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ReadyNAS Remote user experience is very poor

george21
Aspirant

ReadyNAS Remote user experience is very poor

Three weeks ago I bought a ReadyNAS Duo v2, because of the promised "ReadyNAS Remote" features and the possibility to access the files of my "private cloud" from anywhere, even from Android/iOS devices.

Here's the reality:
1. You have to create a "ReadyNAS Remote" user account. This account, including the password is stored on the Netgear servers. The whole registration and documentation doesn't mention the security fact, that anybody who has (or gains) access to the Netgear Servers (admins, Netgear staff, hackers, ...) could access your NAS device and at least access all shares which have "anonymous access" enabled. Therefore, from a security perspective the combination of "ReadyNAS Remote" and shares with anonymous access should be discouraged, at least the documentation should highlight this. And I would expect that a document called "Whitepaper" (http://www.readynas.com/download/documentation/support/ReadyNAS_Remote-White_Paper.pdf) should definitely highlight this fact, anything else is dubious.
2. The mobile apps (both iOS and Android) are only able to access shares which allow anonymous access. All my shares, which have anonymous access disabled, cannot be browsed with any of the mobile apps, neither on my iPad 3 nor on any of my Android devices (Google Nexus One, Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1). So even as the apps support for configuring the Linux account to be used for accessing a share, it doesn't work. I always get a 'Cannot connect Share "homes": Unable to login' error, whatever user I try with.
3. The Android "ReadyNAS Remote" app crashes a lot on all my Android devices (Google Nexus One, Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1).
4. The "ReadyNAS Remote" app for iOS (iPad 3) makes an even more "unfinished" impression. Lot's of buttons and UI texts do only display the localization strings e.g. 'ENTER_CREDS', 'SIGN_ON_TITLE', 'APP_VERSION_TEMPLATE', 'DOWNLOADS_FOLDER', 'PHOTOS_FOLDER', '_DISCONNECTED'. When I switch my iPad to 'English' all theses Strings seem to localized and displayed correctly. Still then, the iPad app is one of the worst I've ever seen.
5. The whole impression for the Android and iOS mobile apps is like they were developed quick and dirty in a rush, no quality control or user experience research happened. The poor ratings for these apps in iTunes and Google Play are absolutely justified.
6. The "ReadyDROP" feature seems to have been developed completely independently from the "Remote" feature, which doesn't make sense to me. There is no "ReadyDROP" app for Android/iOS devices yet and the "ReadyNAS Remote" apps do not list/show the "ReadyDROP" folder. On the other hand "ReadyDROP" has a quite nice Web-Interface (https://readydrop.netgear.com), which allows to access and upload files using any web browser from anywhere. But this web interface does not allow to browse and upload files in any of the other shares on the NAS the user has access to, but only to the ReadDROP folder, which is the same for all users of the NAS. Again, the whole impression is very 'unfinished' and hasn't been thought through till the end.
7. The "Advanced Options" for the "Remote Access" feature in Frontview System Configuration have "Security" section with two checkboxes: Encryption and Firewall. However, the documentation for the ReadyNAS Duo v2 doesn't even mention them. It's not explained what the effects of enabling or disabling these two checkboxes will be. Security by obscurity? Again, seems like there wasn't even enough time to create a proper documentation before the "Remote Access" feature was made available to the masses.

Since I bought the ReadyNAS Duo v2 for it's advertised "Remote" and "Private Cloud" features, I'm very disappointed. Netgear should request help from a 'customer experience' company/consultancy and from experts for developing mobile apps. At least they should not advertise their products with these features right now!

I hope Netgear will overhaul the whole "Remote" concept and provide firmware and apps updates soon.
Best regards
George
Message 1 of 4
knd2000
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Remote user experience is very poor

I don't use Android, but i totally agree 100% to the rest of your posting !

viewtopic.php?f=75&t=67690
Message 2 of 4
Larsabel
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Remote user experience is very poor

I totally agree also. All documentation found is not my readyNas Dashboard version (duo v2). I bought for same reasons - cloud and Remote access. Had to allow anonymous access without knowing the concequence. Now its working to a minimum extend. Despite the same app on Iphone on iPad and using same settings and account. Files cannot be viewed on iPad. I have used several hours of time trying adjusting settings in the readynas but notning works. Totally los of money !!

Regards,
Lars
PS sorry for my spelling and my english
Message 3 of 4
bo4ko
Aspirant

Re: ReadyNAS Remote user experience is very poor

Exactly!
Probably this was my last NETGEAR product...
Message 4 of 4
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