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Iomega's Wireless Terabyte NAS
Earlier this year, we reviewed Iomega's compact single drive NAS solution, the May 18, 2006 Iomega took the old StorCenter Pro 200d and put it on a diet. Shedding around 10 lbs. from various corners, the StorCenter 1TB now weighs in at 12.8 lbs. It's also trimmed down substantially around the edges. At 6.8-by-7.4-by-11 inches (hwd), the newer model is about 2 inches shorter in every direction. In place of the REV drive and dual 160GB drives on the 200d, the 1TB sports four 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 PATA hard drives. The new StorCenter also requires less RAM. Swapping Windows Storage Server 2003 for a Linux stack allowed Iomega to reduce the memory from 256MB to just 64MB. A row of LEDs on the front bezel keep users updated on the status of the NAS. A solid blue glow indicates a healthy NAS. Red lights signal trouble.
Network connectivity is provided by a 10/100/1000 auto-sensing Ethernet port and a dual-antenna wireless 802.11g NIC supporting 64-bit and 128-bit WEP, WPA (TKIP or AES), and WPA2 (TKIP and AES) encryption schemes. The gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 ports are located on the back next to the AC plug and power button. For USB support, the StorCenter supports up to two USB printers or up to two FAT or FAT32 formatted external USB hard drives. You can still connect an NTFS-formatted drive, but it'll just have read-only access. You can also download photos directly to the StorCenter from your digital camera. We'll go into more detail about this feature later.
The chassis cover is held in place with three screws on the rear panel. Eight more screws secure the drive cage in place. Each pair of drives shares an IDE cable connection. If you do experience a drive failure within the first year, the disk is covered under warranty. Iomega's recommendation for drive failures is to ship the unit back to have a new one installed. DIY user swaps aren't supported, and Iomega indicated that some IDE drives may not be compatible with the StorCenter. If you're replacing a drive on your own, it's a good idea to use the same model Seagate that the StorCenter ships with from the factory.
A single 80mm rear fan cools the drives and chipset without making a great deal of noise.
The StorCenter supports a few different connectivity options. We tested over wired gigabit Ethernet as well as wireless client and wireless access point mode. All wireless testing was performed at a range of 6 feet with WPA-PSK with TKIP encryption enabled. On the wireless side, users will be taking a severe performance hit when trading their wired gigabit connections for wireless 802.11g. We repeated the wireless tests at 60ft with no walls and experienced an average throughput reduction of about 0.2-0.5MB/sec for reads and writes in both modes. For less demanding applications like streaming music and sharing files, 2MB/sec. throughput may suffice for the casual (and patient) wireless user. If you're looking to support multiple wireless HD video streams, look elsewhere. The current line of 802.11n ("Pre-N") wireless routers and NICs offer "faster than wired" performance, but be aware that backwards and cross-vendor compatibility is not guaranteed. If you're not using Windows, the StorCenter also supports Mac OS X 10.2.7 or higher and the following Linux distros: Red Hat 9, Mandrake 10, Debian 3.0, Gentoo, and Fedora Core 3.
Configuring wireless support requires a bit more input but is still reasonably straightforward. The StorCenter functions in two wireless modes: client and access point. Client mode connects the NAS to your home wireless router as a client as if it were just another PC. In this mode, other machines on the network connect to the StorCenter through a switch or router. Access point mode allows other wireless clients like a laptop to connect directly to the StorCenter. This mode allows an internet connection to be shared through the StorCenter, possibly increasing the range of your wireless network if you space the NAS and the switch far apart.
The browser-based management console provides administration options for user and group accounts, network settings, disk backups, media server (UPnP media streaming) functionality, email status alerts, and more.
With the StorCenter's four 250GB disks, you have the option of JBOD or RAID 0/0+1/5 configurations. With RAID 5, disk capacity is limited to about 750GB. In RAID 0+1 mode, it shrinks to around 500GB.
If you're a digital camera user, you'll find the camera support for the USB ports pretty handy. The StorCenter can be set to automatically download the pictures from your camera to a folder on the NAS of your choosing. The photos are organized into subdirectories based on the date they were downloaded, with each folder named after the download date. Iomega has an extensive list of supported cameras.
If you're looking to preserve your data for the long term, the StorCenter comes with a copy of Iomega Automatic Backup Pro. It lets you schedule backups to the StorCenter or an external USB hard drive. With 802.11g routers and switches as ubiquitous and inexpensive as they are, we're not completely sold on the StorCenter's built-in wireless support. For light file sharing duty, it's just fine. But for high volume data transfer and video streaming, you're better off with 802.11n technology or trusty wired gigabit Ethernet. In the speed department, the TeraStation has a leg up with much faster throughput performance. It also has two more USB ports, DLNA media server support, and is slightly quieter.
On the other hand, if you don't have a wireless network or would like to upgrade an existing infrastructure to 802.11g with WEP, WPA or WPA2 level security, the StorCenter kills two birds as both a storage server and encrypted wireless access point. For shutterbugs, the extensive digital camera support makes downloading photos on the NAS quick and easy.
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