Thecus N4200 Pro 4-Bay NAS Review

As we find with many network devices, the main management portal is via a web based interface and here we find a JS based interface giving the user an easy to navigate interface. Once connecting to the web interface via the NAS’ IP address, the splash page gives four common options for the user to navigate to. Out of these the most popular link will be to the main admin page.

Once logged in and into the admin panel, the first page that comes up has the most common navigation links in the main window and down the left hand side are the managmetn sub categories making for a friendly user experience.

The system information tab breaks down into five separate pages and here on the system status we can see which of the N4200 Pro’s network services such as the FTP server are running and which are stopped/disabled. Above this there is a detail into the systems current CPU usage, fan speed and current uptime.

Moving onto the general system management, this section contains pages for amongst other things; updating firmware, changing the admin password, date and time alterations and as we can see below setting up scheduled on and off automation. This particular function would be ideal for those who are energy conscious and would see the benefit from having the NAS power itself down overnight when access to the storage is not going to be required or over the weekend for example when a small business is closed to trade.

The system network group is very concise and has a setup page for each of the network ports on the rear. On the primary controller page there is a little bit more involved and this is where you can set the devices host name and domain settings, and also setup LAN link aggregation for utilising both posts as though they were one. At the bottom is the IP setup where a dynamic or static IP can be assigned to the NAS.

As its name suggests, the storage tab focusses on the disks themselves and this is one of the areas where all users will find themselves visiting during setup.  From here the RAID configuration is set and managed along with the facility to add extra folders onto the drives for network access.

The network service pages are not going to be so important for vast majority of home users but SMB or SOHO users may find the need to setup the likes of an FTP  or TFPT access to their NAS from here.

The application server is a bit similar to the network server section but a few home users may find themselves wanting to setup the iTunes server function for ease of audio content sharing across their network.

The backup area is another one that is quite self explanatory and one the may come of use for users with critical data. By default the NAS is enabled to bacup the DOM file which contains the NAS’ configuration which it loads during startup. Should the active one become damaged or corrupted, the system will automatically restore the backup to save on system downtime.

Finally the external devices area shows items such as connected printers and their current status. If a connected printer for example is failing to print or is unreachable, then the printer service can be restarted without having to power cycle the NAS.