Pros: Easy to setup and update, free apps to add VPN and other functionality. Great automated maintenance functions like SCRUB, DEFRAG, and HDD TEST. Active Directory support to tie into an existing domain forest. Email notification for backup status, virus detection, and more. Small and easy to store anywhere.

Cons: Transfer rates are not sustainable across the SMB protocol that windows uses, especially with nested file systems. Normal read and write performance can go between 50~30MB/s for large single structured files, but when you get a nested filesystem with multiple clients reading from it performance drags down 3~0.256MB/s. Behavior shows up as longer load times in windows explorer to display the files, slower opening of files, and lag when working on documents, excel sheets, or power point documents. Suspect the ARM core processor and memory limitations or perhaps just a fact of life when mixing a Linux NAS with a windows network...Oddly enough the FTP protocol can sustain read and write of 30~20MB/s with the same file structure though

Other Thoughts: Believe netgear released a dual core version of this same unit with extra memory, might be worth a try but for now I'll just build my own NAS systems :(

Manufacturer Response:

Hello Nicholas,

Please join us on the ReadyNAS forums. We have experts that can work directly with you if you open up a topic.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS/ct-p/readynas?

Also please remember that you can always email us at netgearteam@netgear.com when you are having trouble. Just include a description of the problem and anything else you think is useful.

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: This unit is inexpensive, holds four drives of your choice (almost, read cons section), uses very little power, is easy to configure, and generally just works. It doesn't make a lot of noise and it isn't bright or otherwise obtrusive. Good entry level NAS, particularly for those whose needs begin and end at basic file serving.

Cons: This unit is terribly slow. When you start trying to add cloud backup, media servers, performance monitoring, etc. the unit really begins to show its weaknesses. It never struggles to saturate a gigabit LAN connection for basic file serving, but it takes FOREVER to do anything complex. The disk compatibility is limited, as Netgear only tests the most popular disks. If you have old stuff laying around that you want to use with this NAS, good luck. I found that using old drives caused the OS to freeze in an unrecoverable way because the drive took longer to respond than the OS/RAID was willing to accept. It assumed since the response was slow that the disk was unavailable, broken, or generally unresponsive. A moment later the disk was ready for I/O functions, but the RN104 had already locked-up and wouldn't even respond to the power button. The cord has to be pulled each time this happens.

Other Thoughts: Ultimately, the RN104 ended up not being the product for my needs. It is very cleverly designed and stylish. The UI is easy to use. It has a lot of good strengths, but I was not able to tolerate the hanging/slowness while multitasking (sometimes the shares would completely disappear as a result of the OS being occupied elsewhere). If you want this basic form-factor, but with a little more performance consider the RN204. If you just want to do one or two simple things while hoarding tons of data as cheaply as possible, this is your guy.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi James,

We want to apologize that the RN104 is very slow for you and would like to see what we can do to help if you still want it. All you need to do is email us at netgearteam@netgear.com with a copy and paste of this review, your ISP, current firmware, serial number, and zip code.

Also remember that you can find the latest news and updates for all of our ReadyNAS products.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS/ct-p/readynas?

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Large space to place files...Woo woo!!

Cons: I hate this system. I hate it all the way!. 1st its impossible to set up as four separate drive or as four separate files. It wants to make one giant file. Can't segregate the drives that way, It wants to work out of the cloud. I hate this.

Other Thoughts: I bought this hoping it was easy to have separate containable files. I also wanted nothing to do with the outside world and wanted this a home only back up. I want my files to be like an external harddrive at my beconning call and a manageable size. I do not want one 8T hard drive. I wanted 4, 2T hard drives. I also just don't trust the cloud and you all are foolish if you do. That's just data out there ready for the vendor to pay the highest dollar to get to your data.

Manufacturer Response:

Hello Frank,

We are very sorry for the trouble with your RN10400. You can email our experts for help at any time at netgearteam@netgear.com-- please email them when you can with a copy and paste of this review, your ISP, current firmware, serial number, and zip code.

Please feel free to use the Readynas forums https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS/ct-p/readynas? we have experts actively monitoring and responding to questions.

What is my ReadyNAS warranty? http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26066/~/what-is-my-readynas-warranty%3F

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Was working.

Cons: Stop working after Firmware upgrade offered by ReadyNAS homepage installed. Doesn't recognize volume and suggests formatting disks. Netgear suggests it is a HD failure and if I purchase a service plan they'll be happy to help me get my data back. Looking in knowledge base, I am not alone. Probably will need to pay up to get my data back. And you will too.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi Richard,

We want to investigate the way support handled your case and also help you get your RN10400 working again. Please email us with the case numbers that support gave you so we can get started.

Please remember that there are ReadyNAS forums where you can get help from our experts as well:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS/ct-p/readynas?

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Definitely read all the most helpful reviews. Good information from users and Netgear.

Simple, well rounded NAS device with good web based interface, helpful support forums, and simply does what it is designed to do - quietly and efficiently store and serve data.

Cons: None really. As mentioned elsewhere, the drive trays are somewhat annoying and difficult but you (hopefully) will only need to deal with them 2-4 times ever...

Other Thoughts: After posting a couple of questions on the Netgear forums and getting well thought out answers from their experts I waited until this device was on sale and purchased. I originally had 2x2TB WD Reds and now running 3x3TB Seagates. Swapping drives and adding 3rd was simple, no issues. Use CIFS, NFS, and RSYNC without issue. Backup to external USB3 daily and weekly, no issues. It simply works.

As the helpful reviews mention, keep your expectations reasonable. This is a NAS. Even though the software is available it is not an all-in-one server. If you expect it to download torrents while re-encoding Plex streams while hosting your cat video collection to the Internet and play Call of Duty you will probably be terribly disappointed. But, if you want an inexpensive (on sale) NAS to be a NAS then I recommend this.

Pros: easy to manage.
if you need it only to store files doesn't matter is ok to have it...

Cons: connected to a 1gb asus RT-AC87U router, opened a 100 mb mp4 video and took 32 seconds to open it :O for me is extremely slow.
it has a 3 TB 7200 rpm HDD, I'm trying to sell it and see if I can buy the ReadyNAS 314 hopefully this will be faster than this one...

Manufacturer Response:

Hey Cristhian,

Let our experts know if you would like help with you RN10400. You can email them with your serial number at newegg@netgear.com.

Please feel free to use the Readynas forums http://www.readynas.com/forum/ we have experts actively monitoring and responding to questions.

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Great server for keeping files backed up or accessible from a central location from multiple devices. Content and Music can be shared across multiple devices.
The VPN app workls great for allowing remote devices to connect to your local network over a secure connection from anywhere.

Cons: Sluggish Web UI but that is okay.

Other Thoughts: Reading the reviews here, there are somethings you CAN do with this NAS and some things you CANNOT do. The things you CANNOT do are: Install PLEX - unless all your videos are small 20MB or 480p or less with mono audio tracks the CPU in this unit WILL NOT TRANSCODE so it will run like garbage. Use a dedicated Plex box and mount the share on the ReadyNAS where all content is stored - THEN it will work.
Do store music and pictures on the device and just use the default shares for those types of file types and you will never have an issue with file permissions. If you are an expert in creating shares and locking them down with specific permissions, then go right ahead.
Do store VMs on the device and use VMWare on another dedicated server to mount the volumes via iSCSI connection created in the ReadyNAS UI.

Pros: none

Cons: Take a look through the reviews. The responses from Netgear support cant even get the names of the reviewers correct. Dont worry this will continue though the process of trying to get your brick to work. Definitely my LAST Netgear purchase.

Manufacturer Response:

We are very sorry for the problems that you are having with the RN10400. Please email us with as many details as you can so that we can better assist you.The RN10200 and RN10400 both have 3 year limited hardware warranties-- please feel free to email us whenever you'd like for help at newegg@netgear.com.

We also apologize for the naming issue on whichever review(s) that there may have been a mistake-- we take every post and user very seriously and want nothing but all of our users to be happy and satisfied.

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: So far this is working awesome for my movie server with DLNA on my WD Live I just wish it would of supported ISO Format on DLNA have to convert all my movies to VOB don't want to lose any quality.

Cons: 16 TB I hope that Netgear might do a firmware update to go above and beyond 16TB

Pros: Cant think of a single one

Cons: Don't even buy this hunk of junk unless you want to find out about the wonders of excellent Netgear support. This is dripping with sarcasm. Unless you want to wait on windows to delete something or are looking for poor performance.

Other Thoughts: Stop do not order. Buy a n inexpensive board and put linux on it and set up a samba server.

Manufacturer Response:

Hi Anonymous,

We'd like to learn more about the problems you had - both with your ReadyNAS and NETGEAR support. Please get in touch with us at newegg@netgear.com with the specific details of the issues you had with your ReadyNAS -- any information you can provide will be helpful for our engineers to work together with you.

Looking forward to helping out!

Regards,

NETGEAR Team