having enabled RAID-1 to an external drive I can't seem to convert it back to stand alone - no operational issue but the admin interfaces shows the unpaired internal drive as running "degraded".

Overall tho, its a great value and does quite a lot.

I had to return the first NAS 210 due to a defect. ZyXel support was very helpful with trouble shooting the problem and determining that the device was defective. I bought it as a server for my Squeezebox Boom internet radio. The American site for ZyXel had an older version of Squeezebox Server (don't recall the number) that did not work. There were significant changes made to Squeezebox Server and only a later version (7.4.1)would work with the radio. A web search provided information on how to get a later version of Squeezebox Server for the NAS 210 through a European ZyXel site. This has worked fine for the SB Boom. However, I have subsequently purchased a Squeezebox Radio that can be operated with a battery. The SB Radio requires an even later version (7.4.2)of SB Server than that needed for the Boom radio. I contacted ZyXel and was informed that they have to purchase a license for the SQ Server from LogiTech/Squeezebox to be able to include it as part of the NAS 210. Apparently a new license must be bought for every upgrade of the SB Server software and they have not purchased the license for the version necessary to run SB Radio on battery power. This isn't a major big deal for me as I needed the server to listen to BBC IPlayer which does work with version 7.4.1. Personal music that is stored on the ZyXel 210 will not play on SB Radio without the later version (7.4.2). I believe the NAS 210 is also slower than some other servers and it does not allow me to stream to my radios at the highest audio quality available through Squeezebox. Still, it does MP3 just fine which is really good enough for my needs. The NAS 210 is a very affordable server with a surprising number of features for the price. I would recommend it.

I don't review things to often but I got to say this device impressed me so much for the price that I had to. The software is a little lame in fact im not even using it, but other than that I have nothing but good things to say. Out of the box it took about a min to put in a drive and my Mac recognized the dive on the network immediately. I average about 15 Mb on transfers and haven't had to reboot it yet. The quality housing keeps it running quite and cool even inside a cabinet its cool to the touch, and it is a great size. My 2 TB Western Digital found a happy home!

i just received this friday 2-3-12. installing the hard drive was easy then ran the nas starter utility. THEN the problem started it will not load the firmware no matter what i tried. searching google found others who had the same problem, the best suggestion was to run it in windows xp compatability mode, DIDN'T WORK got as far as 30% of transfer firmware and it just stayed there for hour after hour. ALSO tried windows vista compatability mode, THIS IS A WELL KNOWN PROBLEM with this unit. There tech support even admits that there are problems and have no answers for it. One even suggested it was the brand of hard drive.

updated 2-4-12
- found mac software on the ZyXEL web set and what do you know it actually worked with lion. set up was quick and easy.
- IF you have both windows and mac use the mac software on the ZyXEL website it worked and only took about 10 minutes to get everything working.
- will report back after seeing what this unit can actually do and maybe raise my rating

I installed a 1.5 TB Green WD hardrive. Installation works without a hitch. I mainly use it as a media sever for a PS3, Laptop/PCs, and a network ready Bluray player. It worked on all without a problem. I have noticed the complaint of some that it is not that fast. For instance when I upload a new movie to it, large GB+ movies will take up to 30 minutes or more, but I have seen other more expensive products take longer. However when streaming HD movies over wireless it works without a hitch. As a media player I would give it 5 stars (when factoring in the price), as a back up device for for PCs, 3 or 4.

great dlna server for the price but requires a certain type of hdd. I wanted to use the hard drive from my old computer but it was not compatible with the server. I had to buy another hard drive which was about another hundred dollars. DO YOUR RESEARCH ON WHAT THE SERVER REQUIRES BEFORE BUYING!

1. slooooooowwwwwwwww. sometimes i had to reboot to get it unstuck
2. native torrent/emule is not useful.
3. native backup just wouldn't work. i wish i got paid for the hours i spent trying.
4. the positive, i bot my hd b4 the monsoon, woot.
5. sometimes its more economical to buy the good one, going with a qnap ts-119pii

I had high hopes that I would be able to eliminate an old home server with this item. It was received as expected and was very easy to setup. It is unfortunate that it does not do the job of the old server, or come anywhere close. A backup of my small laptop takes from 7 to 9 hours to complete. On the old server the same backup took less than an hour. I would stay away unless you just need storage that can hold files and you don't need them in a hurry.

I baught this product 1 week ago. I have not tested all features but tested downloading side.

Here is my opinions:

I baught 1,5 TB WD Cavier Green HDD. First I thought that I can run it without a internal hdd, just with my usb storage but it did not worked.

The torrrent downloading is simple. Don't expect the configuration on similar torrent client softwares. You can not arrenge bandwith per torrent. You can not select files in the torrent. You can not create torrents. Just download and give priority and total bandwidth. You can leave maximum 10 active torrents at the same time.

The other features are fine; you can host your images or your wordpress blog.

The price is good, don't expect too much options with this device.