Gadgets

Edimax NS-2502 SATA NAS Server

Q: Key Point 4: It supports a number of file formats --CIFS, NTFS, FAT16,...

It supports a number of file formats --CIFS, NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, ext2, ext3 file systems.

Abe Olandres September 3, 2009 · 2 min read

Listen to article

BPI expands barcode cash deposit service to Robinsons Retail stores Instagram removes end-to-end encryption for DMs Sony confirms Xperia 1 VIII launch date Globe AT HOME offers free upgrades to 1Gbps and Wifi 6 routers to loyal postpaid subscribers HUAWEI WATCH FIT 5 Pro now open for pre-order in PH

If you’re looking into some home network storage and is always craving for more space, check out this dual-bay Gigabit NAS Server from Edimax.

Been looking for some network storage solution for some time now but since I already got an external HDD, an Apple TV and HDX 1000 NMT (that’s a total of 1.5TB of storage), I never found any more use for a NAS.

However, the Edimax NS-2502 SATA NAS Server some some pretty nifty features that’s making me reconsider. Not only is it a network storage device, it’s also an iTunes Server, Media Server and BitTorrent client. That means you can download your torrents directly into the server without the need for a computer.

edimax nas storage

The NS-2502 has two drive bays so you can get as much as 4 terabytes (2x2TB) in there. The NAS hooks up to your router via RJ45 (LAN cable). The device can be managed via the browser in a password-protected local IP.

It also comes with a USB port in the front so you can actually attach another USB device there and copy the entire contents into the NAS with a single push of the button. It supports a number of file formats –CIFS, NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, ext2, ext3 file systems.

The NAS isn’t cheap by any means and retails for about Php7,350 without the HDD.

React to this article:

Add new tag edimax edimax philippines nas server

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

7,991 Articles

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

203 Comments

Mishu · 16 years ago

There are no significant differences between 0.72 and 0.73. At least I didn’t saw any so I went back the Planex firmware which is so good comparing with the Edimax version.

Jethro · 16 years ago

Hi Otie, could you email that 0.73 firmware to me please? My email address is cbx2000 [at] hotmail dot com. Thanks! Am interested to see what changes this firmware has.

Chris · 16 years ago

Hey Otie, I would love a bash at the new firmware please. its chrisdj [at] chrisdj.plus.net

Thanx

Mishu · 16 years ago

Great, here is my address mi****@gmail.com but if the file is bigger than 10 MB it will not pass. Maybe you can give me the web site where from I can download it. Thanks a lot!

Otie · 16 years ago

I have here firmware version .73, post your email here if you want that latest firmware version.

jtan · 16 years ago

theoretical limit of 1 gigabit network is

1000Mbps / 8 = 125MBps, that’s 125 megabyte per second

so the bottleneck is in your NAS’ system.

You can check this

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_nas/Itemid,190

which compares different NAS

Mishu · 16 years ago

I am not convinced you are right because the NAS network card is Gigabit so when all my cables will be CAT6 and all my networked devices are conected by Gigabit network cards the speed will increase significantly. About your transfer speeds over CAT5, what router are you using, a Gigabit one and your PC network card is Gigabit?

jtan · 16 years ago

on NAS it will be ext2 ext3 or ext4 since NAS are mostly running on Linux system. The latest one are now in ext4.

mishu, doubt you will see any negligible improvement when you change your cable from cat5 to cat6 since the bottleneck is on your NAS.

i’m on cat5 and i can transfer 700mb file in 5 seconds.

Jethro · 16 years ago

Thanks Mishu!

Mishu · 16 years ago

If you want RAID you cannot select NTFS, it is only one option: autopartition and format. If you use JBOD you can choose any file system.

Jethro · 16 years ago

Can anyone confirm for me that you are able to format the internal drives in this unit as NTFS? I really don’t want to use EXT2, EXT3, FAT 16 or FAT 32…

Mishu · 16 years ago

I copy files to this NAS with Windows Explorer with 7-8 MB/s over the Ethernet cable and with 5-6 MB through the FTP protocol. I bought a Gigabit Wireless router Linksys WRT320 so after I will replace the CAT5 cables with CAT6 the speed will increase. I have 2×1 TB Caviar Green EADS disks inside so they are not so speedy but overall I am pleased with the performance for this price. If they will fix the BitTorrent client (which is important for me) I will have no complaints anymore! :)

jtan · 16 years ago

if speed is important, you may want to consider qnap, thecus, synology or netgear’s high level NAS.

on gigabit network they can transfer as fast as 85mb/s, and can be much faster than local HD if you use iSCSI.

ramzez · 16 years ago

I didn’t try HD, but was really disappointed the upload rate is not so good, the firmware is so so, it is quite noisy. Bittorent is about 7-10 times slower then on pc, so I have sold mine and ordered QNAP.

The support only replied to my email once and sent me a 0.72b firmware, although it fixed some of the problems it was extremely slow to access any menus and as mentioned earlier ps3 streaming didn’t work after about 20 minutes of watching a video.

Mishu · 16 years ago

The topic from the Polish forum mentioned by Kurt was opned by me :)!

Jethro · 16 years ago

Nice work Kurt…I’ll be definitely be buying 2 of these now. It’s funny that buying 2 of these is still a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a 4 bay NAS enclosure!

Kurt · 16 years ago

2 x 2TB Drives No Problem
Print Server No Problem
Files Larger than 4GB on NTFS no problem
Bittorrent no problem

Follow this link for a the correct firmware.

http://forum.edimax.pl/viewtopic.php?f=12&p=4566

Mishu · 16 years ago

I am currently streaming 720p video content without any problems to a media player TVIX, I tried also 1080p yesterday and works fine (over Ethernet).

Jethro · 16 years ago

Also, I’m just reading through the documentation on it and it mentions that the maximum file size for FAT32 and NTFS on this unit is 4GB!?!? I know that’s true of FAT32 but not of NTFS. Does anyone have files larger than 4GB on this unit while formatted as NTFS?

Jethro · 16 years ago

Ramzez, what do think of the transfer rates of the unit. Do you stream any HD content from it?

Ramzez · 16 years ago

0.72 broke streaming to PS3 for me.

Jethro · 16 years ago

I had a look at the firmware that you mentioned on the polish Edimax site and the 0.72 firmware is dated the 27-08-2009. The firmware I posted is from 20-10-2009. I think that they may release different firmware versions for different regions.
I could be wrong however and it may be an error on Edimax’s part…

Mishu · 16 years ago

@Jethro the firmware 0.61d is the version that came on the NAS from the factory (I think is the first firmware they released), on the Polish site I’ve mentioned you can find the latest version 0.72 which rocks comparing with the initial one.

Jethro · 16 years ago

Ohh, for anyone wondering…I’ve found some transfer rates but it doesn’t specify what filesystem has been used – http://www.hardware.info/en-US/productdb/bGlkbJiWmJXKZ8g/viewproductspecs/Edimax_Gigabit_Fast_Ethernet_2Bay_SATA_NAS_Server_NS2502/

The tarnsfer rates don’t look particularly great…

Jethro · 16 years ago

I too am interested in the transfer rates of this unit and also if the unit can accept 2x 2TB SATA drives as opposed to the reported 2x 1TB SATA drives. If anyone can help with these questions I’d be very grateful.

By the way, if you go here – http://edimax.ie/en/support_detail.php?pd_id=260&pl1_id=17#02 you can get the latest firmware for this unit dated the 20-10-2009.

Mishu · 16 years ago

Go to the EDIMAX Polish site (www.edimax.pl) and download a newer (and way better!) firmware 0.72 which will change your actual impression about this product. Enjoy!

axel · 17 years ago

Oh and before anybody asks …. yes I do enable port forwarding to the EDIMAX Device for the new port range I select. In fact the only time I managed to trigger the bittorrent client to work is when I switched off upnp and enabled a DMZ Device on my Network (it was not even the EDIMAX Device) and that seemed to kick something into life.

I then disabled the DMZ Device and the one torrent started to download. I left upnp off, ao that is my best bet so far. so try that.

Also the software has a real dumb ass way of creating shares in that it constantly overwrites the name you choose by inserting RAID_ in the path.

dont waste your time buying this rubbish, learn from my mistakes and spend your money elsewhere.

axel · 17 years ago

I too have this drive with a pair of 2 500mb drives. I can confirm that
1). Bittorrent does not work if at all.
2). EDIMAX Support is none existant.
3). I would not buy this sh@t again if I had my chance over.

Buy from a more reputable brand that actually releases working firmware and provides support.

FYI I only manage to get bittorrent working by switching of pnp on my router and changing the default port range. Even then I can only get one torrent working at a time and the others all say downloading but do jack all. The one that does work works at a snails pace and I can download 10 times quicker from my desktop client using another client on different ports.

EDIMAX are assh@les who do not tets their products or provide support.

rpv · 17 years ago

I got it and my complains are so far:

1. Inability to save settings if you switch off device and DHCP doesn’t work so you have to run Windows Wizard again and again.
2. Removal of Torrents in BT Download doesn’t work on neither Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari , has it even ever been tested?
3. USB connected hard drives not recognised most of the time.
4. If trying to transfer data to attached usb drive over WiFi the transfer fails (large files)

Penol777 · 17 years ago

Do anyone know if you can connect a printer to it an use it as a network printer (print server) as well?

jtan · 17 years ago

QNAP in more than 4 bays can do RAID 6, for 4 bays it can do Raid 5

jtan · 17 years ago

QNAP NAS is quite good and readily available locally, comes in 1 bay to 8 bays

Daz · 17 years ago

The Edimax website says max of 2x 1TB HDD. I want to put 2x 2TB drives into it. Can you confirm that it works with 2x 2TB drives.THX

Jasper · 17 years ago

Hi there! I’ve been using the NAS model NS-2502 for more than a year…
I installed 2Tb in it and since the 1st time i turned in ON last year June 2008 i never turned it OFF and the device is still up and running. I’ve been downloading alot of movies, mp3’s and photos without letting my computer to be turned on always.

Pete Edmunds · 17 years ago

Hey gus I have one of these units. All in all it seems really good apart from I can’t get the torrent client working :( As for reliability, I’ve only had it for a few days but it seems pretty good; I went to bed leaving it to transfer about 500gb of data. I think it took about 4-5 hours to transfer it all which doesn’t seeem too bad and it didn’t lose connection at all.

Can anybody give me any advice on how to get the torrent client going? It won’t connect to any peers :( I’ve tried multiple torrents from both public and private trackers. Tried changing/opening different ports for it and have tested them online ok…

I know it connects to the net fine because http downloads work OK (very fast actually)

Overall I’m very happy with the box and I’m sure it’s something I’m overlooking in my setup. Any advice would be excellent :)

Joao Eduardo · 17 years ago

what is the throughput rate transfer using ntfs ?

anyony knows? anyone can test?

JoÃ£o Eduardo

sylv3rblade · 17 years ago

@john
Dlink’s offering looks like a solid build.

@Erin
I would’ve mentioned the sheevaplug but I haven’t got any experience with it, unlike the pogoplug (which we use in the office for our clients). :D

John · 17 years ago

The DLink DNS-323 NAS has been in our shores for quite some time and it falls in the same price range.

http://www.rsun.com.ph/blog/?p=233

Like the Edimax NS-2502, it has 2 drive bays, supports giga speeds, and has a built-in torrent client.

I think the features that make the DNS-323 better is its built-in fan and firmware support.

edwin · 17 years ago

and where could I buy that?

zcsaba · 17 years ago

Hi
Since yesterday i was browsing for an affordable NAS
The only one that got my attention after reading lots of reviews was the Netgear Readynas Duo, but that is not cheap at all
Now i found this but i see that there are n o reviews on it, probably is pretty new
Still i would like to know how good or how bad it performs.(transfer rates, stability in operations, i saw that has no cooling fan)
Since you have one, could you be so kind to do a more extensive review on it(I know Edimax to be a company that has good quality products, but the price difference from Edimax to Netgear is very high)
Thanx in advance
PS Excuse my English cause I’m from Romania

pafy6285 · 17 years ago

hehe, “SATA NAS”, sounds someone familiar. If you’re looking for a cheaper bittorrent client, there are wireless routers out there which you can load custom firmwares (tomato, an embedded linux system for example) and bittorrent clients. These routers have USB so you just have to plug an external USB disk drive for the storage.

Jill · 17 years ago

A device labeled as a “SATA NAS”? Don’t want the reference on this one.

wingatu · 17 years ago

Where can I buy this one?

Erin · 17 years ago

+1 on what sylv3rblade mentioned but I asked my friend in the US to buy the Marvell SheevaPlug (basis for the PogoPlug) since that comes with Ubuntu Jaunty by default.

But this can be a front runner for locally available multi-purpose NAS units.

ciao!

Jhay · 17 years ago

Quite pricey, but the features are really tempting. It’s nice to know there are other brands aside from WD and SeaGate.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 17 years ago

@Prokopio – like the HDX 1000 NMT and the Popcorn Hour, this NAS has a torrent client that is connected to the internet and can directly store and manage the torrent files into the HDD. There’s a web UI you can use to monitor it.

sylv3rblade · 17 years ago

Hmm.. I’m opting for a pogoplug ($100) + a 1 TB USB hard drive as a much cheaper option for NAS.

Prokopio · 17 years ago

Hi Yuga,

Can you kindly explain how this NAS Server can download Torrent files without using a PC?
Thanks.

jeric_raval · 17 years ago

Woah… why not just buy/assemble an atom rig? its power consumption is still around 40W even with the HDD included and you can even do more stuff plus its not that big either. You’d probably spend 8-10K depending on the size of HDD you include. More worth the money imho.