Pro Pioneer Edition RAIDiator 4.2.30 Future Proofing

BTW, do you have a backup strategy for your NAS?  RAID isn't enough to keep the data safe.

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winger13 wrote:

 

1) Last year when I purchased a Windows 10 machine, I discovered I could no longer access shares on the NAS due to SMB1 support no longer set by default (workaround was to enable SMB1)

2) Recently, all my various  browsers could no longer access the NAS' front end ( using https://ipaddress/admin ) due to TLS1.2 being default on the browsers. (workaround was setting tls-deprecated to true)

 

First, are there OS upgrades to my NAS which will permanently fix the two items above?

 

 

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It is possible to convert the NAS to run OS-6 firmware (currently 6.10.8).  That would resolve both issues.  But you would need to add some memory to the Pro (2 GB total is enough), and the process is destructive (disks are reformatted), so data would need to be restored from the backup.  We can give you more information on this if you like.  Note the NVX ReadyNAS can't be converted, but all the Pro models can be.

You could also install a third-party add-on to resolve (2) with your current fimware.

• https://github.com/rdynsxtrs/rn4bin/blob/main/apache2/x86/Apache2_2.2.34-x86-0.2.0.bin

BTW, 4.2.31 was the final software for your NAS so you are one firmware update behind.

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winger13 wrote:

Is Netgear going to continue updating the OS?

 

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No.  The NAS became end-of-life in several years ago, and Netgear said at the time that 4.2.31 would be the final firmware.

Although Netgear is still providing updates to OS-6, most people here have concluded that they are exiting the NAS business.  The most recent ReadyNAS platform was launched in 2017.

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winger13 wrote:

 

Second, is my expectations that this NAS will be functional (assuming hardware does not burn out) 30 years down the road? 

 

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I've found my various ReadyNAS to be very reliable (the oldest being about 14 years old, and still functioning).  But I don't expect them to run indefinitely.  The system boards are custom, and if one fails it cannot be replaced with a new one. Flash memory in particular has a limited life.  Even though the NAS isn't used much, every time you power it on there is some chance of failure.

Thirty years from now, your NAS would be over 40 years old.  MS-DOS was the current technology 40 years ago - launched in 1981.  I certainly wouldn't want to be running that today.  Or Windows 3.1 (launched about 30 years ago - 1992).  If I did want to run it, transferring data would be a challenge.  The PC I was using in 1992 didn't have ethernet and the only practical way to copy data was on floppy disks (CD-ROMs weren't mainstream yet).  Printers were connected via parallel ports that no longer exist on modern PCs.

So apart from the likelihood of hardware failure, you are making big assumptions about future technology.  I doubt SATA drives will be around 30 years from now.  Similarly, I expect backwards compatibility to USB 2 will be dropped at some point.  Not sure how long ethernet will be out there for consumer electronics - most consumer laptops (and many business laptops) have dropped their ethernet ports, which is a pretty big hint.