Netgear Enters Consumer NAS Market With 1TB Stora
Netgear is certainly not new to the Network Attached Storage space. The company has been producing NAS drives for businesses and professionals for years, and they have actually garnered quite the name for themselves all the while. But for whatever reason, the outfit has been hesitant to dabble in the consumer NAS arena...until now.
Today, Netgear is finally taking the leap of faith that we've all been waiting for by launching the Stora. Aimed to compete with offerings by Seagate, QNAP, Western Digital, Hitachi and loads of other HDD firms, this sleek black box helps consumers keep all of their media in one centralized place that can be accessed from anywhere--so long as there's an Internet connection, of course.
We get the impression that Netgear designed this device so that anyone could use it. Generally, NAS devices have required at least some computer "know-how" to get setup and online, but the Stora's simplified user interface hopes to make it suitable for everyone. The device can also be accessed by visiting a user profile through MyStora.com, and of course an FTP client can tap in and snoop around. Compatible with Mac, PC and Linux systems, the drive can also double as an iTunes server or a DLNA streamer, and given the two bays within, you'll have no problem mirroring the data on one drive to the other for redundancy reasons. The Stora is shipping now in North America for $229, and that includes a single 1TB HDD; obviously, you'll want to budget for adding another 1TB HDD unless you want to skip out on having RAID capabilities within.
Today, Netgear is finally taking the leap of faith that we've all been waiting for by launching the Stora. Aimed to compete with offerings by Seagate, QNAP, Western Digital, Hitachi and loads of other HDD firms, this sleek black box helps consumers keep all of their media in one centralized place that can be accessed from anywhere--so long as there's an Internet connection, of course.
We get the impression that Netgear designed this device so that anyone could use it. Generally, NAS devices have required at least some computer "know-how" to get setup and online, but the Stora's simplified user interface hopes to make it suitable for everyone. The device can also be accessed by visiting a user profile through MyStora.com, and of course an FTP client can tap in and snoop around. Compatible with Mac, PC and Linux systems, the drive can also double as an iTunes server or a DLNA streamer, and given the two bays within, you'll have no problem mirroring the data on one drive to the other for redundancy reasons. The Stora is shipping now in North America for $229, and that includes a single 1TB HDD; obviously, you'll want to budget for adding another 1TB HDD unless you want to skip out on having RAID capabilities within.
