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!

217 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion

freakofneek
Aspirant
Jul 27, 2017
How does this fair for a media server?
- douglas_cheung
  NETGEAR Expert
  Jul 27, 2017
  freakofneek wrote:
  
  How does this fair for a media server?
  
  With the exception of not having a HDMI interface, you have everything you would need.
  
  ReadyNAS works very well with Plex. All you need to do is to run Plex from your mobile device, and project it up to a Chrome Cast. The HDMI cable is so passe. You don't need another humming device in your living room next to the TV. Keep the NAS in your study.
- aks
  Virtuoso
  Jul 28, 2017
  I have an older unit (several older units actually), a ReadyNAS NV+ v2, and they all have worked pretty well for my needs using the build-in ReadyDLNA service: stream music around the house to multiple speakers (Bose Soundtouch) and stream shows/movies to my TV (Panasonic). All work flawlessly in my experience. So the RN214 will accomplish basic media serving easily given it is a step up in terms of performance relative to NV+ v2.
  
  You might also be interested in transcoding, however I personally store the original files compatible formats to the target player devices so don't need transcoding. The RN214 has sufficient performance to transcode, but I am not familiar with exactly how many concurrent streams can be handled - I would assume only one. Note, I believe you will need a separate media server that supports transcoding such as Plex for this, as I do not believe the RN has this capability built in (to ReadyDLNA or other built-in app/service)
Astrosrule
Aspirant
Jul 27, 2017
This thing looks like a beast. Love the specs on this. Simple question... does it come in other colors?
Thank you.
- douglas_cheung
  NETGEAR Expert
  Jul 27, 2017
  Astrosrule wrote:
  
  This thing looks like a beast. Love the specs on this. Simple question... does it come in other colors?
  
  Thank you.
  
  Which model are you talking about?
  
  RN212/214 are jet back; RN422/424/426/428 got a very modern industrial design; RN520s/620s have a beautiful brush metal facade. The 420s/520s/620s all have a front panel LCD for you to see your IP address, and many other life stats... and a five-point touch button designed by a kung-fu master (paraphrasing from "Kill Bill").
  
  But... each model has only one color... (I can sell you stickies to dress it up. :-) )
SystemCrash
Guide
Jul 28, 2017
Is it possible to run a full-blown website on there? If so that'd be great!
voodoogts
Aspirant
Jul 28, 2017
Thanks for answering all my question. Product sounds promising !
aggieman12
Aspirant
Jul 28, 2017
Does Netgear intend to simulate third party add-on development or create its own updated ecosystem of apps? I love your hardware but it falls a bit behind in some respects.
- OOM-9
  NETGEAR Expert
  Jul 28, 2017
  
  SystemCrash wrote:
  Is it possible to run a full-blown website on there? If so that'd be great!
  
  The unit is running apache on the backend, and there are interaces that allow you to have a full-blown website.
  
  For the most controll, there are some extensions in the app sdk to help for some of the more advanced web services.
  
  aggieman12 wrote:
  
  Does Netgear intend to simulate third party add-on development or create its own updated ecosystem of apps? I love your hardware but it falls a bit behind in some respects.
  
  The overview page for apps is here.
  
  The development stuff can be found on our github. We have VirtualBox option for development and SDK inforamtion to help interface with our API. The application core component is based on debian's deb packages, and you can use debian's package documentation.
LiverpoolLee
Aspirant
Jul 29, 2017
How often would you expect to see any firmware updates, if any at all, and is there a roll back/troubleshoot feature in case anything goes pear shaped???
Thanks :-)
- aks
  Virtuoso
  Jul 29, 2017
  LiverpoolLee wrote:
  How often would you expect to see any firmware updates, if any at all, and is there a roll back/troubleshoot feature in case anything goes pear shaped???
  Thanks :-)
  The ReadyNAS Firmware Release Notes section gives some hints to release frequency, but I have observed typically every few months for active units. Rollback is not quite so easy, and sometimes not even possible. You need to ensure you have good backups.
Miklos
Apprentice
Jul 29, 2017
What is the best and also safest method to gradually upgrade the disks to larger capacity ones in the RN214?
Currently I have 4x2TB in RAID 5 using X-RAID. I am starting to run out of disk space (still managing) but I guess the upgrade would be unavoidable soon... I have just upgraded to the latest 6.8.0-RC1 firmware.

Thanks in advance,

Miklos
- aks
  Virtuoso
  Jul 29, 2017
  Miklos wrote:
  What is the best and also safest method to gradually upgrade the disks to larger capacity ones in the RN214?
  Currently I have 4x2TB in RAID 5 using X-RAID. I am starting to run out of disk space (still managing) but I guess the upgrade would be unavoidable soon... I have just upgraded to the latest 6.8.0-RC1 firmware.
  Do a full backup first... then you can either:
  swap each disk for a new one but only one disk at a time, and wait for it to complete resync (will take several hours each disk)
  or swap all disks at once and restore the backup - I am pretty sure this will in fact be faster, and also safer (you will still have all you data in tact on the old disks)
Tofu87m
Aspirant
Jul 29, 2017
How does this model compare to the qnap 451+ as far as streaming plex and capturing and streaming gameplay to places like twitch, YouTube, ect
- aks
  Virtuoso
  Jul 29, 2017
  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, ect
  The 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.
calistakallie
Aspirant
Jul 29, 2017
When resetting the router should I unplug it and for how long? Does this actually help if the internet is running slow, to reset the router? Thank you!
- William10a
  Master
  Jul 29, 2017
  calistakallie wrote:
  When resetting the router should I unplug it and for how long? Does this actually help if the internet is running slow, to reset the router? Thank you!
  No just push the reset button for around 10 seconds normal and it may or may not help with a slow internet depands o the cause of the problem if the isp is the cause it will not but if a router setting is the and you can not clear it you may tooreset the router and reset it up.
  The only time you need to reset the router and disconnect the power from it is a 30-30-30 reset.
Venctin
Aspirant
Jul 30, 2017
How much electricty does the RN214 use for someone who is constantly streaming 1080p video?
BretD wrote:
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.

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

Register to post your question

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