NAS devices are a speedy, convenient means
of backing up date, and units like the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 featured here are also
capable of streaming any multimedia files to any device that can accept them.
Each of the ReadyNAS Ultra 4’s bays can
accommodate a 2TB drive, resulting in a possible 8TB of storage. The Netgear
ReadyNAS Ultra 4 supports various types of RAID technology, which trades off
available capacity against protection for your data. If one of the drives
fails, you should be able to recover your files. Features like RAIDar and
X-RAID 2 help you make the most of this handy feature.
The ReadyNAS Ultra 4 is powered by a
dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, which is speedy and responsive. The
onboard DLNA 1.5 media server worked well with a variety of networked players.
Even multiple full HD video streams were glitch-free.
Multimedia features include a Squeezebox
server and iTunes compatibility. As far as computers are concerned, this NAS is
equally at home with Windows and OS X, and it will also play nicely with Linux.
If you’re interested in adding more functionality, you can get applets (such as
BitTorrent), which can be downloaded from the Netgear website (www.netgear.co.uk)
The secure web interface is powerful, but,
oddly, every time we attempt to access it with Internet Explorer 9 on Windows,
a certificate error warnings is displayed. This can be ignored, but is
annoying. Additionally, only 3.5-inch drives are supported, even though
2.5-inch models would run more quietly and consume less power.
Verdict
Netgear
ReadyNAS Ultra 4 - A good device that has a potential to be great
A good device that has a potential to be
great, with good multimedia features, once a few quirks are ironed out.
