Thecus N5200BR NAS Box First Impressions
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
When i first looked at the Thecus box i was impressed with its simple but yet effective design. For those who dont know what a NAS box is, it is a network-attached storage device that holds information and can be accessed from a network device as it become part of a, well a network, hence being called a network attached device. ANYWAY, the version we purchased came with 4 320Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 7200RPM SATA-II hard disk, 16mb cache ST3320620AS drives in a RAID 5 config. Once we had finished setting the device up, it was time for the good stuff. Tapping in a configuring the device has never been easier with its simple to use web based admin console, we had it up and running in no time, and we were very happy to find it has support for Microsoft Active Directory, meaning we could add file and folder permissions to data on the device. The next step was to run our Microsoft Exchange databases of the device, well its was a piece of piece of cake, after copying the information store to the device (with exchange services stopped of course), then repointing exchange to the database, the device was now hosting all our business data and exchange data. Amazing but yet very simple. So i know what you are thinking, what about backup right? Easy, we were able to create off site backups still but setting up our backup program on the primary server to copy information from the device directly to tape (using Symantec Backup Exec 11d). So far this device has worked well, simple to use, LOADS of features including cross site sync (if you have more than 1 device) and an easy to use web based console.
Learn more about this business grade product here
A fantastic site for anyone who loves art of all types. This site allows people to submit art work they have created into there own profile for other people to look at. Ranging from computer wallpapers to art that you can purchase, the variety and different styles is amazing. Often used as an “inspiration” tool amongst the graphic and web design industry, deviantart has been around for a long long time. Anyway go check it out, its worth a look and in some cases will amaze you at the creativity of us humans. Also a good place to start if your thinking of getting your business a new website, people have submitted hundreds of designs and may help you realise what kind of design you are after!
With the i.t industry slowly moving into the virtual hosting world, its time we had a look at the new beta version of Vmware’s server software. To start with it was a little annoying to find better functionality with the linux version than the windows version. Vmware has decided to make the entire application web based, which is fantastic as you can manager any server from pretty much anywhere without needing a console client to go with it. However the windows version of the software does not have some of the stats that the linux version has. O well moving on, doesnt mean this isnt a great product. We originally installed it on a Windows Vista PC, and yes this version of vmware server support vista business and ultimate only, to bad home based version users. Any way simple to install and has some extremely powerful features. setting up a new virtual machine has never been easier and support all version of windows products and linux. with its new in built database system to sort virtual machines, mouting and dismounting servers has never been easier, and again it doesnt matter where you are as long as you have a internet connection! After you have registered online you will be given a cd key to install the software, and i still cant believe this software it free.
Well we needed a simple USB wireless device to replace the PCI wireless card in some of the desktop computers. We also liked the idea that there was an extension to sit on the desk of the pc. The belkin usb network adapter looked like a pretty cheap solution to our problem, and hey, its just a wireless device right? wrong. far from it, so we plugged it into a vista machine and all hell broke loose. To start with it installed itself with a set of drivers it downloaded from the windows update site, but for some reason were the wrong one. then when we rebooted the pc, it wouldnt boot back into vista. We found we have to boot into safe mode, delete the drivers and software. So we went to the belkin website and downloaded the vista drivers, ran the install program and for some reason failed. now we are stuck in limbo and cant install this simple network device. it shouldnt be this difficult and has annoyed the crap out of us. sure we could spend the next week trying to solve the problem but nop, to crap with it. RUBBISH. do not purchase this item if you use VISTA!!!
Just want to express my feelings towards Netgear business products. Our customers have been using Netgear business class products now for over 4 years and not once have we had a problem with there hardware. Ranging from network gigabit switches to prosafe wireless access points, there hardware has been a great success with us. We have one customer that has been using the prosafe wg302 and also have 4 jgs524 network switches running and wow, no problems whats so ever. That’s all we have to say, we felt like saying it so we did.
A piece of software i believe isnt as well known as it should be. This software has become another standard for our business networks as it allows us to monitor the buisness network and report to us when problems or system events occur. Easy to setup, simple to configure and manage they have a free version that allow a business to monitor up to 10 network nodes. The software has advanced reporting functions built in that allow admins to view statics on server events, network issues or general problems on other nodes. We have had nothing success from the this product and it deserves alot more publicity. check it out here at 
Yep ok so its a pretty old phone but i felt the need to blog about this “business” class phone. Well first couple of months was fine, but as the phone got older so did its reliability. Now after 1 year of owning it the battery constantly dies, blue-tooth drains the battery, the phone locks up constantly and for no reason it will just hang up during calls. Well maybe its just my phone right? nah i asked a couple of people if they have experienced similar problems and they all said one of the above has happen to them. Anyway i just give out caution to anyone who might still be considering buying on of these phone, im not sure if you can still get them on plans, but stay clear.
This fantastic piece of business software has now become part of our standard operating environments for all our SMB customers. It allows us to manage there complete business network via an easy to admin console. It protects servers, desktop and email servers from Internet security threats such as viruses and spyware, phishing attacks and gray ware. Easy as to install and manage, and the cost on the product is only like $90incGST per license. I would rate this software over any other current anti virus solutions for business networks as its easy implementation makes it cost effective and reliable.