Readynas vs Synology

[Dominick]

Hi,

I am new to the entire nas idea,
But since we're working on several computers and we pay a lot of money every month to dropbox to keep our data synced somebody suggested me to get a nas.
So I compared the nas out there and found out that the best choices were readynas, qnap and synology. Since qnap and synology are pretty much the same and the interface of synology is better I crossed off qnap.

Which leaves me with the choice: readynas and synology.

Synology offers a interface demo on their website to try their web interface but I couldn't find this for readynas,
And for the video's i've seen on youtube, where the readynas has a blueisch interface, It didn't seem very user friendly to me.

So I was wondering if there are more users worrying about the same and maybe some can offer me advice?

[mdgm]

You can see a simulation of the x86 (Ultra/Pro) web-admin interface here: https://frontview.readynas.com

The discontinued Duo/NV+ (v1) web-admin interface is similar to the x86 interface.

The new Duo/NV+ v2 interface is shown in the software manual: http://www.readynas.com/docs

Note that the Duo/NV+ v2 is ARM. You cannot migrate to ARM from Sparc (Duo/NV+ v1) or x86.

Here's how to tell the difference between the Duo/NV+ (v1) and the v2: How to tell whether I have a Duo v1 or Duo v2 or NV+ v1 or NV+ v2

[Dominick]

Thank you,
What is your opinion about the interface?

[mdgm]

The Sparc/x86 interface is functional and gets the job done. Most users should rarely need to use the web-interface of their units.

The Duo/NV+ v2 interface is good and with 5.3.5 (currently in beta) we're seeing much demanded features being added.

The new UI is expected to come to x86 (I don't know whether it'll come to existing products or just to new ones) but there is no ETA at this time.

[PapaBear]

Dominick - keep in mind that the Frontview interface to RAIDiator is roughly akin to a merger of your BIOS and Control Panel on your Windows PC. You go into it to set things up and once set up, unless there are problems you normally don't need to go into it very often. When I got my old NV+ set up some 5 years ago, it was actually years before I had to go into it again.

If you are on a Windows PC, most of your interaction with the files on the machine on a regular/daily basis will be through either Windows Explorer or Computer. The ReadyNAS will show up in the network section of the listing and each share (first level folders) will show up under the NAS name when you click on the arrow and you can then expand the folder listing all the way down and see the listing of files the same way you can with a computer drive. In fact, you can also map a share to a drive letter and access the files directly with PC applications. In fact, all of my files are on the NAS with no significant data on any of my PC's. This allows me to access any of my files from any PC.

The section of Frontview most of us use the most is the status area to either check the health of a drive by checking the smart stats of a drive (takes 2 clicks to get to the drive listing and one more for the SMART stats of any drive) or checking the log file under status (again two clicks - status and then on logs). A detailed download of all logs only takes 3 clicks, so it is not a real problem.

[boogerme]

The other thing to consider is that the Synology units have more features over the Readynas.

For example the Synology has an email server built in where the readynas doesnt.

Not all versions of the readynas support ftp whereas all (i think) of the Synology units do.

[mdgm]

The other thing to consider is that the Synology units have more features over the Readynas.

For example the Synology has an email server built in where the readynas doesn't.

More features needing to be maintained doesn't necessarily make it better. The ReadyNAS maintains a good balance between having lots of features and maintaining features well.

Not all versions of the readynas support ftp whereas all (i think) of the Synology units do.

As of 5.3.5 for ARM (currently in public beta) all ReadyNAS models have FTP.