ASUSTOR AS5102T 2-Bay Enthusiast NAS Review

Setup – Basic configuration & Add-Ons

The ASUSTOR AS5102T has a very simple login interface, but a stylish one that also shows you a thumbnail look of your device – but this design can be changed to your liking. One thing to learn right away is that when something is grey, then it’s turned off, and if it’s coloured it’s turned on. So in the case of the above image, it’s set to not stay signed in. Okay, let’s get down to business and this NAS configured.

Once we’ve entered our administrator details set during the initialization and login in, we’re presented with a Welcome guide. Just hit the start button and the ADM guide will show you the basics and where to find them. This is always a welcome feature when starting out with a new brand and it can just be closed for those who are familiar with the layout and usage.

Now that we’ve entered the administrative dashboard, we’ll just hit the first icon available and start to create our users. It’s always recommended to create individual users for everyone that will access the device, including yourself. Only use the admin account for administration. It keeps everything a lot safer. I’ve found that using my name as username for these reviews fits with both length and security limitations that some systems have, and it’s one I can remember from review to review.

You can also enter a description for each user as well as define the internal user id in order to categorize them. The email address is optional, but you will need to enter a password. Other user features include the ability to disallow the change of password and an automatic expiration time for limited access.

The next step for most people would be to create more shared folders. Not everyone might like the default layout or they just need different ones or more. The default folders can also be hidden so they don’t bother you in your network environment. You can hide shares from the network environments as well as encrypt single folders.

The Storage Manager gives you an easy view of all your internal and external drives and their configuration. You also have a view at the current configuration, how it’s doing and how much space is used. You can of course also remove it and create a new, but more on that later.

Relevant drive information can be read from the S.M.A.R.T. page that reads the data from the individual drives.

The settings page includes all the basic as well as advanced settings you’ll be looking for. You can set everything from the sign in page style and port for the administration panel as well as the network configuration, VPN setup, notification methods, ADM Defender, update and so much more. Everything is easy to find, just think where you’d put it and it’s there; I like it.

Since the ASUSTOR AS5102T is a premium NAS and features 2 LAN ports, we’ll also take a look at the Link Aggregation Wizard. You can easily team the two ports together for load balancing, backup, and redundancy.

While I was creating this review, ASUSTOR released a new version of ADM. In fact I have been waiting for it before I finish it – see all the new features and benefits. The screenshot below shows version RFU1, but there is an RFU6 out at the time of writing. I’ve also updated the NAS with that version for the tests.

Storage Setup

You might have changed your mind about the disk configuration you set during the initialization and want to change that. That’s easily done in the Storage Manager where all you have to do is delete the old volume. It will automatically start-up the Wizard to create a new setup with just a few steps.

All you have to do is select which mode and which disks to use and confirm with your administrator password that you’re sure you want to replace the volume with a new one.

App Central

There are a lot of extra apps that you can install on your new ASUSTOR NAS and you can easily narrow down your search area with the different categories at your disposal. Keep track of your installed apps and update them when needed or manually install third-party downloaded apps. You can do it all here.

There is a wide variety of apps available from XMBC and Kodi media players, Chrome web browser all the way to Mail-Server, Photo Gallery, SQL and Web servers and so much more.

If you still didn’t find what you were looking for, then there is a good chance that someone is working on it and that it might be found in the Beta Apps section. There are further apps to be found from Logitech Media server over aMule to a Spotify player.