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New MvixBOX NAS Dishes Out 2TB of Web-Enabled Media Streaming

Paul Lilly — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:30:29 -0500

Mvix just released its MvixBOX WDN-2000, the newest NAS in the company's lineup. The two-bay device supports SATA drives up to 1.5TB (not included), or host up to 2TB in combined storage. The dual-drive setup can be configured in a mirrored RAID array, and both front and rear USB 2.0 ports ups the potential storage ante even further. But that's just the beginning.

A gigabit Ethernet port makes easy work out of streaming oodles of files, including high definition video, through your home network, and the device also serves as an RSS client, BitTorrent client, iTunes music server, or uPnP media server, along with file encryption for local ore remote access via FTP or HTTP. Still yet, the MvixBOX comes pre-configured with Apache, MySQL, SQlife, and PHP modules.

The MvixBOX is available now for $300 sans hard drive.

How To: Build A NAS Box

Michael Brown — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0500

A network-attached storage (NAS) device is the Robin to a LAN’s Batman. The two should be inseparable, and for good reason. A NAS box gives you a guaranteed way to store all of your files and stream your media. Running a NAS box also means that you don’t have to boot your power-leeching desktop rig every time you want to access your files from another device.

But you don’t have to go out and purchase a NAS device. You can build a superior alternative using spare parts left over after upgrading your PC.

Guess what? We'll show you how after the jump.

Shiny! Gaze Upon Our Maxtor Central Axis NAS Unboxing Photos

Norman Chan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:15:58 -0500

We just received a retail sample of Maxtor's recently announced Central Axis Network storage server sent to the office, and wanted to share with you some photos of the packaging and physical unit. The monolithic storage device sports a familiar-looking enclosure design with single USB (as opposed to two, as listed on the official website), Ethernet, and AC power connectors on the back. Replacing a "one-touch" backup button on the front are three lights to indicate power, hard disk activity, and drive status. We also found a reset button on the base of the unit. The terabyte drive spins at 7200rpm, sports 32Mb of buffer cache, and weighs in at just over a pound and a half.

The Central Axis goes on sale later this month for $290, and keep an eye out for our full review later.

Click through the jump for more sexy unboxing goodness.

HP Media Vault mv2010

David Murphy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:00:10 -0500

HP’s Media Vault is like a clumsy, fat version of HP’s star-quarterbacking, marathon-running, leather-jacket-wearing MediaSmart Home Server. And that’s saying something, considering the MediaSmart EX475 is something of a middling performer. We can’t fault HP for trying to make a cheaper, simpler alternative to the Windows Home Server-based MediaSmart, but we’re certainly ready to take the company to task for releasing a product that doesn’t work as advertised.

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Buffalo TeraStation Live

David Murphy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:30:30 -0600

Our little hearts were ablaze with excitement when we busted open the chunky Buffalo TeraStation Live. And with good reason; on paper, the four-drive NAS device looked like it was going to be an easy winner–its two terabytes of total storage in a RAID-5 configuration made us smile.

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Windows Home Server

Will Smith — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:48:56 -0600

We’ve long encouraged our readers to embrace the power of a dedicated home server—we love the flexibility an always-on rig provides to host media, important documents, and other vital data. But, it’s not a simple proposition—XP isn’t particularly well suited to server duties, and setting up and maintaining Linux can be a challenge. That’s where Windows Home Server steps in.

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Linksys WRT350N

Michael Brown — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:55:05 -0600

You can never have too much speed or too much storage, and the Linksys WRT350N makes it easy to have both. This router took first place while running in 802.11n-only mode and second place while running in mixed 802.11b/g/n mode. And its Storage Link feature enables you to plug in any USB storage device to add NAS functionality—the only router in this roundup to offer such a feature.

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QNAP TS-109 Pro

David Murphy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:54:32 -0600

We’ll get the bad news out of the way first. QNAP’s TS-109 Pro NAS device is more an enclosure than a NAS box–the storage part of the equation is BYO. Thankfully, NAS devices’ speeds are primarily determined by the connection and the interface of the device itself–purchase a decent hard drive, you’ll be sticking it into one of the fastest NAS boxes we’ve tested.

Click Read More for more.