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

---

LARRI2008714 wrote:

Can I hookup my  wireless printer to this device?

You need to hook your printer to your router to get it on your network. Can you expand on what you are trying to achieve?

Can I sync pictures taken on my phone to automatically store a copy?

This may require an app on your phone to store to the ReadyNAS. If you can make the phone function as USB storage, then you can connect it to the RN and sync with the press of a button.

Is this limited to specific operating systems?

---

If you mean Windows/OSX/Linux they are all supported with various network file protocols (Samba, AFP). Do you have a specific OS requirement?

---

Hellcatkitty wrote:

What is the warrenty info on the ReadyNAS 214? thanks

---

The chassis has 3 year warranty according to the Netgear website technical specs for RN214. However, this may be region specific, in the UK you get 3 years.

---

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.

---

bigdaddy84 wrote:

I bought this router from Costco a year ago are routers much faster now? Should I upgrade? X6 is the model

 

Thank you. 

---

This thread is about the ReadyNAS products, per message #1:

How to ask a question and enter:

• In the discussion thread below post a question for our ReadyNAS team about ReadyNAS products.

---

stephenradford2 wrote:

Can I upgrade drives over time as Capasaty grows?

---

Yes, of course.  But always, always do a full backup before you upgrade your drive.  And upgrade your drives ONE AT A TIME.  Remember, the system is designed to tolerate one error at any one time (unless you are using RAID 50, 60 in the 6-bay and above systems).  

Consult with KB articles published by NETGEAR for more info.  Upgrading drives is a very common practice.  Only requirement is to handle with care...

---

stephenradford2 wrote:

Can I upgrade drives over time as Capasaty grows?

---

Yes you can (as was mentioned above), and I have done this successfully several times myself.

Do a backup, then hot swap (take out an old drive, then insert a new larger capacity one), wait a while whilst the x-raid volume rebuilds and expands. Only swap one disk at a time and it should expand ok without any loss of data. Just in case of disaster during the process, make sure your backup is good!

---

kmotala wrote:

Hello!!! Any custom firmware for this ready nas ??? Or do you plan add bitorrent client to this ??

---

There is no specific custom firmware for the ReadyNAS. If you venture in that durection may make support an issue.

In the backend is running Debian, so you are able to do most/all the debian things on the unit. There are some packages and versioning that is a little different, but most of the packaging will be the same as any other Debian server.

There are a few bittorrent clients available on the app site:

http://apps.readynas.com/pages/?page_id=9

• Qbittorrent
• Transmission
• uTorrent

(If there is something not in that list and available on debian, you can ssh and install that client if you wish.)

Note: The OS Space that is allocated on the ReadyNASOS is limited to 4GB, so if there is more space needed for the client/app, we have a directory dedicated for the application space on your data volume.

katart wrote:

What Apps are available for use with the ReadyNAS 214?

You can look at the app list, and the "Download for" all devices and ARM will be the apps that are compactible with the RN214.

http://apps.readynas.com/pages/?page_id=9

beatlesfreak200 wrote:

I'd know to know specifics around the following.

1. (1) 4k streaming capable?

There is a NAS that was tested to work with 4k (RN626), but there was not extensive testing on all of the prodcut lines since there are a lot of variable when qualifying the full streaming capability.

Note: The stream test is based on Plex's Transcoding. If you are doing XBMC local stream would not require as much CPU from the NAS configuration and would allow for lower end units to be able to perform the 4k transcoding.

beatlesfreak200 wrote:

I'd know to know specifics around the following.

1. (2) Expandable memory? if so, what are the limits?

Yes. There are some memory modules that are available for rackmount units, but we do not have a supported memory module available for the desktop units.

beatlesfreak200 wrote:

I'd know to know specifics around the following.

1. (3) RAID levels available?

We support all of the RAIDs: 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60

These are options in the Flex-RAID configuration with the right amount of drives:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/storage/WP-ReadyNAS-FlexRAID-Optimization-Guide.pdf

beatlesfreak200 wrote:

 I'd know to know specifics around the following.

1. (4) Any M.2/NVME slots available for caching?

There are no M.2/NVME readily available on the ReadyNAS units. Some of the newer Desktops have a limited size M.2/NVME(and SATA depending on the model), and based on the limited size may not show much supported features from that component.

It is not available yet, but we are looking into something that will be close to caching. (I don't think I can say more than that at this time.)