A.C.Ryan AluBoxDuo LAN NDAS Conclusion
Conclusion
Although one may think that the ACRyan AluBoxDuo LAN is yet another NAS at first glance, it has proven to be an extremely interesting device. In terms of performance, the unit does admirably well when connected via USB, even beating the Scythe Kama Connect during the read test. Unfortunately, the network connection on the unit is only capable of 10/100 Fast Ethernet and so the bottleneck lies not in the drives or Ximeta controller but the network link. Understandably, the target market for this product would more than likely be using normal home routers with 10/ 100 switches built-in rather than gigabit ethernet links. That said, the software from Ximeta was very simple to use and adding the NDAS device was a piece of cake. Furthermore, there are further options such as running RAID across NDAS devices that we have been unable to test as we only had one unit with us.
If you have a high performance Gigabit ethernet network or have to know-how to setup more complex NAS units, you might wish to look at other offerings. On the other hand, if you never had to lay a hand in setting up your home network or have friends and relatives looking to get more storage this Christmas season, you might want to consider the AluBoxDuo LAN. Afterall, it's the festive season and we ought to be spending time swapping gifts and celebrating rather than pulling our hairs trying to setup a NAS.
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