Last Sunday I purchased a Linksys NAS200 network attached storage (NAS) device and two Western Digital 500GB SATA drives hoping to solve my problem with backups and provide a shared storage solution for my home network. After a precursory examination of five NAS devices, I chose the Linksys NAS200 based upon its feature set, price, and the reputation of its predecessor, the Linksys NSLU2. The NAS200 boasts features such as:

• Ethernet connected storage.
• Dual SATA hard drive bays.
• Two USB 2.0 ports for extra storage.
• Internet FTP and HTTP access.
• Built-in media server.
• RAID 1 and 0 disk configuration.

Before buying this device I had been leaning heavily towards the D-Link DNS-323, but hoping the Linksys NAS200 would arrive on the market in time for my purchase. I mentioned previously that it was out of my character to buy bleeding edge hardware and I have to admit that I was a little nervous that the device would not work out of the box on my network. As a Linux user, I don’t think I’ll ever get over the anxiousness of buying new hardware.

The device was packaged well. The box pictured was merely a container for the much sturdier packaging material that housed the NAS200, a Quick Installation guide, CDROM, network cable, power supply, and some promotional material. I glanced briefly at the contents before proceeding to unhinge the plastic doors housing the NAS200’s drive bays. The doors were a little hard to open single-handed. Plastic clips found on either side of the doors must be pinched simultaneously to expose the bays.

Peering within the first bay, I was puzzled by the length of “ribbon” found inside. Not knowing what this was for, I consulted the manual located on the CD. To my surprise, the manual did not provide directions for hard drive installation. Printed on the edge of the ribbon was the word “Pull”. My wife giggled as she often does when she figures something out before me. The ribbons’ purpose is to aid in hard drive removal. Pulling the ribbon will eject the drive from its controller. Later, in the Quick Installation guide, I found a screenshot of the Setup Wizard depicting the ribbons proper use. Her assumption was correct. Reading the guide now, I’m impressed by the clarity of the screenshots found within. They are small, but readable.

With the drives installed, I placed the NAS200 on the shelf that was to become its new home. I then attached the device to my router with the provided Ethernet cable. You’ll need a longer cable if you plan on storing the device more than three feet from your router. I plugged in the AC adapter and turned on the device by pressing a small button located on the back panel near the AC input. The NAS200 chirped loudly signaling it had been turned on. The device’s internal speaker is loud and its tone is similar to that of a smoke detector. Some lights on the front of the device began blinking and the two that looked like disc platters lit up. At last I could turn on my computer.

Like the NAS200’s packaging, the CDROM was neatly branded. I didn’t have high hopes for running the Setup Wizard, but I did give it the college try. From the command line, I navigated to the CD and typed “wine Setup.exe” and cringed as several error messages appeared in my terminal. I didn’t bother going any further with this. Knowing the NAS200 would be assigned an IP address via DHCP from my router, I launched Firefox and navigated to http://192.168.1.102. I felt a small measure of relief watching the NAS200’s administrative page load within my browser. This feeling was soon found fleeting as I attempted to log in. The default username and password listed in the manual did not work. A few curses later, I remembered the default login (admin / admin) used by my Linksys router and gave that a try. It worked.

Feeling elated, I navigated through the remaining administration within minutes. I first chose “Firmware Upgrade” from the list of options. I was slightly disappointed when clicking “Check for Upgrade” opened a new browser window and directed me to the Linksys.com website. In the days of Web 2.0 you shouldn’t have to search for firmware updates and install them manually. Updates should download and install with one click. I found the NAS200 on Linksys’ website, but at the time of this writing no firmware updates had been published. Screenshots of the Linksys NAS200’s administration interface can be found below:

1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10

Formatting the hard drives took little time. The “Disk Utility” section contained a set of simple controls for both drive formatting and the running and scheduling of Scandisk. I had prepared myself to wait at least a half hour for the formatting of two 500GB SATA drives, but only sat and watched the progress bar for about 5 minutes. Likewise, the “Disk Configuration” menu was also simple and configuring my device for RAID 1 mirroring was as easy as clicking a radio button. Soon after, my 1TB of raw storage became 465.29GB of mirrored drive space.

Once the drives were configured, I quickly changed the admin password and set a disk quota for guest users. Under “System Options”, I gave the device a more suitable name and assigned it a static IP address. I then created user accounts for myself and my wife. When creating user accounts, access to the device’s Download Manager can be set. I don’t remember reading about this feature within the product’s description before purchasing it. Not that I’m complaining, because the functionality is pretty cool. Basically it acts as an autonomous downloader. You provide the URLs, and it does the work. This single feature could end up saving money on my electric bill as I oftentimes leave my computer running all night to download large files. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I feel confident in saying that the Linksys NAS200 draws less power than my desktop PC.

To complete the installation I did a quick training session with my wife. She now knows to click Places -> Network within Gnome to find our network devices. Double-clicking “Thorbardin” (Yes, I was a Dungeon Master) displays her private folder and the public share entitled, “PUBLIC DISK”. Not being particularly fond of screaming caps, I tried to rename the folder, but was prompted with the following error message.

Unlike some other NAS devices, the Linksys NAS200 is quiet. I have to be standing within a foot of the device to hear any noise. The noise that does emanate from its internal fan is not of the jet engine variety. The fan within the NAS200 emits a low-pitched whir. I’m still quite impressed by this as my second story apartment is extremely hot. Its probably a good thing that the device has an operating temperature of 41 to 104ºF (5 to 40ºC). The surface of the NAS200 is not cool to the touch, but it is not particularly hot either. I can faintly feel air being pushed by the fan through the tiny holes dotting all sides of the device. That is a good sign.

I certainly feel more comfortable now that I have the Linksys NAS200 integrated into my backup strategy. With the NAS200 configured as RAID 1, I’ve all but eliminated the potential for single disk failure. My wife and I are already benefiting from the advantages of having a networked storage solution. We can finally share family pictures without the hassle of peer-to-peer file sharing between our computers. The NAS200’s product packaging and administration controls are both well designed and the device itself appears of exceptional quality. Any anxiety I had about the device communicating on my home network was unjustified. It works well with Linux and will undoubtedly perform just as well with Windows.

Compiling historical family data is not easy. Luckily, my wife has taken the job. This summer, she has been attempting to piece together our ancestry from a variety of sources. Ancestry.com has provided valuable census records which have been useful in tracking the migration of both of our families across the Unites States since the late 18th century. Relatives on either side have donated old memorabilia including pictures, letters, and diaries that have been an enormous help in tracing birth and death dates. These dates have been the single most important clue in searching the census records provided by Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, Ancestry’s transcribed data contains numerous misspellings that has made our quest harder than it should be.

Earlier this year I learned of the website, Geni.com, from the net@nite podcast provided by the TWiT network. Geni has proved a useful tool for recording genealogy data. The site itself is very well designed. It uses Flash as its backbone to provide a user-friendly means for adding and updating family records. Without even registering, users can immediately get to work by adding relatives to a dynamic family tree. The tree can easily be navigated with the click and drag of a mouse. Throughout the past six months, Geni has been adding new features at break-neck speed. None of which has caused the website any serious downtime. Not too bad for a Beta release.

The backups kick that I’ve been on lately prompted me to have a long conversation with my wife as to how we’re going to store our data for future generations. Will a SATA hard drive formatted in an arcane file system even be readable in 100 years? Will Geni.com exist? I doubt it. As our forefathers, my wife and I have begun to record our history on a media that has proven timeless, paper. To our benefit, Geni provides a data export service. This service allows data to be exported in two versions of the Genealogical Data Communication (GEDCOM) file format. Version 6.0 happens to use XML as its format. Reading this, my imagination immediately entertained several geek fantasies involving data migrations, SVG, and… JSON? My wife quickly squelched these dreams by reminding me of her pressing deadline.

I did, however, harbor the notion of converting the raw GEDCOM XML into DOT scripts so I could then use Graphviz to render some intricate graphs of my lineage. A quick test proved this possible, but manipulating the graphs would have taken too much time. Searching Google for Linux genealogy software yielded a handy program called GRAMPS. With little effort, I was able to import a GEDCOM file from Geni and begin testing GRAMPS’ reporting tools. Generating text reports was easy, but the graphing functionality in GRAMPS provided less than desirable results. With some time, I’ll master this new program and create a suitable low-tech solution for archiving the family tree.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. To recap – a NAS device would provide me a better backup solution with the added benefit of a shared storage location on my home network. Given the criteria that I previously listed and a little bit of research, I purchased a Linksys NAS200 and a pair of 500GB SATA drives for a total of $350.18. This is about $150 under my $500 budget constraint.

Before my purchase I had been leaning towards the D-Link DNS-323, but secretly hoping the Linksys NAS200 would arrive in time. Sometimes it pays to wait. I don’t usually purchase hardware that is so new on the market, but a couple of factors persuaded me to make my decision. The Linksys NAS200 retails for about $40 less than the D-Link DNS-323 and packs quite a few more features. This combined with the NSLU2’s success and my overall good luck with Linksys hardware helped seal the deal. Since my home network runs entirely on Linux, I wanted a device that would work well in this environment. I’m not suggesting that I won’t run into problems, but with the NSLU2’s reputation I feel a little less worried. I’ll be sure to follow up with a full review once my new hardware arrives. To be continued…

UPDATE: My final review of the Linksys NAS200 has been posted.

Lately I’ve become paranoid about my home backup strategy. I’ve realized that burning CDs/DVDs just doesn’t cut it. Not only are compact discs a lousy medium, but I’m not diligent enough to make the backups. Even when I do make backups, they tend to get lost in my house – oftentimes ending up as the coaster of a frosty mug. A Network Attached Storage (NAS) device would give me centralized backups with the added benefit of a shared storage location on my home network.

I’ve been researching NAS solutions to adequately CMA. I’ve narrowed my search down to five choices. Each of the devices will work for my needs, but they all come with their own baggage. My list of must have features along with the five devices and my perceptions of each can be found below.

Must have features:

1. Ethernet connected storage.
2. RAID 1 mirroring.
3. Less than $500 total price.
4. 1TB (500GB mirrored) of drive space.
5. Works in a mixed environment.

My choices:

1. D-Link DNS-323
   Pros
   • Good user reviews on CNet.com.
   • Scalable.
   • Fast write speed.
   Cons
   • Looks like my toaster.
   • Price. With 2 500GB SATA drives this comes close to my $500 limit.
2. Linksys NAS200
   Pros
   • The NSLU2 was a success.
   • Inexpensive. Amazon.com is selling the unit at a preorder rate of $129.99 (drives not included).
   • Scalable.
   Cons
   • Yet another ugly device.
   • Not yet released.
3. Maxtor Shared Storage II
   Pros
   • Nice design.
   • Quiet.
   Cons
   • Average price. I found this retailing for $429.99. at JR.com.
   • Bad user reviews on Amazon.com.
   • Reviews suggest that the internal drives cannot be replaced.
4. NetGear SC101
   Pros
   • Inexpensive. Retails at TigerDirect.com for $74.99 (drives not included).
   • Scalable.
   Cons
   • IDE drives only.
   • Toasteresque design.
   • According to user reviews, this device may not work in a mixed environment.
5. Western Digital My Book World Edition II
   Pros
   • Price. I found the 1TB device for $356.99 at JR.com.
   • The best looking device. It reminds me of an Apple product.
   Cons
   • Horrible user reviews on both Amazon.com and CNet.com.
   • Supposedly has a very noisy fan.
   • Reviews suggest slow write speeds.

In the midst of writing this article, I ran across a detailed comparison of NAS performance specs. I’ll definitely be reviewing this information before making my final decision. I’m also open to suggestions as long as they fit within my list of must have features.

UPDATE: My final review of the Linksys NAS200 has been posted.