Service Action to Prevent PSU Failures in ReadyNAS NV/NV+:
http://www.infrant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10260

More troubling news for owners.....Netgear acquires Infrant:
http://www.infrant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10497

I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst. I've seen too many great companies ruined when they were acquired by larger companies. Add to the fact that most of Netgear's products are low priced junk. Netgear products aren't known for their quality.

I hope they don't merge the Infrant forums into the existing Netgear forums. The support is the main reason why most of us bought the units. Any of you familiar with Netgear's support forums knows the mods will delete posts that speak poorly of their products (witness the debacle concerning ISO support for the EVA8000).

A sad day for Infrant owners.

A sad day for Infrant owners.
Life is too short to be sad. Be happy :cool:

I'll agree that becoming sad over this is being too emotional, but I also think the incredible support and how responsive Infrant has been to its users will change.

It is a real testament to how great Infrant's support is that Netgear bought you guys up. The technical solution is good, and the people standing behind are outstanding.

Thanks to yoh-dah for all the support, and here is hoping some of that great support can continue (fingers crossed).

One serious problem with startups that get acquired (or go public) is that all the early people have piles of illiquid stcok in a private company. This stock gets exchanged for very liquid stock in a public company. This gives the early people what is known as "F*** YOU money".

If things change for the worse under the new management, these people can say "F*** YOU" and quit. Happens a lot.

And since these people are all newly rich, they're no longer "hungry" even if they stay at the new company. They "retire in place". Also happens a lot.

There's a story that the early people at MSFT used to walk around with buttons that said FYIFV. Which meant: F*** YOU I'm Fully Vested.

But let's hope for the best.

Been close to buying one of these a few times in the past. Now I'm probably closer than ever to pulling the trigger, and then I see on the website that Infrant is being acquired by Netgear.

What does this mean from a product standpoint? Are there likely to be features that Netgear can add to the Infrant product? Will Netgear's economy of scale mean lower prices for the Infrant product?

What would you recommend to someone who is basically willing to buy at this moment? Go ahead or wait a couple months?

Been close to buying one of these a few times in the past. Now I'm probably closer than ever to pulling the trigger, and then I see on the website that Infrant is being acquired by Netgear.

What does this mean from a product standpoint? Are there likely to be features that Netgear can add to the Infrant product? Will Netgear's economy of scale mean lower prices for the Infrant product?

What would you recommend to someone who is basically willing to buy at this moment? Go ahead or wait a couple months?

Been quite happy with my purchase so far. The firmware is now very stable, and I haven't experienced much trouble at all.

So I think you are fairly safe purchasing a unit.

Wrt Netgear, time will only tell if the support goes bad. Let us hope that they have an agreement that will enable them to operate as before, but behind the Netgear name. Their support so far have been been very good.

By the looks of their website, it appears that Infrant may be allowed to operate "independently". Right now everything says "Infrant -- A Netgear Company" or something like that.

Now I'm just wondering whether prices will go up, down, or stay the same. Any recs on where to purchase from?

By the looks of their website, it appears that Infrant may be allowed to operate "independently". Right now everything says "Infrant -- A Netgear Company" or something like that.

Now I'm just wondering whether prices will go up, down, or stay the same. Any recs on where to purchase from?

Let's hope so...

Wrt. to purchase place... Not sure how much I can help as I'm stucked here in Europe with silly prices ;)

However, I purchased mine not far from you during a business trip into Silicon valley. I think there was a company not far behind the old Maxtor company across the bay from the Silicon side. I have to check my receipt. There might be some reseller info at www.infrant.com (just a guess).

M.

To the surprise of no one, Netgear has begun the process of slowly killing Infrant. The price of the diskless unit has been raised $200 to $850(!!!) and support is going down the toilet (read lothan's experience with Netgear when he tried to get his faulty power supply replaced):
http://www.infrant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12227

Infrant's response is that the price hike of $200 is actually a good deal because it includes an extended warranty. But if you read the above thread, Netgear isn't really interested in honoring the warranties and customers will be SOL.

To the surprise of no one, Netgear has begun the process of slowly killing Infrant. The price of the diskless unit has been raised $200 to $850(!!!) and support is going down the toilet (read lothan's experience with Netgear when he tried to get his faulty power supply replaced):
http://www.infrant.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12227

Infrant's response is that the price hike of $200 is actually a good deal because it includes an extended warranty. But if you read the above thread, Netgear isn't really interested in honoring the warranties and customers will be SOL.

Just read that.... sucks about the price increase and the poor support...

Sean

I bought a diskless ReadyNAS NV+, (4) 750Gb HDs, and a 1Gb memory upgrade a few months ago, just before the Netgear aquisition was announced.

I couldn't be happier with my set-up. I use it for some data back-up, but mostly for storing lossless music that I stream through Sonos. It's functioned flawlessly and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

But I do get nervous about something going wrong and support going forward. I swore off Netgear products years ago after two (supposedly) high-end routers simply failed. Expensive junk, IMHO. Anyway, I had thought that the Infrant folks were continuing to operate independently for the time being. But I was recently annoyed to see that the warranty was extended right after I got my unit, and I hadn't heard about the price increase.... Looks like Netgear's moving in.

I like my NAS a lot, but it IS a pretty expensive way to go. And that's having found the best price available BEFORE the increase. If I were shopping now, the Netgear name would probably give me pause, and at $200 more in total cost, I'd probably look a little closer at the alternatives.

Infrant = Jonah
Netgear = The Whale

If you want support, it's been my experience that going through the front door (which lately is a revolving door that keeps dumping you back at the Netgear support lobby after showing you some 404's or 'No RMA # was found' message.) it's best to just piss & moan on Infrant's forums. FWIW my issue was with a ReadyNAS 600A, still the 404s should not be happening in my opinion. And the support site should not swallow Infrant until the RMA's are ported over to Netgear. It's just annoying.

The day Netgear throws the switch, and takes down Infrant's forum is the day getting support for your ReadyNAS becomes a freaking nightmare.

I'm still waiting for some feedback / documentation of my RMA from the jedi counsel (this makes sense if you frequent their forums). While they say stuff like 'I looked at your unit and sent the information, it must have been blocked by spam filter..' I search my gmail including spam and find that statement (apparently) to be less than true. Keep in mind, this particualr Infrant dude is already a Sith lord, so he's blending in well with the Dark side (Netgear). :) No, more likely he's probably overworked, and Netgear dropped the hammer and sacked a bunch Infranters.

To their credit, the product (aside from the NV power supply ****) is damn well designed. Lighting took out the NIC (perhaps more) on my ReadyNAS 600. Reluctantly, I purchased 2 ReadyNAS NV+. The first to hold my existing disk set, the second to be used to back up the first (with an upgrade to X-Raid and a boost in size as part of the bargain). So I plunk the 600A disk set into the ReadyNAS NV+ and minutes later it was up & running and on my network at the old IP, all data intact. Whew. Backing up the 600gigs took a while, but in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to Ebay the 1st NV+. And if I ever get my 600A back I can throw it on Ebay too (spare parts, power supply etc...)

Infrant = Jonah
Netgear = The Whale

If you want support, it's been my experience that going through the front door (which lately is a revolving door that keeps dumping you back at the Netgear support lobby after showing you some 404's or 'No RMA # was found' message.) it's best to just piss & moan on Infrant's forums. FWIW my issue was with a ReadyNAS 600A, still the 404s should not be happening in my opinion. And the support site should not swallow Infrant until the RMA's are ported over to Netgear. It's just annoying.

The day Netgear throws the switch, and takes down Infrant's forum is the day getting support for your ReadyNAS becomes a freaking nightmare.

I'm still waiting for some feedback / documentation of my RMA from the jedi counsel (this makes sense if you frequent their forums). While they say stuff like 'I looked at your unit and sent the information, it must have been blocked by spam filter..' I search my gmail including spam and find that statement (apparently) to be less than true. Keep in mind, this particualr Infrant dude is already a Sith lord, so he's blending in well with the Dark side (Netgear). :) No, more likely he's probably overworked, and Netgear dropped the hammer and sacked a bunch Infranters.

To their credit, the product (aside from the NV power supply ****) is damn well designed. Lighting took out the NIC (perhaps more) on my ReadyNAS 600. Reluctantly, I purchased 2 ReadyNAS NV+. The first to hold my existing disk set, the second to be used to back up the first (with an upgrade to X-Raid and a boost in size as part of the bargain). So I plunk the 600A disk set into the ReadyNAS NV+ and minutes later it was up & running and on my network at the old IP, all data intact. Whew. Backing up the 600gigs took a while, but in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to Ebay the 1st NV+. And if I ever get my 600A back I can throw it on Ebay too (spare parts, power supply etc...)

Sad to hear all this. 0 issues with my X6 is almost 2 years of service. never even needed rebooting unless I upgraded firmware. Sadder thing is there is still nothing better after reviewing the current models on toms hardware. The thecus N5200 is still the fatest and any other contender seems to be rough around the edges like the 5200. My thecus N5200 has no HW problems but SW is still a bitch. basic SMB is fast as hell but nothing else works worth a damn. since I tried updating the firmware and added a 5th drive everytime I rebooted (even gracefully) the raid array comes up damaged and spends 12+ hours rebuilding. Support is pathetic and updated firmware in nearly a year of ownership has not addressed or added anything specific. Notifications, UPS, Snapshots among other things still dont work or have been removed (Snapshot). My original terastation continues to plod along but boy is it slow....

hopefully Infrant/Netgear will release something much faster using their great SW at a good price but recent price increases on the legacy products dont look good....

Still hoping for the best...

Sean

I own a ReadyNAS NV and a ReadyNAS NV+. I also own an HP Windows Home Server.

The ReadyNAS NV has been rock solid for a couple of years with four Seagate 500 GB drives in a Raid5. I just replaced those drives with four of the Samsung 1TB drives from the compatibility list.

The ReadyNAS NV+ has also been rock solid as well, for over a year. It has four of the Seagate 750 GB drives in an X-RAID.

All drives I use are on the drive compatibility list, to avoid the numerous drive firmware problems (read about the problems with the 1.5 TB Seagate drives). Only problem I've run into is with the volume snapshots failing because of running out of space.

In contrast to the flexibility and configuration of the ReadyNAS software, the software developers of the Windows Home Server seem to believe in 'nanny' software. They don't allow you to enable your folders for HTTP access unless you use a password that their software approves of. They don't even provide support for changing the windows Workgroup. You have to remote console into the box in order to change it. The Windows Home Server does *NOT* support RAID5. They have a file duplication system, where it tries to make copies of the backed up files on multiple drives. I'm not sure how secure it is.

One plus of the windows home server is that the included client PC software does easy automatic backups for you each night. It does sector (or was it clusters?) backups, and only backs up disk sectors (or clusters) that have changed since the last backup.

Chris Shaker

I upgraded my readynas with 4 1.5 TB drives and so far so good. yes I applied the firmware patches.... 4x250 replaced with 4x1500 was a pleasent surprise. box is still beautifully and never once been rebooted or crashed unless I told it too....

Sean