- Monday, 16 November 2009
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One guy acting strangely is a nut. A bunch of people doing the same thing is called a church. - Shawn Mahaney
Nas meets torrent in QNAP attack
PR-ISH AS THIS MAY SOUND, QNAP have come out with a new range of BitTorrent-certified NAS devices that are sure to set alight the torrenter in us all.
The company has announced a new line-up of products entirely based on a NAS-meets-Bit-Torrent concept that’ll save you a buck or two on your power bill. As most users use their own PCs to download stuff with torrent clients, these little appliances will let you download stuff at a fraction of the power consumption. The new line-up results from a collaboration between QNAP and Bit Torrent Inc. and the kit gets to sport the BitTorrent logo.
QNAP supremo, Shawn Shu called on world+dog to stop using their PCs to download stuff through Bit Torrent and to buy their new All-in-One Turbo Network Attached Storage devices – in the name of Global Warming (or the avoidance thereof). “We strongly believe that QNAP's energy-saving Linux-embedded NAS will become an ideal alternative solution to replace the PC as a download server as well as help protect the earth." Said Mr. Shu, in one single breath.
Getting back to the dirty details, QNAP’s TS-109 II, TS-209 II and TS-409 have an embedded P2P download engine that’ll let you use DHT, TCP and UDP tracker protocols, as well as encryption – all running a cut-down Linux over a 500MHz Marvell processor and 256MB DDR II. The twist is they’re compatible with Xbox 360, PS3 and other DLNA media players. You can also stream DivX video directly from the QNAP boxes to the PS3.
The boxes also double up by providing additional services like: file serving, FTP server, backup server, encrypted remote replication, Web Server (with PHP, MySQL and Joomla!), MySQL server, Print Server, Photo sharing server and iTunes Server. Since these are 3 NAS devices, you also get Gigabit LAN and stuff like hotswapping HD (in the 209 and 409) as well as RAID 1 (mirroring).
Looking up the devices at a local e-tailer, we did find the TS-209 II in the £240 region (no HD included). On this side of the pond, there’s plenty o’ unlimited broadband but the US is getting into metered access right now, so we hope this doesn't backfire ovwer there. €uroland, on the other hand, seems to be more and more the target for these lil' devices. µ
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.... and i'm very happy with it. The torrent engine could be a little better (you can only specify sharing time not a sharing ratio) but it's still a work in progress. Great for streaming divx to the XBOX360.
I got mine from the states for the grand total of 271euro including delivery (the weak dollar pays off!)
I have the 209Pro and it's amazing. Built-in torrent works great, you can even remote access it over the internet, start torrent downloads from your workplace so that they are ready by the time you get home. I've got mine mirrored with 2x1TB drives. Pretty quiet, doesn't heat up.
It's not clear in the press releases, but according to the QNAP forums, the new BT client will be available for older models too in a firmware update, including the TS 101 and 201 as well.