ZyXel NSA220

Home server is a breeze to set up, but pricey

ZYXEL'S NSA220 IS A VERSATILE network-storage device that does more than let you store and share files across a network. It also offers built-in FTP. HTTP, and BitTorrent download services; acts as a media server and a print server; and features built-in RAID capabilities. Its price-per-gigabyte ratio is off the charts, however.

Available through the distribution channel, the unit can be purchased without drives, or with up to 2TB of storage. Our review unit lists for $299.99 and was configured with two Western Digital drives for a total of 410GB of storage, which is expensive considering many new home-NAS chives cost less and offer 1TB of storage.

The NSA220 has two USB ports for transferring up to 10GB of data horn a USB device, or for print-server functionality. But we were disappointed by the lack of support for eSATA devices.

Setup was a breeze, thanks to helpful tutorials. Bundled software includes a DLNA (Digital Living Netwot k Alliance) program that ensures the NSA220 will work with approved digital home components for media serving, plus the popular Memeo Instant Backup application. The NSA220 was preconfigured for RAID 1 (mirrored drives for
backup), but you can set it for RAID 0 (data striped across both drives).



Performance was above average in the RAID 1 configuration.The NSA220 required 15 minutes and 49 seconds to write a 10GB file and 16 minutes and 30 seconds to read it. That's much faster than many of the NAS products we've reviewed. Plus, if you configure the device for RAID 0, you'll see even faster transfer speeds. —John It Delaney

www.zyxel.com

Computer Shopper January 2009

Networking, Zyxel, Zyxel Networking, Zyxel NSA220