NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Open Question to Netgear - What are Your Intentions?
I have been a forum member and ReadyNAS owner since December of 2009. Certainly not as long a many of the add-on developers such as super-poussin and whocares, not as long as some of the more experienced users like claykin, mdgm, dbott76, TeknoJnky, sphardy, Papabear, fbmachines and stephenb and obviously not as long as the jedi - Yodah, Chirpa, Chewbacca, Jedi Knight, Han Solo and Oom-9. There are many others in each group I have unintentionally omitted but I write now because I am concerned for the future of the ReadyNAS line.
I don't post much anymore but have never stopped reading (daily) the ReadyNAS forum. I've committed my own money, that of the company I work for and that of my friends and collegeues that listened to the purchase of a ReadyNAS. From the Duo to the Pro - I use daily and depend on quite a few to do their job and I will say they have done that and done it well. What concerns me is that direction the forum has taken since the departure of Yodah and Chirpa. While both continue to provide support (and while other Jedi also do their best) it would seem judging from the comments of users and Jedi alike there has been a fundamental shift in Netgear's priorities. So fundamental I now question whether Netgear is the right choice moving forward. To wit:
As many have stated the forum was or is the reason to choose Netgear over the competition. I submit given Netgear's stance (the board itself is regularly unavailable) the forum can no longer be valued as it was in the past.
Existing issues are no longer being addressed, discussed or even acknowledged by Netgear staff as readily as in the past. I would submit this lessens the value of Netgear support further decreasing the value of the ReadyNAS line.
Existing web features such as the web simulator have been removed by Netgear without official communication and without remediation. This affects future purchases, reducing the user base therefore reducing the need to spend money on existing users.
Problems we have lived with - (iTunes server / forked daapd, ReadyDLNA, USB3 operation, Photos I and II, ARM add-ons (or the lack thereof), loss of Bittorrent, RAIDiator v5 for x86, lack of a directory / LDAP server, requiring workaround, registry hack or command-line fixes for common issues) - the list goes on - have not been properly addressed. I don't care about most and the ones I do don't bother me that much but there is an expectation when you purchase a product that it live up to the marketing and your own expectations and I would submit that may no longer be the case.
ReadyDATA hardware and software (what some existing programmers might be spending their time on) might be great - I will never know. For one, it is somewhat more expensive than a ReadyNAS but more importantly why would I give my money to a company that has begun to abandon an entire group of product enthusiasts that have have helped make the ReadyNAS line what it is today?
You can search the board to find support for any point I referenced but I think for most just a reminder is enough. Note I am in no way unhappy with the performance of any of the many ReadyNAS units I own and work with on a daily basis. I strongly feel like I am witnessing a protracted death of a product I feel has value and it is for this reason I'm asking Netgear -
What are your intentions?
I don't post much anymore but have never stopped reading (daily) the ReadyNAS forum. I've committed my own money, that of the company I work for and that of my friends and collegeues that listened to the purchase of a ReadyNAS. From the Duo to the Pro - I use daily and depend on quite a few to do their job and I will say they have done that and done it well. What concerns me is that direction the forum has taken since the departure of Yodah and Chirpa. While both continue to provide support (and while other Jedi also do their best) it would seem judging from the comments of users and Jedi alike there has been a fundamental shift in Netgear's priorities. So fundamental I now question whether Netgear is the right choice moving forward. To wit:
As many have stated the forum was or is the reason to choose Netgear over the competition. I submit given Netgear's stance (the board itself is regularly unavailable) the forum can no longer be valued as it was in the past.
Existing issues are no longer being addressed, discussed or even acknowledged by Netgear staff as readily as in the past. I would submit this lessens the value of Netgear support further decreasing the value of the ReadyNAS line.
Existing web features such as the web simulator have been removed by Netgear without official communication and without remediation. This affects future purchases, reducing the user base therefore reducing the need to spend money on existing users.
Problems we have lived with - (iTunes server / forked daapd, ReadyDLNA, USB3 operation, Photos I and II, ARM add-ons (or the lack thereof), loss of Bittorrent, RAIDiator v5 for x86, lack of a directory / LDAP server, requiring workaround, registry hack or command-line fixes for common issues) - the list goes on - have not been properly addressed. I don't care about most and the ones I do don't bother me that much but there is an expectation when you purchase a product that it live up to the marketing and your own expectations and I would submit that may no longer be the case.
ReadyDATA hardware and software (what some existing programmers might be spending their time on) might be great - I will never know. For one, it is somewhat more expensive than a ReadyNAS but more importantly why would I give my money to a company that has begun to abandon an entire group of product enthusiasts that have have helped make the ReadyNAS line what it is today?
You can search the board to find support for any point I referenced but I think for most just a reminder is enough. Note I am in no way unhappy with the performance of any of the many ReadyNAS units I own and work with on a daily basis. I strongly feel like I am witnessing a protracted death of a product I feel has value and it is for this reason I'm asking Netgear -
What are your intentions?
66 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- I thought I'd revisit this 'open letter' as it now has been almost six months since I created this thread. Since that post we have seen the introduction of the next generation of ReadyNAS running a brand new OS with a new delivery method for apps, new underlying filesystem and new hardware. We have been told the new OS would not run on existing 64 bit x86 models and almost immediately after this announcement had posts on this very forum instructing us how to do just that. We have posted and read posts on the forum and on the ReadyNAS Facebook page detailing the level of frustration some felt about the perceived lack of participation from Netgear and the feelings of abandonment some felt when told their relatively new NAS is EOL. We have seen bugs that corrupt filesystems, prevent the use of the full volume and truncate large files and also seen Netgear support begin to take notice and attempt aid. For a period of time we have seen Chirpa almost single-handedly play the role of Netgear support and mdgm and StephenB handle the lion's share of 'Netgear enthusiast' support. We've seen users leave - Synology, QNAP and others benefit. We've seen the ugly specter of censorship when posts starting hitting a little too close for comfort. We've heard that Netgear views the forum as nothing more than an annoyance, that 'office politics' are to blame for the dearth of posts by Jedi and that for many Netgear employees this is simply - and only - a job.
What we haven't heard is a response. A response to the original question - what are your intentions? - Very nice summary ahpsi. Sadly, their 'commitment' earlier this week seems to be a one day splurge, and haven't keep up the attendance since.
chirpa wrote: Very nice summary ahpsi. Sadly, their 'commitment' earlier this week seems to be a one day splurge, and haven't keep up the attendance since.
Well, maybe it's time for some more postings on Facebook (since that's the new media Netgear officials pay Attention to).- They are spot reading some of these threads, but not posting, which is a bad idea.
- Yeah, another week passes, and nothing new under the sun...
- So here is my impression getting into the world of NAS. I run a popular online site that deals with consumer issues including products. I was quite disappointed to find out that the two very recent NAS Ultra 2 devices I purchased at a nice discount were already apparently EOL. Worse, I didn't realize that I was getting the "non plus" version which has the exact same model number but half the horsepower. I've looked at the box and cannot find any way to differentiate between whether you have a single or dual core atom processor inside. This is beyond confusing to consumers and was one of the first reasons I began to suspect that getting a Netgear product might not be what I had expected in the past.
During setup of my first system, I saw the dreaded corruption error in RAIDar. If you've never set up an NAS before, Netgear's instructions certainly seemed designed to wishing you'd never have made that purchase. Other than using a search engine to figure out how other users set up their systems, there is no easy "how to" guide that would make it a simpler process to accomplish the common tasks one might expect. While I have seen the knowledgebase online help with regard to things like TIVO, failing to have documentation with the device is ridiculous and I still don't see the instructions generously provided by users included anywhere. Looking at Netgear's system supporting ReadyNAS is pretty sad. I see several broken links, sparse tutorials and an add-ons area that doesn't allow ratings or reviews or comments about the add-ons.
I'm still new here so it's possible I have overlooked quite a number of things. But I am not a newbie with regard to system set up, I build my own computers, manage Internet servers and more. If the process for me is a challenge it makes me wonder why anyone but sophisticated users would want to purchase a Netgear NAS. The more I read comments the more I think that having gone towards competing products by companies I was never before familiar might have been a much better route and saved me a ridiculous amount of time. At this point I'll need to evaluate what to do because I'm unfortunately beyond the point of return. But I can say that I will not hesitate to share my frustration with others and I wonder whether dumping new products on the market will matter if customer reviews will be brutal - my model's ratings have gone down and I won't hesitate to share my frustration with setup with others. - Can I just say even though the "official Netgear" support appears to be lacking, I really appreciate the advice given here by other contributors.
I have had quite a few of my newbie problems resolved by just browsing the old threads. The FAQ section is really useful. - 4.2.23A is now available: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71112
- A = ?
I'm wondering if it was just a typo. http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23506 calls it 4.2.23chirpa wrote: A = ?
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
