Date: March 1st, 2010
Article by: (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by:
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PRODUCT INSTALLATION AND TESTING
Before beginning installation, I highly recommend checking out the setup CD. It includes firmware, a setup utility, and full instruction manual. It should also be noted that the manual is the only place to find the ID and password for logging in to the unit. It took me a little time to find it.
To install drives, just use four screws to secure each one to its respective tray. You will have to remove a plastic piece from each tray first, but it's just there to prevent the tray from bending when there's not a drive installed in it.
Once the drives are installed, cables plugged in, and the unit powered on, we again need to go back to the setup CD and run the network setup utility to find the NAS on the network. At this point you have the option of going through the setup wizard or going right to the interface. I'm going to go through the setup wizard.
The wizard consists of two simple steps. The first one is changing the name of the unit (this is optional), and the second and final step shown here (it's also optional) is changing the IP address. Default is DHCP or you can give it a static IP address.
Once the wizard is complete, you can log in to the web interface to further tweak settings. The interface has a pretty simplistic design so it's easy to navigate. It's not the best looking interface I've seen, but it gets the job done.
Hard drives can be configured in a JBOD, RAID 0, or RAID 1 array. I chose to set up my review unit in RAID 1. The array can be changed at any time you like, just make sure to back up your files first because all data will be wiped out if you change the configuration.
