[Gloucs] First impressions: Netgear Stora

[Andrew Oakley]

Got one of these lovely low-power Network Attached Storage devices, only 
50 quid (plus hard drives) from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003RFNHU0

Netgear Stora MS2000
1.2GHz ARM CPU
128MB RAM
Gigabit ethernet
1 USB2 port (front)
Consumes around 15 watts
512MB flash storage for OS
2 SATA drive bays, defaults to RAID1 mirroring

Runs Linux and it is very easy to root, much easier than the NSLU2, as per:

http://www.openstora.com/wiki

Main reason for getting it was that I realised that leaving my 
home-built Linux server with ATX PSU on 24/7 was consuming 15 quids' 
worth of electricity every month! The Stora will consume under £2/month.

Only got it last night, but so far first impressions are very good.

* It's very small - about 25cm black cube - and very quiet, almost 
silent. Quieter than a Sky+ PVR. Drives spin down after inactivity - 
remember the basic OS is on flash memory anyway.

* Getting root is very, very easy. OpenStora wiki shows very simple 
method by constructing a special SSH username with the product key, 
after that you just replace their custom SSHd with the vanilla OpenSSH 
daemon and you're golden. No need to install custom firmware (although 
you can if you wish).

* Very easy to use the NSLU2 Optware software repo. Easy install of GNU 
screen, elinks etc. all without flashing the firmware.
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Optware

I've installed a 1TB hard drive and am in the process of copying over my 
old Linux server's files. The only drawback so far seems to be that my 
10/100 ethernet switch is very slow and my old Linux server doesn't have 
a gigabit network card, not a fault of the Stora!

Also available as MS2100 and MS2200 with one/two 1TB drives 
pre-installed respectively, although it seems considerably cheaper to 
buy the barebones MS2000 and get the drives separately.

-- 
Andrew Oakley