Although the two devices follow entirely different concepts, both the Thecus N0204 and Western Digital’s MyBook World Edition II are very solid NAS devices offering decent performance and a plethora of useful features.
Western Digital: Good Looks, Lots of Storage, Enthusiast Features
WD’s MyBook World Edition II looks pretty much like other MyBook products and scores through its design and classy finish. By using a pair of 2TB hard drives, WD is capable of offering a massive 4TB total capacity within the physical dimensions of a dual-drive MyBook. We found the Web-based interface to be very intuitive and easy to operate, as the basic options are reduced to only the most needed configuration settings by default. Enthusiasts may switch into the advanced mode and can consider enabling SSH access though, which provides full control over the Linux-based operating system.
Performance is reasonable, as our benchmarks returned fairly average results; most other NAS devices we've tested in this range are about as-fast. At the same time, power consumption was remarkably low for a dual-drive 3.5” NAS product. Improvements could be made by accelerating page-loading performance on the Web interface and by adding a few more features, such as a print server.
Thecus N0204: The Pocket NAS
The N0204 is small, but powerful nonetheless. We found it particularly interesting to see that this device delivers the same performance as 3.5” NAS devices, but without requiring the same amount of power. In fact, this is the lowest-power NAS device we’ve yet seen, even in a data-protecting RAID 1 arrangement. The only disadvantage may be the limited capacity of 2.5” hard drives, which is about to shift from 500GB to 640GBat the high-end.
Initial setup happens in two steps: first you have to run a Thecus application, which deploys the NAS operating system and basic settings. Then you can administer the N0204 through a Web-based interface, which appears simpler and a bit more technical than the WD software.
The device is attractive enough. But we believe that the use of metal instead of plastic would even be nicer, as not all plastic components, such as the stand, appear to be solid enough. However, you get fast throughput and the amazing idle power of only 6W in exchange.


I've lost faith in the W-D MyBook type devices recently - having had several that have failed due to issues with the circuitry in the case (NOT with the hard drive itself).
It also has a whole lot of features.
I like the idea of a NAS, but haven't seen any company produce one for a price that is in line with performance they offer.
Can you comment on fan noise? Is it audible when the devices are idle?
Asking cause I live in a cozy Manhattan studio
But lets get to the real nitty gritty... Nas is all about network performance, so where are the details about the inbuilt processors and technical specs? There is so much more to account for when buying and setting up a NAS item than just 'Oh look, we can open this box... OOOHHH!!!'
Talk about N00B article... FAIL!!!
You obviously have no understanding of RAID and its configurations... No offence intended but go read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels
IMHO raid 1 or 5 is for consumers that really want their data, or for businesses. 0 is for people that don't care about data, gamers for fast map load times, or Ninja's
(had to have some fun
Obviously there are other uses, for both, but I think those are the most common.
IMHO raid 1 or 5 is for consumers that really want their data, or for businesses. 0 is for people that don't care about data, gamers for fast map load times, or Ninja's
(had to have some fun)
Obviously there are other uses for both, but I think those are the most common.
have it as a FTP server, that way I can access files across the LAN and WAN. The NAS came
with MIONET, which in my opinion it simply sucks!! I want to give users the right to download
files across the internet, you could use that with MIONET, but first of all the interface
sucks, it requires JAVA, and it's slow. Plus, in order for me to give a user permission
to access a folder on my NAS, that person must first create an account on MIONET,
WHAT KIND OF CRAP IS THAT ???? Now, I am trying to find a way how to do this without MIONET.
The manual says you can do this but it says you must be an "advanced user", I called Western Digital
customer support and they said they can't provide me with that information because only
advanced users can do this and I must know how to do this myself. WHHHAAAT!!!
I can't seem to find anything on google so I am asking all of you if you can perhaps help
me set this up, I have already been able to access my NAS from the WAN by opening ports 21
on my router and enabling FTP on my NAS, however, it is extremly unsecured, Why? because
any person can simply type in my private ip address in their browser and somehow they
are able to access my NAS. I don't know how this happens, it's driving me nuts. really. I want
users to access my NAS with a password and username. Can someone Please help me with this problem,
I would gladly appreciate it. PLEASE HELP!!! Thank You.
http://highlevelbits.free.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=42&Itemid=68&lang=en