Lg n4b1

[claykin]

Tim

I'm surprised you reached out to test this model. Competition is always good, but I have a hard time believing that Lucky Goldstar will take this seriously.

My 2 cents.

[thiggins]

LG reached out to SmallNetBuilder and I went ahead with the review because it is the only NAS that provides an optical backup option, which some people are looking for.

I have the same concern as to whether LG is in the market to stay and have discussed that with LG. Time will tell.

[boerner]

I know you mentioned you were giving LG some time to address issues with the unit and add information to their website. Having looked at the website I haven't seen anything updated to include the deivce.

Do you still plan to publish the review?

There is one review of the unit on newegg.com (from a confirmed buyer) but he/she seems concerned by the general lack of support in the U.S. as well.

[thiggins]

I have told LG that I am not going to publish a full review. They have not delivered on their plans to get a U.S. support site up or issue new firmware that fixes the problems that I found.

At this point, I can't say that LG is serious about the NAS market.

[Unregistered]

I can't get the newer firmware to install. And on one LG site, its a broken link.
(the LG site is dismal.) Any outside sites for it?

And the manual states to change the admin PW, but there is NO way to do so.

[claykin]

I can't get the newer firmware to install. And on one LG site, its a broken link.
(the LG site is dismal.) Any outside sites for it?

And the manual states to change the admin PW, but there is NO way to do so.

.2898 firmware? If so, try this: http://www.lgcommercial.com/content/downloads/zip/n4b1_2898.tar.zip

List of changes:

V2898 Firmware - June 2009

--------------------------
Additional functions added
--------------------------
- Rsync function: Ability to backup to another NAS on the network.
- UPnP function: help router settings.
- Configuration Backup to Local PC: Allows you to download your NAS configuration to your PC so you can restore it later if needed.
- Scheduled back up history: Copies the backup history to the disc when performing a backup. Previously the backup history was only stored on the NAS.
- Added status indicator while initializing to the LCD and web interface.

----------------------------------
Improvements to existing functions
----------------------------------

- Improved the hibernation functionality.
- Fixed problem where SAMBA could make, but not read, folders with special characters.
- Improved IP setting functionality when not using HDCP.

---------------------
Limitations & Notices
---------------------

- Multisession disc formats are not supported for Image Backup. Discs formatted for scheduled backups are not supported for image backup.
- When using a DVD-R DL disc, the image file written to the disc will be 8Gb even if the data is not that large. Therefore, the disc may take longer to write than you expect it to.

[Unregistered]

Thanks, but that file fails too.

If I uzip it, I get errors. If I send it over it fails on the NAS too.

I'll try contacting LG *again*

[andermic]

In the review article it was stated:

"The N4B1 turned in an average RAID 5 write performance using a Gigabit Ethernet connection of 26.8 MB/s for file sizes between 32 MB and 4 GB, with cached behavior not included in the average calculation. Average RAID 5 read performance was slightly lower, measuring 26.2 MB/s with the same conditions.

File copy performance using a Vista SP1 client under the same conditions (RAID 5, Gigabit LAN) measured significantly lower for write at 11.7 MB/s, but about the same for read at 26.6 MB/s. Both results ranked the N4B1 last or next-to-last in the RAID 5 File Copy charts."

I'm getting the same 11.7 MB/s from my Windows 7 box. What did you do to get the 26.8 MB/s transfer rate? I think 11.7 MB/s is fairly dismal, at best.

[thiggins]

I'm getting the same 11.7 MB/s from my Windows 7 box. What did you do to get the 26.8 MB/s transfer rate? I think 11.7 MB/s is fairly dismal, at best.Nothing, other than using a Gigabit Ethernet connection.

[Bongo]

Any updates on this model? Has it been released? If so, in what markets? Don't see it on the USA website, and on the global one, the links to the specs don't work.

Any other models released lately with backup media built-in or available for physical connection?

[thiggins]

LG has gotten their act together a bit more on the web side of things. But they still don't have very extensive online support and no forums.
New web home is here (http://www.lgcommercial.com/product/N4B1/?division=&category=).

The two drive models (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/30994-new-to-the-charts-lg-n2b1dd2-2-bay-super-multi-nas-with-blu-ray-disc-rewriter) are the latest. No new four drive.

[Lalato]

What a great looking device... saddled with a craptacular website. If LG actually got to a point where they had good support with a decent forum community, I would consider it as I'm currently in the market for something like this.

[LHeruska]

Well I have had my NAS in production for about a month so far, configured with 4 1.5TB Seagate drives. I was happy to have found the latest update on this site and installed it without any issue. For the unit itself I have to say compared to other NAS units I have in use at work - this unit is performing perfectly with one little annoyance. Seems when the drives "sleep" the unit will not send out it's daily report. I've proven this by making sure the unit was busy doing something at the time of the report and on every occurrence I receive the report. On days when there is no activity - no report. Personally I'll save the power and leave the drives on sleep mode.

I have to agree that the write times are rather slow for 1 gig ethernet but I still prefer this unit over the thequs

Lou