NETGEAR Technical Support Comments
Having read some of the comments featured in the review, I felt it was appropriate for me to post a response directly from NETGEAR. I have addressed each of the issues in turn below. Hopefully my comments should help clarify some of the issues raised….
I unfortunately did no research on the predecessor to the above product and sorely regretted it. And from the screen-shots this newer version is no different.
As the SC101T is part of the SC101 family and therefore both products look similar. NETGEAR's strategy is to maintain similar UI across their products lines.
The biggest issue is the proprietary file system format.
Despite the review's negative comments on the proprietary file system format (ZFS), NETGEAR has been using ZFS as it is far superior to NTFS or EXT2/3 Linux. A lot of NAS products prefer to change to ZFS as it is a pure network file system.
I want a solution for my Linux box but can't use it. Secondly, it's horribly slow. I mean, REALLY slow.
It is important to ensure the Gigabit connection is used as it is at least 3 times faster than 10/100 version. By using a Gigabit router with a PC that has a Gigabit interface, users can take advantage of the faster speeds.
From what I understand, it's the file system and drivers, not the hard-drive that is the bottle-neck.
ZFS has been proven by enterprise customers to be one of the fastest file systems, so it is unlikely to be the cause of any bottlenecks.
Finally, the management software works about half the time. It frequently freezes. Even after I managed to get this installed, the drive doesn't always show up. I find myself constant re-installing.
This is the first time that NETGEAR has heard of this being an issue but we will certainly look into it. NETGEAR has carried out extensive testing and beta testing on the SC101T without freezing occurring.