New N5200BR

[rinconmike]

I just got a N5200BR and have soem questions.

First, I really do not need the switch, but got it becuase I figured it does not hurt (in case I ever needed it). The salesrep said there is no performance issue over the 5200B and the 5200BR and said for the few extra bucks, might as well get the BR.

Are they (B and BR) the same machines or is there an issue with the BR but not the B? I am new to this device and thought I read something about issues with a non standard machine and thought he use of the word Standard means the 5200B and not the BR.

Next, after a bit of reading, I figured out how to add users and set the ACL in the folder. However, My XP machine cannot access the folder. I enter the userid and pw, but it does not work. Does anyone have any tips?

I have read through the forums here and see something about modules, can anyone point me where to read more?

All I am using this box for is a shared drive on a simple home network. I want to have public folders and also private password protected folders.

I hope I did not make a mistake getting this over the infrant device. But after palying for arounf 4 hours, I am not too thrilled. I thought setting up a user would be easy, but no luck so far on getting XP to access it.

thanks

[rinconmike]

Also, is there a limit to the numbe of the same users being logged on. I have a couple of systems that use th same windows logon. I was abl to access public folders from one, but not the other.

[rollo]

rinconmike said:

I just got a N5200BR and have some questions.

First, I really do not need the switch, but got it because I figured it does not hurt (in case I ever needed it). The salesrep said there is no performance issue over the 5200B and the 5200BR and said for the few extra bucks, might as well get the BR.

Are they (B and BR) the same machines or is there an issue with the BR but not the B? I am new to this device and thought I read something about issues with a non standard machine and thought he use of the word Standard means the 5200B and not the BR.

Next, after a bit of reading, I figured out how to add users and set the ACL in the folder. However, My XP machine cannot access the folder. I enter the userid and pw, but it does not work. Does anyone have any tips?

I have read through the forums here and see something about modules, can anyone point me where to read more?

All I am using this box for is a shared drive on a simple home network. I want to have public folders and also private password protected folders.

I hope I did not make a mistake getting this over the infrant device. But after palying for arounf 4 hours, I am not too thrilled. I thought setting up a user would be easy, but no luck so far on getting XP to access it.

thanks

Hi Rinconmike,

The N5200 has a bit of a learning curve, it's not quite plug 'n play yet . Don't worry, you chose the right NAS. Once you get past the first hurdles these things are great. It took me almost a week to get mine configured properly (what with RAID build times and all).

There are slight differences between the two models and you can read about them here:
thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi?board=n5200reviews

You can read and contribute to the wiki here (this is also where the modules reside):
onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N5200_Resources

And you can thank Omega/Andreas for all of his help - honestly we'd all be returning these things if not for him. I may have bashed mine before returning it...

Regarding your specific questions - unable to access shares & user login limit - as far as accessing the shares goes you'll probably have a bit better luck searching or waiting for another member to reply who has setup simple shares. We use Active Directory for authentication so it's not quite the same. I have had the experience where we couldn't access the device though the ACL was setup properly but I was able to determine that though the ACL said it was setup properly in reality it was not (by using the SSH module and viewing permissions on the actual share folder). I deleted and recreated the shares and that worked for me.

I highly doubt there is any kind of limit on share access from different pc's, same pc, whatever. If you authenticate, you're in (as far as I can tell).

My path to getting this device up and running was plagued with factory 'resets', i hope yours is not! It doesn't delete shares or anything but it is still a pain to reconfigure.

Also, regarding the differences between the RouStor model and the regular model - There is an IP sharing option to share WAN and LAN connections on a single IP but I was never able to actually access the device from the switch, only the WAN port. As you cannot assign IP's in the same subnet to LAN & WAN it seems a bit self defeating at the moment. I wouldn't mind having the extra ports but I'm on a managed GigE switch anyway so I'll just stick to that. I don't like useless bits though.

The other thing that bugged me was that the WAN/LAN swap seemed to reverse itself at times.

Finally, and i'm not the one to tell you if this is due to coding or what, this is just from my experience - when the device asks you to reboot, do it. Don't wait and perform other tasks, it seems to beg for trouble if you go that route.

Good luck! You surely came to the right place.

RT

[rinconmike]

thanks. I have read throught the manual and with regard to the two modeles, is there any advantage if I were to return the BR and just get the B? All I am using it on is my LAN through a gigabit port.

Or is the BR going to give me the same use as the B?

thanks

[rinconmike]

Another question, can any attest if this is a stable machine?

The last thing I want to do is start using with with valuable data and then lose the information.

I see firmware updates have come out quickly. Do you lose the data during an update.

Finally, how does the Infrant NV+ compare to this? I am thinking of sending this back and going with what appears to be a more stable box.

[peterfu]

Hi Rinconmike,
I have the N5200B version and for me it's running stable since I have it - hmm, have it only one month now . Firmware Upgrades usually run fine and no data are lost - however, if You search here in the forum some people - including myself had some problems in upgrading.

Think the main difference to other NAS ist the performace ( www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,153/ )and the ability to use 5 disks.

I think for your usage the N5200B should be enough - I have almost the same usage - placed in my home LAN for access with local Windows and Linux Workstations and some limited possibility for outside access via ftp and http (protected by an external firewall).

br
Peter

br
Peter

[rinconmike]

Thanks. I Just got the BR. I figured for a few more bucks, get the extra features eventhough I do not need them now.

However, I am wondering if I should have stuck with just the B. Are there issues that the BR has that the B does not or are they reall the same if you are not using the Lan (on B) or the Switch (on BR).

I am also wondering if I am better off with the infrant.

This morning I have been playing with using Acronis True Image and backing up my laptop to the N5200BR and it takes 2.5 hours where backing up to a network drive (Raid 5 ESATA 5 Drive Box) on another computer takes about 1 hour. All devices are hooked to a Netgear Gigabit Switch.

I thought the N5200BR would be as fast. The 5200 also shows only 25% usage during the backup.

thanks again.

[rinconmike]

Well,

Only a day with the machine and I think I am sending it back. I think I am better off sticking a drive (Another ESATA RAID) on an XP Machine and map drives over to them.

thanks for the input,

Mike

[omega]

Hi Mike,

sure it's up to you if the N5200 is sufficient for your needs.

Even though I'm sometimes fighting with the Thecus software the device still does what I basically want.

It's not fair to compare the N5200 with a full blown PC - the PC will ever win! In order to compare two solutions you need to consider price, size, power consumption and usability.

A PC will use more power, is usually bigger and if you consider that the N5200 has 5 hot-pluggable drive bays you need some effort and money to do this on a PC. Not to mention that because of using SATA it is very hard to physically identify a failed disk on a ordinary PC.
And last but not least: there are even more powerful NAS systems available than the N5200 and even a PC solution. It depends only on money.

Don't get me wrong: I don't want to start a senseless discussion about what is better or not and I have no problem at all that you use an ordinary PC instead of a NAS like the Thecus is.

But because from time to time new users are asking wether they should use a SOHO NAS I thought this post might help to clarify some points. And compared to all other NAS systems in that price region with that features the N5200 is currently the fastet one available.

Andreas