The “Break it Down” Blog

NETGEAR has made available the 4.1.5 release of the RAIDiator firmware (operating system) that their ReadyNAS line of personal NAS devices run.

For those that aren’t familiar with the ReadyNAS line, they originally started as personal servers from a company named Infrant that provided more than just dumb network-attached disk space (like the Drobo), they focused on additional functionality like scheduled backups, streaming services, print server functionality and so on.

With the release of the RAIDiator 4.0 OS last year, Infrant (soon bought by NETGEAR right after) exposed the underlying Linux-based OS to users via SSH, allowing you to treat the machine essentially like a Linux server — hosting websites or doing whatever you more or less wanted with it. In addition to these changes Infrant added additional streaming services support for photos and some other cool plugins (like BitTorrent support) that snapped right into the RAIDiator OS and provided slick functionality.

In addition to that, improved UPnP AV streaming support was added to the ReadyNAS operating system, removing the requirement for most people working with streaming audio/video libraries on their network to rely on 3rd party software like TwonkyVision to stream the media for them.

So far the UPnP AV streaming has been working more or less “pretty good” for me, with some exceptions, but the changelog that comes with the 4.1.5 release has announced a completely new implementation to UPnP AV support which should hopefully improve performance even more.

The complete changelog is as follows per the NETGEAR announcement:

New features

1. ReadyNAS Vault option has been added in this release.  With ReadyNAS Vault, you can back up specified folders on your ReadyNAS to an online data center in a matter of clicks.  The option appears in the Backup page, and more info and a quick how-to and be found here.
2. Time Machine support for Mac users just got a whole lot easier. The ReadyNAS can now be set up for Time Machine in a matter of a couple minutes. The option is available in the Backup/Time Machine tab. Follow the simple instructions here.
3. FrontView Backup Manager now has treeview for selecting local share folders.
4. ReadyNAS Duo now has DHCP Server, WINS Server, and Network UPS support.
5. ReadyDLNA replaces the existing UPnP-AV server support, providing excellent compatibility with DLNA devices, including the latest TVs with built-in DLNA client.
6. TiVo HMO (Home Media Option) support. TiVo HMO support allows TiVo to stream music and photos straight from the ReadyNAS. This option is available through ReadyDLNA.
7. Added an option to specify the NFS thread count.
8. Added TLS option for SMTP setting.
9. Simplified Domain/Active Directory setup.

Bug fixes

1. Fixed rarely seen bug where the backup manager could not connect to remote CIFS shares on some older systems.
2. Fixed guest access for AFP in user-based security modes.
3. Fixed power timer support on newer Duo systems.
4. Fixed support for all WD Green Power drives on the compatibility list.
5. Truncate backup logs.
6. Fixed slowness with ReadyNAS Photos.
7. Fixed notification of alert test failure.
8. Fixed quota violation alerts to domain users.

You can download the update from here, or more easily just login to your admin interface on your ReadyNAS device, go to System > Update, and click Check for Updates: