Darren’s Diatribe

I have had fun getting a NetShare NAS Drive set up at home. I am wanting to use it with an X-Box Media Centre (XBMC) when I get one. The product itself seems to be good once set-up, but getting there was quite a challenge.

Here are my thoughts (in italics) during the process of getting it set-up and going.

Nice box.

I suppose I had better read the instructions. Activates brain to read Chinglish.

Blah, blah, blah, blah. Ah, assembly instructions. No words. Odd. I will just have to guess.

Inserts hard disk and attaches screws.

Reads next bit of instructions. Connects to power and Ethernet Switch as instructed. Follows instructions to open PC TCP/IP settings form.

Hmmm. It says here if I want to use a fixed IP address (which I have), rather than using DHCP, I need to “please also setting up a Fixed IP for Network Storage Series”. I guess I had better find how to do that. Reads rest of manual. Mmmm. No mention of how to do this. Notices disturbing specification information, including limitations on file names

Also notes comment about hard disk needing to be set to cable select mode. $%&^, I shouldn’t have changed that Switches off power. Disassembles entire unit. Changes to Cable Select. Re-assembles unit.

I guess I have to use the configuration utility with the web browser.

Types in URL of NAS server as instructed (http://storage).

Mmmm. Doesn’t work. This is showing me storage.com instead. Might be a networking issue. Might need to use the USB connection to get it all initialised. That is how my ADSL router worked.

Unplugs from Switch and plugs in USB connector.

Oooh. Windows recognised new hardware. That’s good. Click, click, click. Mmmm. Why can’t I see the drive ? Maybe I need to partition and format the disk. Reads more of manual and follows instructions. Oh. It only allows FAT32. I guess that is OK. Ah, Windows only allows formatting of FAT32 up to 32 GB. I wonder what I will use the other 218GB for ? Oh look, they have supplied a utility for formatting any size disk. Runs utility. No instructions. Drive partition is still 32GB

Maybe this utility converts from NTFS to FAT32. In Windows, deletes partition and re-formats as NTFS (250GB). Runs utility again. Yay, it worked ! Oooh, I can see it in Windows Explorer.

Plugs NAS back into switch. Types in URL again. Still doesn’t work. $%#& piece of %^&

Does a Google search on NAS model number. Very few hits. Oh dear, this might be a dodgy unit. Only thing found of relevance is a user who could not get it to work with XBMC. %^% &^ )&^% %( &^*& *&^*&^* * &*^ )*&^^%&*^%)*&%

Oh dear. After 11PM. Better go to bed.

Next night after having thought about it during the day…

Maybe the NAS hasn’t picked up a compatible IP address from DHCP. Connects NAS directly to PC. Changes PC to use DHCP (NAS is DHCP server). Types in URL. Still doesn’t work. Maybe I can use the IP Address. Need to log in to NAS server to find IP address, but can’t log into NAS sever without IP Address. Has visions of Chicken and Egg. Has visions of doing damaging things to NAS drive with hammer. Has visions of lubricating NAS drive and putting it somewhere uncomfortable in the person who sold NAS drive. Maybe the NAS IP Address is in ARP table. Looks up ARP table and there is one IP address. Enters IP Address in web browser and up comes configuration web page.

Woo hoo. I have a web page. Sets desired NAS IP address. Changes PC back to static IP address. Types in new NAS IP Address. Yay, the web page is still working. Reconnects NAS and PC to Switch.

Types in URL again. Better set up the time service. No Adelaide time zone. Better use Sydney time. I wonder if their Daylight Savings is the same ?

Crikey, it has taken hours to get the first bit of this done. It is going to take ages to be able to access it from Windows. Has a stiff drink. Follows instructions to share drive. I can see the Network drive from Windows, but can’t map to a drive letter. Realises that the SMB server on NAS drive has no folders selected to share. D’oh. Goes back into NAS configuration and sets up SMB properly this time. Oooh. I can see it from Windows and it has a drive letter.

Tentatively creates a folder from Windows. Hooray it works. Copies a file hopefully. Ahhhhhhhhh. It all works.

What really worries me about this sort of thing is how the $%^& does a regular PC user cope with this ? I am reasonably skilled at this sort of thing (but by no means an expert) and it took ages. Admittedly, it was made worse in my case because I am using static IP addresses, but it really should not have been that hard.

Many of the steps I needed to follow were not in the instructions. The steps which were in the instructions were in Chinglish and often hard to follow. Some of the steps were out of order.

The instructions score Four Frowns

I will defer rating the unit itself for now…