Linksys WRT54GS<\/a>, which I quickly paired with the TS-I300W, even with WPA.<\/p>\nData Management and Security<\/b><\/p>\n
Much of the TS-I300W’s interface is straightforward, but there are also several feature descriptions and menu options that are confusing to say the least. Unfortunately, a poorly written (or more likely, translated) manual doesn’t do much to help matters.<\/p>\n
When you run the TS-I300W in its default \u201copen\u201d mode, unrestricted drive access is offered to all comers. You can also opt to create up to 50 user accounts on the device, but you can’t create groups or import existing user data from Active Directory or an NT Domain. Interestingly, the TS-I300W requires the use of a password with any user account you set up, and it also enforces that that it be at least five characters in length.<\/p>\n
The aforementioned folder management and security problems clearly become evident: there’s no way to set up new folders from within the TS-I300W’s interface. Rather, you must instead create them from your computer (e.g. Network Places in Windows) and within the device’s root folder. You can then assign rights to each folder you’ve created by using an \u201cAdd Session\u201d feature (\u201csession\u201d seems like odd terminology \u2014 told you it was confusing; see image below). This creates an independent network share for the new folder– one that will prompt for credentials when access is attempted. You can define a user’s access to a folder as read only or read\/write, but you can’t add more than one specific user to a folder \u2014 it’s either a single user, or everyone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The upshot of all of this is that since the TS-I300W’s root folder is a default public share and any folders you create are located there, all your folders are always available without restrictions by drilling down through the public share (as opposed to using the individual folder shares). I tried to close this back door by removing the \u201csession\u201d that defines the root public share, but the TS-I300W wouldn’t allow it. Even if it did, it would eliminate the capability to create any more folders, since the public share would no longer be accessible. When pointed out to TRENDnet, it acknowledged the problem and said it would be addressed in a future firmware update (my test unit used version 1.10.0619) Until that happens (no time frame was given), the TS-I300W isn’t the place for any data you want to keep private.<\/p>\n
Additional Features<\/b><\/p>\n
In spite of the security woes, the TS-I300W includes a couple of potentially useful features you won’t find in most NAS products. One is a built-in FTP server that you can use to get remote access to your files (or grant it to others). You can put limits on the number of concurrent users as well as how fast they can download data (in increments of 10Kb per second) to help prevent too much of a drain on your upstream bandwidth.<\/p>\n
If you’re the type that downloads large files from the Web on a regular basis, you may\u00a0 appreciate the TS-I300W’s download scheduling feature (below), which lets you set up file downloads (either FTP or HTTP) so they can take place unattended.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Even if you don’t need security and are inclined to overlook the product’s shortcomings in that and other areas, a TRENDnet IS-I300W probably makes sense only when you really, REALLY want either the wireless, FTP, or download scheduling features or you’ve already got an idle hard drive available. As it turns out, there seems to be little to no money to be saved when buying a hard drive to pair with the TS-I300W \u2014 in an informal search of online vendors I found that in most cases the cost of a TS-I300W plus an internal hard drive was about the same as what you’d pay for a ready made NAS of the same capacity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Model<\/b>: TS-I300W
\nPrice<\/b>: $199 (MSRP)
\nPros<\/b>: Includes FTP server and automated download function
\nCons<\/b>: Limited user\/folder management and flawed security feature; only supports single drive; may have problems connecting to some wireless routers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Article courtesy of Wi-Fi Planet.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Author: Joe Moran Review Date: 1\/2\/2007 It’s no secret that a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device can be a quick and easy way to add sharable storage to a network. If you’re in the market for a NAS device there are myriad ready-to-use products to choose from, but those who prefer to roll their own NAS can consider a device like the\u00a0TRENDnet TS-I300W Wireless Network Attached Storage Enclosure, a $199 (MSRP) drive enclosure to which\u00a0you\u00a0add your own hard drive. What’s That Term? Not sure what a particular term means? Check out the searchable\u00a0PracticallyNetworked Glossary. There are a couple of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n