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For Zyxel NAS542 4-Bay, 81 customer reviews collected from 1 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 4.2.

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19.7.2016

This is the first NAS I bought after lots of consideration. The spec is good and the unit got lots of good reviews from a lot of places, it is one of the cheapest 2-disk NAS units on the market. I intended to use it for a small home network to serve up mostly media to chromecasts and TV's via DLNA as well as provide network backup and storage. I am primarily using with a Macbook Pro.Setup:The interface and setup is quite easy to use, drives have hot swap trays accessible from the front. Funnily though it came with a Euro (Schuko) plug instead of the standard UK plug. It was quite simple to pair it up with zcloud for remote access although I still had to configure port forwarding on my router.I was able to create network shares, on AFP and SMB as I am using a Mac.Pros:It's cheap! One of the cheapest 2-bay NAS drives on the market with a half decent processor and RAM.The web interface is actually pretty good for a small company like Zyxel, I've previously used QNAP's OS which is a lot better and more sophisticated however you pay for it.Access speed is good, I was able to get about 600-700mbps read speed over gigabit ethernet, and it had no problem streaming 4K video to my TV. Apple Time Machine also worked fine. The provided apps like zDrive etc are actually pretty good and work pretty smoothly, using their app to cast a video to my TV via Chromecast is a bit hit and miss, however I think this is a fault of the Chromecast as almost all the other video apps I use are like this.The built in Twonky DLNA server works great and my TV is able to see shared media.Cons:One of the first things I noticed was the buzz from the hard drives. Although the trays have rubberised mounts I think the trays themselves are not isolated from the chassis, I had mine inside a cupboard and you can hear a faint hum from the hard drives all the time. I mounted it on several blocks of wood with layers of rubber sandwiched between but I still couldn't get rid of the hum.With the interface, most of the important options are there, however I found it slightly lacking in how fine grained the control is. For example setting up notification emails is a bit vague, it does not tell you nor does it let you configure when it will send you a notification, i.e. disk failure, updates etc. Also occasionally it wouldn't recognise my login randomly, it would after refreshing the page a few times though.For OS X users, the NAS does not work with Spotlight indexing, so searching and tags do not work. This was a bit of a dealbreaker for me.Conclusion:I ended up returning it and buying the more expensive Synology DS216j which does support Spotlight indexing. The difference between the Zyxel and this is like chalk and cheese. Not only is it a lot quieter with much less hum noise (the design of the box isolates the drives acoustically), the OS is much simpler, however it gives you more control. Still considering the price, the DS216j is 1.5X the price, so to be fair the Zyxel is actually very good value for money.If you are only after reasonably basic features and the hum noise doesn't bother you that much then the Zyxel is a good buy. The network speed is actually quite good and is perfectly fine for streaming media. The web interface and apps are actually quite good given they are not a big or well known company like Synology or Qnap. However if you are after more fine control and a more seamless interface I'd look elsewhere.
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6.8.2019

We have been running with a family DLink DNS-320L NAS for a number of years. Alas, it has got slower and slower over the years to the point it became unusable - particularly UPnP access of media files. This was largely due to a lack of on-board memory and processing power. Also, the DLink remote access apps are totally useless to the point of being completely unusable.Our needs are quite simple - we just want home network (and remote) access to media files and a repository for all of our documents etc. This 2-drive Zyxel NAS326 seemed to fit the bill - and indeed it has proved to be an excellent choice for us. I cannot claim any knowledge of its more sophisticated capabilities but for us,it is working well.The longest part of the installation was taking a copy of the files on the DLink NAS disks (some 120+ GB). The old NAS was so slow this took 18 hours! I then put 2x Toshiba ‘Red’ 2TB disks into the Zyxel NAS, connected it with a LAN cable to our router and powered on. The Zyxel ‘quick start’ method of connecting to the NAS with a browser did not work (as other people have noted). Instead, I went to the DHCP Table in the router to get the NAS IP address (and set it to always be the same). Then I easily connected using Chrome. I set up the 2 disks as Raid-1 and it chuntered away for about 15 minutes and told me all was well. Using the useful USB copy option, I was then able to copy the data from the old NAS. This was amazingly quick - about an hour. I then enabled UPnP and iTunes services and created accounts for all the family. Finally, I mapped a network drive on my (and other family members PCs). All works fine and file copies and media access are 4-10x quicker than the DLink NAS! I also like that the SMART status of individual HDDs is readily available and any emerging error situations can be monitored. Emailing me the system logs works fine too.The Backup facility to a USB drive is both quick and remarkably simple - as is setting up a schedule. I set up a Zyxel zCloud account and the Zyxel 'Drive' and 'zCloud' apps on Android devices work remarkably well at and away from home. Brilliant!Obviously, this is not a £500 NAS and will have certain limitations. However, for our simple use it is ideal. I quite like the user interface though it did take a few days to master it completely. It is so much better than that on the old DLink NAS.I have however, only given a 4-star rating as it was supplied with a 2-pin European mains lead. Alas, this is illegal in the UK. I have advised Amazon who tell me they have removed these devices from this particular supplier from sale until this is rectified. For me, I was given a small partial refund (excellent!) and I used a UK legal adapter plug I had anyway - see the photos (Note. A 'shaver' type adapter is NOT legal for these devices).
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18.12.2015

My lack of technical knowledge on Sata caused me a bit of worry about which hard drives to buy. You can't get new ones with the version of SATA this box supports. But, a quick search online said that saga devices are backwards compatible and it seems to work fine. I found it very easy to stick a couple of hard drives in (2 x 3tb in my case) and set up from the CD. I set it up as RAID 2, essentially mirrored drives. I use it mostly for photos and would hate to lose them so knowing a hard drive failure won't wipe them out gives me huge peace of mind. It works perfectly, including seamless integration with my wife's MacBook and it's time machine backup software.I've yet to try the backup software for my windows 10 machine but I'm not expecting any issues. The drive was instantly visible to my windows machine after set up and, copying data to it as easy as with any other storage device. The device has a cooling fan which is't silent so can be heard, as is the noise of drives spinning and head movement on the hard drives, but not loudly enough to be disturbing. A very similar noise to having a PC or laptop switched on. But, for watching TV etc. I don't notice it at all, despite being out in the open and right next to where I sit. Initially, I switched the drive off when I wasn't using it but I just leave it on now. Copying and reading large volumes of data over a wireless network can take time. That's not the drives fault, just a feature of wireless speed at the moment. I copied 400gb of photos which took something like 10 hours, maybe more. I left it running overnight and the next day whilst I was at work. Remember to stop you PC from shutting down or going onto stand-by or hibernating whilst this is going on otherwise the copying process will also stop. Next time, I'll connect my machine to the drive with an Ethernet cable which'll be a lot faster. But for looking at photos and using the drive as a network storage device, the speed is absolutely fine. I thoroughly recommend this for anyone who wants to store their data securely, without the worry of a hard drive failure wiping out everything. Cracking box at much less money than the alternatives.
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6.3.2014

I recently bought the Zyxel NSA325v2 after a year or more of trying to get the MyBook World II to work properly. The difference is chalk and cheese with the Zyxel so far performing very well. First off, I put the discs from the MyBook (WD 1TB Green) into the Zyxel which then reported that it was re-syncing - the same issue that I had with MyBook. However, after a few hours (and about 100GB of data already transferred) the Zyxel informed me that one of the discs wasn't working, which the MyBook never did and their help service never pointed me in that direction. After a bit of research into which replacement disc would be best I ordered 2 x WD 1TB Red.I replaced the faulty Green disc with one of the Red ones and after a few hours the Zyxel reported that the both discs were healthy and had rebuilt the RAID 1. I then replaced the original good Green disc with the second new Red one and the Zyxel rebuilt the RAID again within a few hours. After that, I was able to get around 8MB/s transfer rate using WiFi from a laptop running W8. The user interface is a dream to use compared to MyBook and so far I'm very happy with the purchase.I have been able to set up shares to back up the various computers that we have in the house as well as using the DLNA feature to show video and stills on the TV via my XBox 360 and play music the same way.The unit sits on a shelf in the lounge and is very unobtrusive with virtually no noise. Disc replacement using the slide-in plastic caddies is very easy and the ability to take 2.5" discs will suit some although I am using 3.5" with no heat or noise problems.There are other features that I haven't used yet since my prime use is for back-up, sharing and media streaming all of which it is doing admirably. I've given it 4 rather than 5 stars since the manual, although extensive, doesn't include a picture of the device (to identify the controls/displays) nor does it address the questions a relative novice to these technologies might ask - probably aimed at a 14 year old rather than a pensioner!
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21.8.2014

I purchased this as an upgrade from the 1-bay Zyxel NSA310 to add hard drive redundancy (RAID1) to my home backup solution. The experience could not have been easier; I removed the HDD from the 310, added it to the 325v2 along with a new blank HDD and fired it up. Once logged in to the web management interface, clicking one button started the process of mirroring all of the data on the filled HDD onto the blank one which completed overnight.I use this for Time Machine for three Mac OS X computers and as a file server for music and photos. The box is filled with 2 x 2TB WD Red (NAS-specific) hard disk drives, organised into a RAID1 (mirrored)array.I think this product has been criticised previously for the lack of instructions included in the box, but there is a very comprehensive user guide which can be downloaded from the relevant page on the Zyxel website (http://www.zyxel.com/uk/en/products_services/nsa325_v2.shtml?t=p). We only have Mac OS X in the house so could not use the Windows-only setup utility on the supplied disk. However you only need to find the IP address assigned to the NAS in order to access the management interface through your web-browser. To do this I used a network scanner; there are lots of free options on the web but I downloaded "IP Scanner" from the App Store, which was very self-explanatory.The build quality is better than the previous generation Zyxel NAS drives; the addition of drive trays is welcome as the drives are easier to insert and connect, and feel more secure once locked in place. The NAS is quiet, runs relatively cool, and offers middle-of-the-road performance.Where it really excels is in price: 2-bay NAS drives with a similar feature set (albeit slightly more robust or better performing) are currently around £300 drive-less, so £80 for this Zyxel is a very, very good deal.
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3.5.2016

Having run a WD My Book Live for over 2 years as my backup and as a Media server it failed, I was able to recover all data but with them being only 1 drive I decided it was time to buy a dedicated NAS server. Having read the reviews of other products and seeing the higher price tag I decided to by this NAS326 model as it did what I needed and was a lot less in price.Now although this NAS is cheaper I foudn the setup very easy, very simple interface not too many options and so was up and running within 5 minutes, you can hot swap the drives too so you don't need to power it off to remove or add a drive. Setting up the RAID was simple so now I have 2 4TB drives running (WD Purple 4TB)and found the NAS easy to find on my setwork so I've mapped it to my PC, can access the content from my phones, tablets and TV for the media server part.Now for the bad parts, and heres the biggest: You need to purchase a 2pin to 3pin adapter as the plug that comes with the unit is NOT for the UK, not too bad I guess but a trip to Argos and £2.99 later I have a adpater, it would have been nice to know that when I purchased it but Amazon didn't list that information.Another bad part is you can't add extra folders to the main folder tree, sub folders yes but until ZyXel get back to me I can't see a way, the "Create Folder" icon is grayed out for the main folder tree.Apart from these little issues its a very solid NAS unit and worth getting if you don't want to spend £130+WARNING: Do not upgrade the firmware when you setup the unit, you need to install the firmware in order of release, the unit tries to update to the latest but this will brick the unit, you must update the previous firmware first by downloading it and upgrading manually.
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20.4.2014

This is an upgrade for me from a Zyxel nsa 310. Myneed is to be able to back up 3 laptops and stream music files using Logitech Media Streamer (LMS) to my Squeezebox Touch and Squezebox radio. I migtrated the 2 Tb Red WD Hard Drive from the 310 to the 325 an added a new 2TB Toshiba Sata 6g Hard Drive for a basic Raid set up.Bad Points - No manual - need to run Quick set up from provided DVD, and print off the manual sections you might need.Plastic Front Panel - careful sliding off the front - not designed for regular removal. If you have a need to regularly change drives leave the panel off.Metal case - flimsy, will easily mark, but functional.Drive Caddies are Plastic - drives have to be fixed with screws,but solid design.Drives cannot be quickly changed.Only 1 usb3 port, and no Esata portVery poor printer supportPower supply rather largeGood PointsVery fast write and read times. Excellent performance for the moneyLots of support - Squeezebox, Twonky server, ITunes , Drop box and loads more.Much improved front end - very similar to that common to more expensive alternatives.Wake on LanThis is an excellent NAS - I cannot explain it's functionality sufficiently. I brought a Netgear 102 - 2 Bay NAS before the 325. Netgear build quality was in parts superior but the NSA problematic to set up. Not so the Zyxel - it meets all my needs and is a very quick NSA, and I think that it actually has improved the sound of my music streams.A bargain - don't hesitate to buy, but if you need to constantly change hard drives probably not the NSA for you.
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25.2.2014

(**NOTE: This review is of the ZyXEL NSA325 v2 2-Bay Media Server.**) ZyXEL's version 2 of its NSA325 looks plainer than the first version; gone are the nice wavy lines on the front, in favour of a more subtle honeycomb effect at the bottom. The hardware itself hasn't changed that much, with the exception of the fact that it can accommodate 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives in its bays. The drives cannot be secured into place without the use of a hand tool, though this doesn't bother me too much.With a 1.6GHz single-core processor and 512MB of RAM, the NSA325 v2 is middle-of-the-road in its device class. I found it to be middling when it comes to noise too. It's not the noisiest NAS enclosure I've ever used,nor is it the quietest (your experience may vary according to the drives you insert into it). The user interface, while not flashy, is well thought-out and easy to understand. Administering the device and installing applications are both a breeze using it.I have several items of ZyXEL hardware and they generally tend to be well-made yet affordable. The NSA325 v2 is the same, plus it has features that some other NAS enclosures lack, such as support for web publishing, Dropbox and Apple's Time Machine. If "bang for your buck" is what you're looking for, then you could do a lot worse than v2 of ZyXEL's NSA325.
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11.7.2015

Just got this item yesterday and got to say although have some IT knowledge thought that it would take an age to set up but after 15-20 minutes had a 2TB Seagate NAS drive in and the device running!So far I have put music on it from an external HDD, streamed via films via Android phone and tablet and it works great!I have chromecast and recommend that for films etc can put your renderer on bubble pnp as chromecast and it works. I have tried mp3 and flac files for music and found the best streaming app for those from the NAS drive is allcast. This device will automatically put film and music files in a separate folder.If you use ES file explorer can also ftp across files from this and android devices.I have also used the torrent downloader and if you find your torrent downloads in admin can play about with them and use them on your Android device.Finally I have found the zmedia app awful and access the router through my android phone via chrome and you can do all the admin functions via that or your tablet if needs be.I bought mine on impulse and some reviews and got to say does everything I want and much more! Recommended!!!
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27.4.2018

I bought the 4-bay version (which is actually a slightly higher spec NAS542 rather than the stated NAS540) to use with a Zappiti Mini media player. I installed four 10TB WD Red label hard drives, purchased from Amazon, and configured one 16TB RAID-5 volume and one 14TB RAID-5 volume. (These sizes are in Terabytes rather than Tebibytes, by the way.) The maximum volume size is limited to 16TB but that isn't an issue for me. Configuration using the web interface is possible from a mobile but much easier from a desktop. I also enabled SSH logins as I want to write my own scripts for monitoring purposes. Populating the volumes is quite slow - I'm getting a write speed of 2.8GB per minute or 1TB every 6 hours from a directly connected USB 3 hard drive.The read speed is perfectly adequate for streaming HD video using DLNA or SMB over TP-Link based 500Mbit/s Ethernet powerline to the Zappiti. I've not seen any problems with a peak demand rate of 100Mbit/s. (Zappiti do their own NAS storage solution with 8 bays but it's about 10 times more expensive and that's not including disks!)
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22.1.2016

The product itself is perfect, with two identical 3TB NAS hard drives set up in Raid1 it's a perfectly reliable backup system.The included software has its strong points and weak points. It's interface design is lacking, and setting up the system for remote access is (as far as my experience level goes) impossible, but it's their features like The Torrent download utility has smoking fast download speeds! It allows you to limit the download speed which is useful when then internet is in high demand. It works well with Apples Time machine function over WIFI and also backups your Dropbox account which is handy.Users can have desperate password protected folders to keep everyone's stuff private,and allows you to allocate a certain amount of storage for them to use.Noise levels depend on the drives you use, the unit itself makes very little noise with the inbuilt fan, the only noticeable noise is when both drives are in use, even then it's only noticeable in a silent roomOverall it's done exactly what I wanted and much more, I would highly recommend this product.
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2.4.2015

A great product, if a little difficult to use. Set up is fairly straight forward using the web-based setup wizard. I only have one drive (Seagate 1TB) installed at present in JBOD. Will add another in RAID1 incase anything goes wrong with the Seagate.It is a little noisy when running, due to the fan but not overwhelming and you easily forget about it.Following the manual is tedious but a call to Zyxel's HQ in the UK helped me out greatly.One thing to note, make sure you've got a MAC/PC to hand when loading files onto the drive as mapping the drive on your computer then copying across to the NSA is much easier and less stress than using the built-in zPilot app which quite frankly is yet to work with my Windows 8.1 laptop...Don't let other reviews put you off,it's easily as fast as the Synology Diskstation (I have one also and read/write access times are pretty much the same).Make sure your router is gigabit enabled (Ethernet port) as this greatly helps in the file transfer speed.For £123 including shipping and a 1TB drive, you really can't go wrong!
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6.7.2015

Good deviceWorking all ok 2 HDD installed (very good sleep wake up function )Im getting HDD speed aprox 70-90 MB Read , Write 60MB (Looks speeds the same if on raid or non raid )I have NSA310Where speed Write 30 MB read 60MB so this NSA325 2 x improvement as write speed 2xFrom my Windows Home server Im getting Write speed 100MB read speed 100MB + But Im comparing full PC to little device with single CPUDo I recommend Yes as price ratio and performance is very goodIs it more better devices on the market Yes - but they cost as well for my home need it is more than I need .There are better devices can reach write speed maybe not far 80-100 MB but they cost x 3 times more so for 20 mb write extraspeed 3 times price not worthWhat I would like in the NAS is hardware encryption but not many NAS have and write speed very badSo Im keeping Windows home server for HDD encryption but if in future will be zyxel or other device with good hardware encryption my move will be to this device
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2.2.2015

I purchased this as it had good reviews and its transfer speeds punched well above its weight.For starters I partnered it with one WD 4TB HDD. These HDDs have a very good long term reliability record and are whisper quiet. The two combined provide a very fast and super quiet service. I plan to drop a second WD drive in at a later date.As for the software, the GUI is clear and concise, it is possible to install Google Drive as well as Squeezebox Server and Fonz Fun Plug but you will have to do a bit of reading and hunting to find the location they are hiding in as they don't appear in the default download location.Twonky comes as standard so you might not need the squeeze box and coupled with bubbleUPNP makes a great method of sending your music /video and images to either your smart TV or Chromecast or some PC all of which need to be on your network of course.All in all a great product and for a price that you could not make your own for.
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6.12.2014

Great budget NAS drive, I previously had the 310 model and never had a problem with it. I set the 325 up for raid 1 with 2 x 4TB drives which once formatted gave me around 3.75TB of storage. (Second drive mirrors the first drive). You would get around 7TB of storage if it was formatted as a single drive.The only problem I had was finding the default username and password to log into the drive as an admin user. Google sorted this out though for me.There are some great add on apps/packages that are easy to install like transmission torrent client, drop box, my cloud, print server etc.I would highly recommend this drive to anyone that wants a reliable media server drive,it streams anything I throw at it in full HDR and even 3D to all the devices in my house, even over a good wifi connection (via my wifi router). Although a wired connection is recommended for heavy use.
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