ZyXEL NSA320 High Performance 2-bay Network Attached Storage and Media Server
| Digital Storage Capacity | 3000 GB |
| Connectivity Technology | SATA |
| Brand | ZyXEL |
| Hard Disk Description | Desktop |
| Compatible Devices | Laptop, Television |
| Color | Black |
| Hard Disk Size | 4 TB |
| Specific Uses For Product | personal |
| Item Weight | 2.34 Pounds |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 8.07 x 4.25 x 5.79 inches |
About this item
- Superior performance for simultaneous file transfers and multiple HD streams
- Faster data backup with NTFS support
- Intuitive user interface integrated with media player
- zPilot for media auto-classification by easy drag-and-drop
- Just click and select to easily enhance features for your network application needs
- Runs eMule/Bit Torrent/ FTP/HTTP downloads independent of PC
- Advanced green NAS with Wake-on-LAN, power scheduling and hard disk hibernation for energy savings
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Product Description
Product Description
The NSA320 is a high performance home storage device and media server capable of handling simultaneous 1080p high-definition streams to different UPnP and DLNA-certified devices such as Microsoft XBOX360, Sony PS3 and DLNA TV in every room at home. The NSA320 features rich server technologies for multimedia sharing. Acting as an iTunes server, Squeeze Center, personal blog and photo album server, the NSA320 simplifies streaming and sharing multimedia on PCs, laptops and SqueezeBoxes. With the user-friendly installation wizard, it's easy to manage and backup media files on the NSA320. You can also play music and slide shows directly from the NSA320 through the intuitive user interface integrated with a media player. The NSA320 allows you to create a music playlist to play on the background of your slide shows. A newly designed alphabetical search bar provides you with a more convenient way to search within thousands of songs, photos and videos stored on the NSA320. The NSA320 allows users to continuously download large files using eMule, Bit Torrent, FTP or HTTP services without powering on their PC. The auto-upload function enables NSA320 to automatically upload files stored in the NSA to FTP servers or other media sharing Web sites like Flickr and YouTube – a very efficient way to share files with friends and family. "Wake-on-LAN" enables users to turn on the NSA320 and access media files remotely anytime and anywhere, even when the device at home is powered off. In addition, with support for hibernation mode the internal hard disks in the NSA320 can automatically spin down when there is no data transmission after a period of time. With the power scheduling function, the NSA320 can be turned on or off automatically based on your usage patterns and needs to conserve power and expense.
From the Manufacturer
The NSA320 is more than a hard drive enclosure – it’s an entertainment hub for the modern age. Just plug in up to 2 3TB drives (sold separately), and you’ll be ready to store, share, and stream your digital media in crystal clear HD to any game consoles, PCs, phones,digital media players, PDAs, or any other DNLA-capable device using your home network. Automated backup makes protectingyour _les a hassle-free experience, and programmable PC-independent downloads guarantee you’llnever have to waste any time making sure the newest podcasts, videos, and software updates are right at your fingertips – no matter what device you’re using.
Step into the modern age with the NSA320, and set your media free.
Powerful HD multimedia streaming at your fingertips!
- Superior performance for simultaneous file transfers and multiple HD streams, Up to 3x faster than our NSA221
- Runs eMule/BitTorrent/ FTP/HTTP downloads independent of PC
- zPilot allows easy drag-and-drop file classification
- Intuitive user interface integrated with media player
Multiple simultaneous HD streams
With a powerful CPU and a read/write rate up to 4x faster than most network storage appliances, the ZyXEL NSA320 2-Bay Power Media Server can quickly transfer, backup and stream large multimedia files throughout your home network. It’s the perfect media hub for any household, able to handle multiple simultaneous 1080p high-definition streams to different UPnP and DLNA-certified devices such as Microsoft XBOX360, Sony PS3 and DLNA-enabled TVs throughout the house.
Your media – Your way
The NSA320 makes it easy to manage, back up, and play all of your media - freeing you to display it however you want, wherever you want. With only a few clicks, you can upload photos, organize them into presentations, and even set your presentations to music - or stream _les to devices throughout your house.
Boasting the versatility to act as an iTunes Server, SqueezeCenter, or personal blog and photo album server, your media will be free to share and stream to PCs, laptops, MP3 Players, and SqueezeBoxes anywhere on your home network.
Automated download/upload independent of your PC
The NSA320 allows users to automatically upload and download _les without ever turning on a PC. RSS feeds allow you to set up automatic downloads of Internet content such as Audio & Video podcasts ensuring that all your favorite media will be ready and waiting for you as soon as it hits the internet. ZyXEL’s browser plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox allow you to automatically send eMule, BitTorrent, FTP, or HTTP downloads directly to the NSA320. This allows you to turn off your computer after starting a large download, with the NSA320 completing the download for you independent of your PC.
In addition, the NSA320 makes managing user-generated media a snap. With a few clicks, the NSA can be set to automatically upload photos, video, music, and other content to sites like Flickr, Youtube, or even your own FTP server. There's no input required, and no need to deal with multiple sites or services. Just put your media on the NSA, and it'll handle the rest.
Automatic file classification with zPilot
zPilot automatic file classification makes it easy to store and manage media files. Just drag files onto the zPilot icon on your computer's desktop and they'll automatically be identified, organized, and delivered to your the music, photo, video, or other designated folders on the NSA320 - Organizing your media collection has never been simpler. The NSA320 is more than a hard drive enclosure – it’s an entertainment hub for the modern age. Just plug in up to 2 3TB drives (sold separately), and you’ll be ready to store, share, and stream your digital media in crystal clear HD to any game consoles, PCs, phones, digital media players, PDAs, or any other DNLA-capable device using your home network. Automated backup makes protecting your files a hassle-free experience, and programmable PC-independent downloads guarantee you’ll never have to waste any time making sure the newest podcasts, videos, and software updates are right at your fingertips – no matter what device you’re using. Step into the modern age with the NSA320, and set your media free.
Protect Your Data
The NSA320 is the ideal way to store even your most sensitive files without worrying about unauthorized access. A sophisticated IP filter table management algorithm protects your data from malicious attack.
When backing up from the NSA320 to a device of ZyXEL's NSA family, the encrypted Remote Replication feature optimizes protection of your valuable information. The SATA interface in the NSA320 allows you to group both hard disks to create a RAID1 mirroring environment for enhanced data protection. As a final safeguard against accidentally deleted data, the NSA boasts a networked recycle bin, allowing accidentally deleted data to be quickly restored.
Green media server
ZyXEL’s green Wake-On-LAN feature lets you access files stored on the NSA320 anytime and anywhere, even if the device is powered off at home. To further save energy, if there’s no hard drive activity for a set period of time, the drives will automatically go into hibernation mode. Finally, power scheduling provides a convenient way to manage your power consumption by allowing the user to set the device to turn off or on based on your unique usage patterns.
Product information
| Product Dimensions | 8.07 x 4.25 x 5.79 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 2.34 pounds |
| Manufacturer | ZYXEL |
| ASIN | B004UBU3SY |
| Item model number | NSA320 |
| Customer Reviews |
3.5 out of 5 stars |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | March 28, 2011 |
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Unboxing: When the package with this little unit and my two drives came in the mail I was very excited. The Amazon package was relatively large and bulky, but when I opened it up and began pulling everything out - first the packing pillows, then the two hard drives, and finally the appliance, itself - and began unwrapping it, I was amazed at how small this little unit is. For what all it can do, I was actually expecting something twice its actual size. This thing's tiny! It's positively adorable! But, although it's clad in plastic, it doesn't feel insubstantial or fragile like a toy. It has some weight to it, especially once you install the drives. You could actually club someone with it and do a fair amount of damage, though you'd probably break the housing in the attempt. With the little rubber feet it sits sturdily on just about any surface.
Setup: I ordered two Seagate Barracuda 7200 3 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drives (ST3000DM001) to go with the unit and they work great. Jump on these while they're still relatively cheap and you'll be a happy camper. I mounted the rails on with no problems, slid the drives into place in the housing and turned on the unit. I gave it time to boot - yes, the one reviewer is correct, it does take a bit of time for it to do so, about 2 minutes or so - and then installed the included NSU software. Once installed it promptly found the unit on my network and took me through the steps of formatting and arranging the drives into RAID1. This tells me that the newer models don't have the issue with not being able to use 3TB drives before updating the firmware of the unit, first. Once everything was formatted and mounted, the NSU software gave me the IP address of the unit and I promptly pointed my browser to it. After updating to the newest firmware from the administration page, I began wandering my way around the menus and tweaking settings to my liking, installing packages and generally getting ready for the big data migration.
I then hooked up my two 1TB MyBook USB external hard drives to the back of the unit and began copying over all of my data. This is where I started to run into problems. After maybe an hour or two of copying my files over, for no apparent reason the NAS would simply lock up and disappear from the network, making it unreachable until the unit was powered off and back on again and starting the copy procedure from scratch, again. This happened several times over the course of about 24 hours. Another reviewer panned this unit for the same behavior. As you will see, it's not really a hardware issue, so much as a user-error problem: trying to do too much all at once at the beginning.
I turned to the net for some sorely needed research and found, after hours of searching on different forums and knowledge bases, that the ZyXEL devs have replaced the old Media Server package with a new(er), stripped down version of Twonky Media Server in the newest firmware update (4.50). Sadly, this version of Twonky has a bad habit of maxing out the CPU while trying to parse all the media files on the share. This fact, coupled with my trying to copy over files while this was going on, and that the RAIDed drives were trying to resync between themselves at the same time, meant that the CPU was not only maxed to its limits, but also that it was running very hot. Once I disabled the media server package, the CPU load went down to oscillating lazily between 14 and 30%, the temps went down to normal and I had no more problems with the NAS disappearing off the network again.
A note to the whiny reviewers on here: Sometimes, ya just gotta do your own homework, folks. RTFM and do some research, for once. For the price that this little unit is being sold at, here on the 'Zon, it's amazing what all it can do. But, you do get what you pay for. As any network admin will tell you, nothing ever works exactly how you want it to straight out of the box. Some folks need to learn to quit being so quick to complain and just get their hands dirty. You can't expect technology to do all of your thinking for you. Sometimes, you have to have a little patience, research a problem, learn the ins-and-outs, tweak some settings and find a work-around. This unit is meant for home use. It's not bullet-proof or industrial-grade. If that's what you're looking for, be prepared to pay four times or more what this cute little box costs for the privilege.
A note to first time buyers. No, this unit isn't perfect, but it's one of the better ones in this price class. Don't let the self-entitled ignorant dissuade you from purchasing this unit. However, it is not, nor will it ever be, a fire-and-forget unit straight out of the box. If you're like me, you have several TB's of data that you'll want to put on this little baby. Know ahead of time that it -may- take days to copy all those files over, resynch the RAID array, index the files with the Media Server and have the unit settle down to a normal running state. These things take time. Have some patience and I think you'll be happy with your purchase.
My only caveats to this glowing review are as follows: I agree with the one reviewer who said that it would have been nice to have a network activity blinky on the front of the unit. The lack of one is not a deal-breaker, of course. it's just a matter of convenience and preference. I think the browser landing page is far too simplistic and gets in the way for my purposes, yet the web administration UI could have been laid out a little more intuitively, also. Trying to figure out the intricacies of the FTP and Web Publishing implementation, for instance, will be a bit of a stretch for most users and the documentation is inadequate. There's also not enough customization options for my taste. At the time of writing, there was only 13 total plugin/add-on "packages" available for download from inside the UI, and many of those that are available are useless to the average joe. It would be nice to see more community-driven, open-source offerings for this unit in the future.
-=UPDATE=-
It's been nearly a year now and I thought I'd do a little update to my prior review. In that time I have experienced very few hiccups or new problems. It simply sits on my desk and does its thing. I have every computer in the house accessing it through my network and, using the included FTP server, I can access my documents and files from anywhere in the world so long as I have internet access. I use dyn.com to give my server an actual web address, as apposed to a numerical IP address, so that its easily remembered. The NSA, itself, automatically takes care of updating the IP address to the remote dns server, if/when it changes, so that the web address is always right on the money and my files are always accessible, 24/7. I have even set up separate shares for friends, family and colleagues to access files and backups over the internet, should they need it. It has saved my bacon more than once when I was away from home and forgot to bring that proverbial all-important document or file from home.
In the interim I have paired this unit with a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player Wi-Fi 1080p , which can access and stream my media files directly from the server and display them on to my home theater system. With the NSA and the WD streamer serving up my local digital media content, and my XBox 360 bringing in Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Video, all of my media needs are covered and we officially "cut the cord," meaning getting rid of basic cable from our local money-gouging cable company, about the same time I bought the unit. All-in-all I am still very happy with my purchase and it continues to meet my needs quite adequately.
DRIVE INSTALLATION:
Drive guide rails must be attached to each drive via screws. Note that the pointy end of the rails must face INWARD (i.e. on the same side as the SATA connector). The quick install sheet doesn't mention this and it's easy to overlook from the diagram. The reason for the specific orientation is that you use a tool (located behind the drive cover) to remove an installed drive from its bay and this tool clips onto the exposed end of the drive rails. Also when installing be sure to insert the drive so that the SATA connector will mate with the drive (it will not if you insert the drive the wrong way and you could cause damage). ZyXEL needs to have better instructions. The front door is a little flimsy though, be careful when removing/installing to avoid breaking the tabs that keep it in place.
Note that drives are NOT hot-swappable, do not remove/insert with the power on. Drives up to 3TB are supported with newest firmware (note if you have old firmware you will need to temporarily install a smaller drive, create a volume, then use the firmware check function in the web interface to update firmware before installing 3TB drives).
RAID:
RAID 0/1 are supported. RAID 0 uses the combined storage space of both drives but has no redundancy. RAID 1 mirrors contents on both drives so if one fails your data is still safe.
POWER MANAGEMENT/UPS:
+ You can connect a (APC brand) UPS to the NAS via one of the USB ports and it will auto-shutdown when UPS battery is low (you can adjust when the shutdown occurs based on the UPS reported capacity remaining). A nice touch and one that will help prevent data loss. I tried it with a Tripp-Lite UPS and it wasn't recognized so it looks like only an APC will work.
+ You can set the UPS to always power on after a power failure, useful if acting as networked storage.
+ You can spin down drives if no data transmission occurs in a specified time (adjustable in minutes)
+ Supports "wake-on-lan" so device can turn on and service incoming requests even if powered off.
+ NAS uses external 12V 5amp power adapter. This is better than an internal power supply as it is easily replaceable if it fails.
+ Interestingly the NAS has an internal clock (powered by a CR2032 battery) and can be set to power on/off via time schedule.
THE BAD:
- There is no "network activity" LED at the front panel (the LED is on the Ethernet jack). I would have liked to see a front panel LED. This is important as use of one of the back USB ports will block the network LED on the jack.
- I do not think there is a way to migrate to larger capacity drives without backing up/replacing drives/recreate RAID/restoring the array.
- Download Manager feature (more on this below) cannot download files that require authentication from websites (i.e. files that require login). This is a shame as this would been much more useful.
- This NAS takes LONG to boot. This may cause a problem if used as network storage as PCs may boot quicker than the NAS!
- For some strange reason the CPU temp is reported incorrectly (12 deg Celsius) on the NSA status page after some time in operation. It still seems to work correctly so this may be a minor bug.
OTHER:
+ Front panel USB connector is USB3 for fast copy from/to external USB3 devices. This is just for copying data from/to an external drive, I don't think connection to a PC is supported.
+ NAS has CPU temp sensor.
+ The fan is a 3-wire fan (has RPM sensor so the NAS can determine fan speed). The fan label mentions that has a hypro bearing, which supposed to be a long-lasting bearing. The fan is very quiet, practically silent.
+ Web-based interface is nice and clean, with attractive icons. The admin setup webpage is logically organized. You can check the CPU temp/CPU load/free memory from the admin page.
+ ZPilot feature allows you to drop files/folders to an "always-on-top" icon to copy to the NAS. Optionally you can have the NAS sort files into specific folders based on the file type.
+ Add-on packages really expand functionality of the NAS. For example installing the SMART package allows you to see the status (temperature, SMART status, model & serial #) of the installed drives.
+ Firmware update is totally painless, one click will check for new firmware, another click downloads & installs it. You don't need to download it from a PC then upload it to the NAS. However note that you must have drive(s) installed and a volume created to use the auto-update feature as it needs to download firmware to the volume. If no drive(s) are installed it will not work.
+ Has "Download Manager" built-in file download function & bittorrent client. By logging into the NAS and either entering the URL of a file to download OR uploading a .torrent file from your PC you can have the NAS download files unattended without having your PC on and running. A nice feature, especially for downloading large files such as Linux ISO images.
OVERALL it's a good media server for the price and I recommend it. But also check out the ZyXEL NSA320 2-bay Network Attached Storage and Media Server as it is similar but about half the price. The NSA320 uses a slightly slower 1.2GHz CPU (but has the same 512MB memory), but doesn't have dropbox features or USB3 port. You probably DON'T want the older NSA2xx series because these use a much slower CPU/less memory and transfer performance is not as good.
UPDATE: I now have multiple NSA325s and the only thing I have found problematic is the web interface. There have been times when the NSA325 is still on and working but I cannot login to its IP address (to get the web interface to display). Other times the web interface will be extremely slow to respond or even stop responding entirely. Also, the "firmware upgrade notification" message keeps appearing even though I'm on the latest firmware (which is annoying, even though I click "do not remind me"). Power resetting fixes the web interface problems but I should not have to do this. These problems have persisted even through firmware updates and I am disappointed that such basic bugs have not been dealt with.
UPDATE2: One of the 2 drives in one NSA325 dropped dead. I found this odd so investigated a bit and found a flaw. The single cooling fan was failing (very slow RPMs) and the drive overheated until failure. There are 2 things wrong that could have helped prevent this: (1) Even though the system monitors the RPM of the fan there is no warning that I could find except in the log. A fan failure SHOULD send an email and/or beep the buzzer to signify that something is wrong. (2) The enclosure only has intake vents on the bottom, not the top. This means that hot air will be trapped inside the enclosure should the fan fail. As a result of this experience I recommend buying StarTech.com 60x10mm Replacement Ball Bearing Computer Case Fan with TX3 Connector FAN6X1TX3 (Black) and replacing the original fan. The fan is a standard 60mm x 10mm with a 3-pin "CPU heatsink" connector. Also, once a week login to the web interface and check the fan speed for indication of failure (so you can catch failures early). Other NAS units such as the DS413j have dual fans for redundancy.
A more expensive and larger capacity NAS alternative is the Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS413j . (See my DS413j review for more).
I hope this is helpful!
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Everything has been just fine:
Firmware upgrades are easy and just work.
It will stream HD video (usually MKV files) to my WD TV Live media player over my gigabit network the final leg being via
a TP-Link TL-PA211KIT 200Mbps Mini Powerline Ethernet Adapter - Twin Pack link.
The bit-torrent download client is a breeze to set up. My ISP gives me "free" downloads between midnight and 8am and the NSA310 will obligingly start the download client between these times.
There are other applications which I haven't looked at yet.
It's quiet.
Oh yes, and the file uploads/downloads from my PCs to this NAS are fast.
All is well.
Just one minor niggle. The disk drive slots in from the front after the front panel has been removed. It isn't firmly held though so there's a few millimeters of play between the disk drive and it's slot. I was meaning to use some packing, but, it hasn't been a problem, so I didn't.
*** Updated December 2018 ***
It was still working but the embedded SMB1 is becoming a problem, Mr Microsoft will probably disable it in a near future update to Win10, it is get-roundable, but it seemed the right time to retire it, the transfer times were getting slightly weird as well - speeding and slowing for no apparent reason. Six years service - excellent value for 70gbp (exc disk)
I've now moved on to a Synology DS218j - a much more sophisticated piece of kit and it also seems much more accessible than the NSA310.
One thing to note: you will probably need to replace the fan. The bearings in my fan died after about a month and a half. Having the most important component for continued operation fail so soon after purchase is rather disappointing. Replacing it with a liquid bearing fan fixed the issue and even reduced the noise.


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