LG N2B1D 2 Bay Blu-ray Network Attached Storage Enclosure

I wasted so much time trying to get this item to work. I had a selection of harddrives - all of which weren't recognised by the unit - so I sent it back to LG support for replacement. They informed me the unit was fine and returned it to me. They then told me about a 'compatible hard drive list' that I apparently should have checked first (and yet is nowhere to be seen). It's not on their website, not on amazon where I bought the product - in fact, they forwarded on a list in an email with about 10 hard drives on it. Ridiculous incompatibility.

I have a few hard drives around, including the most popular drives from Samsung, Western Digital and Hitachi and none of these were compatible.

LG support then didn't want to know, and told me I'd need to write to their customer service manager (snail mail only, that's customer service for you) to take this further.

I just don't have time for things that don't work out of the box - this is the second time a LG unit has suffered from incompatibility - and so will never buy an LG product again.

What's more, Im on a mac - so I'm dismayed to see the other review saying that even if I HAD managed to get the unit going, it wouldn't have worked for me, even though all descriptions of this item state osx compatible.

This review is for the 2Tb version with a Blu-ray rewriter.

I had some experience of setting up and using file servers when coming to this one and so will base my review on what I found novel and useful about this one.

Setup was straightforward, involving connecting to my ASDL router and pressing the power button. From there, after the initial blaze of fan noise, it settled down to a volume that is hardly audible even in my lounge, very impressive. By contrast, the Buffalo 2.0TB LinkStation Pro Duo Network Attached Shared Storage is constantly noisy, having some problem with vibration internally: it emits a constant rattling noise except when touched.

Of course, the current product is now far cheaper than the Buffalo, so I guess you don't get what you pay for. It is far bulkier, at least twice as large.

After starting I queried my router for the N2B1's IP address and went straight to its web configuration page. The enclosed CD also includes software to detect this IP address, but a BT router will give you that information anyway.

My first operation was to change the default admin password and configure the disks as Raid1, which means that each file is duplicated on both drives, so if one fails you retain a copy on the other. This took only a few minutes.

Then I set up working areas for each user and a few public shared areas. You add each user, then add a share for each user, giving that user read/write access and everyone else no access. The public areas allow shared read/write access, or read only access for most users, or any combination. As the access is via Unix/Linux users and groups the mechanism will be familiar to anyone who works in IT. Non-technical users will be happy to work on a user-by-user basis at first until they feel happy to use groups too.

You will probably have gathered by now that this is a Linux box. There is no telnet/ssh access, but FTP is easy to set up. As well as handling all your files, the N2B1 will act as a print server so that you get network access to one printer for all users. It is also a media server and in particular will show up in iTunes. It should interface well with network media players too, also network photo frames. Examples are the Western Digital Live 1080p Internet Media Streamer Television and Kodak W1020 WiFi Photo Frame. (The latter would not work with it!)

As a fileserver, there are two main ways to use this on a PC. (Linux and Mac users can also use it.) First, it will appear in your Network Neighbourhood and all shared folders will appear as subfolders below it. Of course, most of them you will not have access to. The easiest way to access those you have read/write access to is make sure you input the same username and password into the N2B1 as you use on your PC. (This requires you to use/set a password of at least 6 characters on your PC, but I assume you already do?)

The second way is to map network drive letters to all shares or share sub-folders you frequently need to access. It is then as if these are on your PC while you are on this network.

Finally, decide whether you want to work directly on files on the N2B1 or on copies on your hard disk which you regularly backup to the fileserver. The former suits a small business network with shared files and data whereas if you work on the move the latter might be preferable. You even get a blu-ray writer to take copies of sensitive data with. (And leave on trains, in taxis, etc!)

There is a utility on the web interface called Ajaxplorer which lets you browse around the network filesystem of each share. Unlike another reviewer, I have had no difficulty with this, it runs flawlessly.

As for your shared printer(s) it is no different to adding any other printer: just specify networked rather than local. Despite what another reviewer has written, I have had no difficulty whatsoever cancelling print jobs in the usual way.

Oh and the question you are probably asking is can you put a Video DVD in the drive and play it over the network? Yes, provided it isn't encrypted!

In short, after such a long review, you have here a brilliant machine for running a small office or retaining copies of files such as photos and videos that you want to safely preserve. Just decide the investment is worth it and go for it. I like the look of the Buffalo more, but this box is quiet, upgradeable and also has that blu-ray writer, plus is currently half the price.

EDIT: Six months on and faultless! I would prefer to have ssh or telnet access too, but that is a small gripe.

had this for a year now and working well with my 2x 2TB HDD raid so works out i have 1.8TB of storage not even filled 1TB yet now android app is good and able to use al the features as clients can log on to get odd bits of data if required

Public linking items from the nas has always been good if you have wanted to sent a secure link to some data

Works well with win7 as i can back up all computer in the house and restore them via the FTP server same with MAC

Its not as fast as most on the market but dose the job can back up 50gb of data with in 15mins on gigabit network some times faster depends on what i am doing at the time

DLNA Server i can view films photos and listen to music stored on my nas with my sony system ps3 or smartphone well any thing else that will read from a DLNA server

Back my phone up from an FTP program so never lose any thing and the good thing it a drive dies i can replace it and not lose any data as its set as raid 1 and if the NAS dies i can just restore using Linux or simply insert my memory card and hit backup on the LCD Screen and all done in seconds and can sort through the data on the nas at a later time

I use the blu-ray burner with ISCSI so i can burn with nero or turn it of and back up a disc to iso format using the NAS its self

And so far its probably one of the best NAS systems i have used other-than readynas with RAM upgrades if only could do that with my LG but it is still just as fast