Probably the worst hardware/software system I have had the misfortune to own.
It seems like a good idea: 1/2 Terabyte of backup, expandable upwards, software RAID, clean looking hardware, pretty box, a friend’s recommendation. Yes, it’s a bit pricy, but OK, quality is worth it in archives.
I’m not too picky am I?
1. The default user name and password is “admin”, “netgear1″. Not “admin”, “infrant1″ as stated in the printed and online manuals, online website, etc. Oddly, the default guest name and password is “guest”, “infrant1″.
2. The NAS box cannot just connect directly to a computer as it states in the manual. Put it on a network with a DHCP server.
3. The adapter into Windows Explorer isn’t bright. It doesn’t refresh when the drive contents change. This means you rename a directory and wonder why it doesn’t change. Hit ‘Refresh’ to work around it.
4. Administer the system from a web based interface that comes up in Internet Explorer regardless of your default browser. Unfortunately, it seems to assume a physical size not found on laptops or any standard PC shipping before 2012. Important information will run of the visible pane and there are no scroll bars.
5. Starting the administration applet immediately dumps any other active connections, such as back-ups in progress. Delete and start over.
6. By immediately dumping, I mean without releasing locks. You cannot just start over. Reboot the NAS.
7. Wait about 4 minutes for it to come up. It’s idea of a ‘quiet fan’ is not a mortal’s view of a ‘quiet fan’. Fight off the headache.
8. No problem, log onto the web site and contact tech support. Actually, you cannot. There are some JavaScript errors that do not allow you to contact tech support. Odd links will take you around in circles until you figure this out.
9. Download the Linux Driver from the website. Try to run it. Get “arith: syntax error: ‘i+1′”. Start debugging their install scripts.
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I could go on, but why? We are stuck with this equipment now. I don’t want to go dealing with a 30% restocking charge. I hope it doesn’t cause cancer.
7 comments ↓
Eww.
And I was thinking one of those would be a nice replacement when my home fileserver gets old.
1. So you got the old user guide paper documentation. The new user guide pdf online has the correct info, and new manufactured systems have correct papers.
2. Yes it can, it will by default use 192.168.168.168 until manually changed.
3. Seems to be an isolated problem, works fine for others.
4. The whole page fits in 1090×805 range. So if your laptop (for a few years now) ran 1440×900, you would have no problems, unless you have a bunch of toolbars taking up screen space.
5. Another thing that is isolated to you. Maybe ask for help, if you can are even willing though.
6. See #5.
7. On average it is 2 minutes.
8. Have you tried the support forums, not the netgear site? You’d have better luck there.
9. Which Linux driver? There are no Linux drivers for it.
If you are so unhappy with it, sell it on eBay/craigslist/etc instead of complaining.
Hello Derek.
1. So you are saying they fixed it. There was no paper copy of the old user guide; the soft copy was wrong.
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I could just respond to each of these, but generally, you are just wrong. Yes you like it. No it didn’t work.
Hmm, sorry you’ve had such a rough go. Besides telling me I’ve got a drive actively failing by sending me an email each morning that further sectors are marked bad, and a few issues during the months between handoff from Infrant to Netgear, I’ve got no complaints here.
on #4 – I use firefox with no issues.
#5 – not if you are using Retrospect for backups, which comes with (complicated software by the way – everything is named using terms that sound amazingly the same “Devices, Clients, Backup Sets, Volumes, Selectors, Catalogs, Snapshots” – maybe it is just me but the terms are not clearly defined anywhere so it all just runs together.)
#7 – Quiet – more quiet than the pc on the desk next to me. Runs between 36 and 50db (see http://www.barrys-rigs-n-reviews.com/reviews/2007/hardware/nvplus/nvplus6.htm)
Love your response – perhaps your terse answer and lack of patience with technology marks you as not a true Geek but a typical consumer.
Blog on grumpy guy!
Hi Scott.
I probably will pull this out of the storage pile and plug it back in. It’s been six months and maybe software will fix parts of it.
#4 – I hope Firefox works with it now. The issue had been the admin software would launch the browser, control it resolution, and do a bad job. Really, there is now excuse for specifically disabling scroll bars and then blowing the screen real estate.
#5 – I could track this down. It seems like the type of problem that an update would fix.
#7 – You have a loud PC? On your desk? Why?
The issue isn’t about a typical consumer versus a geek. It’s recognizing landfill. I can write a networking stack from scratch; the software shipped with the NAS was still unworkable.
Have a great day!
I own one of these and I have to agree. For what I paid it’s pure junk. Lousy documentation, flaky firmware and little help on their forum. I tried the forum over a problem I’m having and you could hear the crickets chirp. So I turned to the official support site.
I’m having trouble with file transfers to the NV+ from my OpenSuse box. Ran wireshark as support asked and I’m getting TONS of tcp checksum errors. Support says I have to check with another PC so I drag an old box out, install OpenSuse 11.1 and, after a lot of time and hassle, I find transfers are doing the same thing from that box as well. It has a completely different Gigabit NIC so they can’t blame my equipment now. They still want me to do a direct connection to the PC. Reasonable, I guess…it could me my gigabit switch, right???? Not likely. I’m praying it’s a firmware issue or I’ll have to pay a fortune to send it back to them for RMA. Even then what about my data??? And what if they just send it back? I’ve had companies do that before.
When I was looking into this I threw around the idea of building my own, God knows, for the money I could have had a pretty sweet little NAS. But I like the very small power consumption on this. How I wish now that I had just built my own.
Here’s an update to my last message.
Direct connection to the NAS came up with the same problem. Tech support says it’s a bad NIC then and RMA it. I get to keep my drives; they just want the chassis. I paid them 20 US for an advance RMA which is quite reasonable really, especially since they sent it air when it was supposed to be ground. Here’s where the fun starts, though.
I get the RMA unit and it’s an old one. Older than the one I own. You can tell by the serial number. It’s probably refurbished as there are marks on the case. Whatever, I don’t care as long as it works, right. I install my drives, do a factory reset and install the latest firmware. I start to transfer my data to it and…I’ll bet you can guess what happens next. That’s right! Same problem. I run Wireshark again and it shows copious amounts of TCP checksum errors while moving files up to this paperweight.
I e-mail tech support right away and tell them that it does the same thing and that if they can’t fix it, and I don’t have faith that they can, then I want my money back. That was 4 days ago. I have yet to hear anything from them. I believe this is the part where they stonewall the customer. Anyway, I’ve contacted my CC company to see if they can help and they can’t. I just sent an e-mail to the retailer I bought this junk off of and am awaiting their reply. I don’t have much faith that they will be able to do anything. At this point I believe I’m going to end up with a 1500 buck brick sitting in the closet collecting dust.
Charles you’re right. It IS landfill!
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