With most NAS products, I usually complain about the complete lack of backup software, or how crude its features are. In the case of the ReadyNAS, however, I have little to complain about.

Figure 15 shows the backup options available, which are the most extensive I've seen. The screenshot shows the backup source selections available and the target list is the same except for the omission of HTTP and FTP servers.

Figure 15: Setting up a new backup job
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I was intrigued by the HTTP selection, so set up a quick backup job, let it run for a bit, then killed it. The backup destination directory showed that the backup 'bot was traversing the entire site, faithfully following all available links. I especially liked that the 'bot was polite, opening only a single session at a time, instead of the multiple sessions some site-slurpers use.

Figure 16: Backup schedule
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Figure 16 shows that jobs can be temporarily disabled and deleted and each job is clearly logged. You don't see a job edit button, but you can get one by clicking on the log link (a bug which I expect will be fixed soon). Backups can be scheduled with the same flexibility as snapshots, with the option of specifying how often a full (vs. incremental) backup is done and whether old full backup files are saved or deleted.

As extensive as the ReadyNAS backup features are, I, of course, still have complaints. High on my wishlist are a compression option, FTP to FTP backups and ability to at least exclude sub-folders from a backup job.

Infrant wants potential buyers to think of the ReadyNAS as the way to go for media serving, so they've built in three options (Figure 17), none of which I was able to give a workout.

Figure 17: Media serving options
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The default-enabled Home Media Streaming Server is described by Infrant as "a service used to stream videos, music, and pictures to popular networked DVD players. Similar to UPnP AV, this service is used to stream videos, music, and pictures from the reserved media share to these adapters". The UPnP AV option should work with networked multimedia adapters that usually require installation of a Windows-based server program.

The third option not shown is the SlimServer Add-on, available for download from Infrant to support the Slim Devices SqueezeBox 2 networked music streaming player.

Before I move on to performance, I'll wrap up with two lists of items not previously covered. First, things you can't do:

Set the HTTP / HTTPs port (you can set the FTP port) Syslog logging Set drive or entire NAS inactivity sleep time

And assorted other features not previously mentioned:

You can restart, shutdown, and reset factory defaults from the ReadyNAS from the browser interface You can connect a USB-enabled UPS, which will automatically shut down the ReadyNAS when power fails SNMP management is supported (MIB available) as well as a number of trap events.