We are hosting an extended 4 week Ask Me Anything AMA for the NETGEAR ReadyNAS line of products and we would love to answer your ReadyNAS questions. Best of all, posting your question below enters you in a sweepstake to win a ReadyNAS 214 with 4x 2-terabyte hard drives. *Update - 9/14 - The Winner has been contacted - We will announce soon. Learn more about NETGEAR ReadyNAS products for Home and ReadyNAS for Small & Medium businesses. Sweepstakes rules and alternative means of entry: How to ask a question and enter: In the discussion thread below post a question for our ReadyNAS team about ReadyNAS products. During the Questions & Answers and entry period: 7/26/2017 – 8/28/2017 a ReadyNAS rep will visit this thread and answer relevant questions Monday-Friday. After the Q&A is finished one lucky respondent will be chosen at random to receive a ReadyNAS 214! We look forward to your questions. Good Luck Update 8/29 - The AMA Period is now closed. Thank you to everyone for submitting their questions about ReadyNAS. Register to post your question

Um, I get this contest is a great way to get everyone use to the new forum but it's not effective for responding to questions. This whole conversation is listed as a single topic, so many of the people who are asking questions will have to scroll through all the responses to get answers, and that's not the best experience with a new forum. However, I would like to say I like the digs.

Rottenweiler wrote: Does the 214 run OS6? How does an ARM processor compare to Intel models? Can you use the 10TB drives in this system? Thanks. Simply put, Intel processors are 64-bit, ARM processors are 32-bit. Of course, a modern ARM processor outperforms against a 2004 Intel processor. So, you do need to look at the architecture, the speed, etc. etc. But in general, if you are buying a new product from the same vendor, it is safe to assume that a system based on Intel processor is faster than one that is based on ARM. In the example of ReadyNAS, you have a quad core ARM in RN212/214. It is still slower than a dual core Intel in a RN420 (422/424/426/428). The size of the drive does not have any relevance to the overall performance (tiny bit, almost not noticeable). It runs the same, slow or fast. It is the conduit (i.e. interface) between the HDD and the mother board in the ReadyNAS that determines the speed. Of course, the spec of the motherboard.

Tofu87m wrote:How does this model compare to the qnap 451+ as far as streaming plex and capturing and streaming gameplay to places like twitch, YouTube, ectThe QNAP TS451+ has an Intel based chipset which is perhaps similar to the ReadyNAS 314 or the newer 400 series, also on price about the same. ReadyNAS 214 has an ARM based chipset more like the TS431+, specs and price also similar. For streaming, I think the answer is much simpler: can the RN214 stream content and even transcode, and the answer is yes it can. If you want to know which has more processing performance, then the answer is also pretty easy in this comparison, and that is the QNAP TS451+. However, I think you need to consider what you are trying to achieve and figure out the best NAS for the task. With your current question I think they can both do that task quite easily.

daspiel wrote:Why NetGear over any other brand?ReadyNAS is generally very reliable and stable and as a central file storage it is excellent. Afterall, your data is what you value most! I'm not saying there are no issues, but I observe excellent stability for this basic function. I find the backup modes also very good, if a little confusing to start with. When expanding capacity, popping in an additional disk and have ReadyNAS x-raid expand automatically was seamless the times I have done it. The fan on the Duo v1 was noisy (so I changed mine), the NV+ v2 is not as bad but not silent. There is no way to turn the fan off for example when the disk are sleeping and the temperature is sufficiently low, which would make the unit totally silent when not in use. The newer RN200 series have larger fans that are quieter I believe, so less of an issue now. When I have looked elsewhere, let's say QNAP (I have one) and Synology (I don't have one), the community forum here is by far superior in my opinion. Always helpful and I don't recall a time where the pros were sarcastic or flat out abusive (which I have observed on some forums). Having said that, I do feel the ReadyNAS lacks advanced features compared to the others, especially Netgear provides little (useful) add-ons. There was a time when Netgear wanted to go for fee based add-ons (even for community contributors who did not want to charge), that was a real joke and fairly offensive to consumer level users. The community add-ons are limited, so I suggest you take a look for yourself in the appropriate sections to check if there are any features missing. From personal experience, the ReadyNas NV+ v2 ReadyDLNA had tagging problem in early versions, I raised the issue here and one of the developers created a patch to resolve it. That was rolled in to the next release. I haven't experienced any other issues, and I've had 4 NAS units over the last 10 or so years. I am a bit disappointed that Netgear end-of-lifed the NV+ just a few months after I purchased it, and in fact it was only on the market a short while. I do understand the reasons and I accept that sometimes you just have to move on. The NV+ has still served me well for about 4 years (purchased Jan'2013) and is still my main NAS, so I can't really complain. Personally I would highly recommend the ReadyNAS and my own next purchase will likely be a RN214, which I think offers best value for money, performance and features that I need. I've got in to the ReadyNAS ways of doing things and don't want to change, but I'm sure other NAS units are also pretty good. It will mostly come down to preferences on the interface and whether the unit has the features you need.

Danila wrote: hi! what can possibly convince me to switch to new model from my current model ? (RN 10400) Best regards, Danila The 104 is good as a basic file server or backup storage where speed is not a concern. Once you want to do more than that you'll really benefit from using a more powerful unit. I want our ReadyNAS customers to be happy. If you're happy with how your NAS is performing and what it can do now you don't have to rush into upgrading.In my opinion it's better to choose a unit that is more powerful than what you need than to choose one that's not powerful enough. I started out as a ReadyNAS customer before I joined NETGEAR. If I was buying a unit for myself now I'd buy the RN628X. At the same time I know the performance of that unit, the 8-bays and the price is way overkill for most home users and will remain so for years to come. I'm not the average user. We have a wide range of units to suit various needs. You can just move your disks across to the RN214 (it is advisable to get both units up to the same firmware first, put a scratch disk in the RN214, update the firmware if necessary, verify the firmware update was successful, power down both units, remove the scratch disk and move the disks across keeping the order the same).If you want to move to an Intel model (e.g. RN424) then I'd suggest uninstalling any apps you've got installed first. It's nice to know that you can move your disks to a newer ReadyNAS model when the time is right for you to upgrade whether it's now or later (of course it's best to check back when you do decide to upgrade to make sure that's still the case).

AMA - Ask Us Anything About ReadyNAS and You Could Win a ReadyNAS 214!

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Aquila76
Tutor
Aug 25, 2017
Can you run a RAID 1 0 array with this? What's the recommended largest drive for this layout?
- mdgm-ntgr
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  Aug 28, 2017
  Aquila76 wrote:
  Can you run a RAID 1 0 array with this? What's the recommended largest drive for this layout?
  
  Yes. You can use disks on our compatibility list. We have a range of ReadyNAS models suited for a variety of different needs. What would you be using the NAS for?
  - Aquila76
    Tutor
    Aug 28, 2017
    I would primarily use it as a multi-point HD media (FLAC, HD & UHD) storage server for on- and off-site use
makman116
Aspirant
Aug 28, 2017
Does the 3 year warranty on the chassis cover everything except the SSDs?

Does this model support 4K encoding?
- mdgm-ntgr
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  Sep 11, 2017
  makman116 wrote:
  
  Does the 3 year warranty on the chassis cover everything except the SSDs?
  
  It's a limited hardware warranty. You can read more here. SSDs would be covered by the SSD manufacturer's warranty. Though if you're wanting to get the most out of SSDs one would think you'd be best served by looking at a more powerful ReadyNAS unit in our range.
  
  makman116 wrote:
  
  Does this model support 4K encoding?
  
  This model won't transcode 4K video. If you need to transcode 4k video then you'd need a more powerful model. If you just need to stream a video as is then that's a different matter.
ktngandhi
Aspirant
Aug 28, 2017
Can this ReadyNAS completely eliminate the modem and router in my house?
- voodoogts
  Aspirant
  Aug 28, 2017
  No. This product is a NAS. Network attached storage.
  
  (NAS) is a type of dedicated file storage device that provides local-area network local area network (LAN) nodes with file-based shared storage through a standard Ethernet connection.
ktngandhi
Aspirant
Aug 28, 2017
Can this be used as router?
- voodoogts
  Aspirant
  Aug 28, 2017
  No. It's a NAS.
CoachTed
Aspirant
Aug 29, 2017
I deal with a non-tech spouse...very non-tech!
Is it possible to set the NAS and her android phone up so any new pictures/contacts/documents are automatically dumped into some default folder nightly? Would save me a ton of aggrevation...she's accidently deleted vacation photos twice in the last 6 months.
- 3100
  Guide
  Aug 29, 2017
  Hi
  Natürlich mit der Readycloud App .
  mfg 3100
BretD
Administrator
Aug 29, 2017
Update 8/29 - The AMA Period is now closed. Thank you to everyone for submitting their questions about ReadyNAS.
- voodoogts
  Aspirant
  Aug 29, 2017
  Thank you
StaticFX
Tutor
Aug 30, 2017
Seeing as odds are, I wont win this beauty lol.. If I just need a simple NAS that i can backup pictures and such remotely, which model would you suggest?

Thanks!

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AMA - Ask Us Anything About ReadyNAS and You Could Win a ReadyNAS 214!