#wirelessap

[elizaraylife]

[geeklingo]

QNAP TVS-473 4-Disk NAS

QNAP seem to be sharing the love across multiple processor manufacturers by pairing them with products that match their capability. In their latest lineup, the TVS-x73 series, QNAP have partnered with AMD to deliver a NAS solution based on the AMD R-Series Quad-core SoC. We take a look at the 4 disk model which comes in 3 variants:

TVS-473-8G – 8GB entry level

TVS-473-16G – 16GB mid-range (reviewed edition)

TVS-473-64G – 64GB flagship

Some of the key features we noted:

4 x Gigabit LAN ports

2 x M.2 SATA SSD

Support for SSD cache

USB 3.1 support

Dual HDMI out

[table id=67 /]

A quick CPU check via SSH confirms the inclusion of the AMD processor as described in the specs:

[~] # head -5 /proc/cpuinfo ; echo ; uname -a ; echo processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 21 model : 96 model name : AMD Embedded R-Series RX-421BD Radeon R7 Linux NAS0DCC98 4.2.8 #1 SMP Thu Feb 16 05:47:24 CST 2017 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Design & Build

One thing we can count on with QNAP is a consistent design from model to model and apart from some minor additions, not much else has changed on the exterior:

New colour

Increase in length

Additional ports in the rear

Caddy eject process

QNAP TVS-473 4-Disk NAS

QNAP TVS-473 4-Disk NAS

QNAP TVS-473 Power button and external HDD inputs

The rear of the QNAP TVS-473 4-Disk NAS

The same applies for the internals.

Expansion slots on the QNAP TVS-473

Easy access to the RAM and M.2 slots

SATA ports

Unfortunately, QNAP have gone with the plastic HDD caddy design on the TVS-x73 series. I personally prefer the aluminium caddies QNAP use on the Pro series as the plastic models feel too flimsy.

The QNAP TVS-473 comes with plastic HDD caddies

As I noted above, QNAP have changed the caddy ejection process slightly with the new model. It’s no longer a push in and pull out process:

To eject, slide smaller section down before pulling the top section out

One nice little change was the voice feedback the unit now provides instead of the old “beeeep”:

Software

We are all fairly familiar with QTS now so I decided to run their latest 4.3 beta firmware instead (4.2 is the current stable release). There were some performance issues initially but things seemed to have settled down towards the end of our testing. We did have to reinstall a couple of the additional applications though. QTS 4.3 brings with it a refreshed design and a few extra goodies:

Firmware Update Progress

New default images on the login page

Colour change with default QTS desktop

New control panel GUI

Storage manager

QTS FileStation 5

A new USB Quick Access feature

Select NICs for port trunking

Port trunking switch type

Different port trunking modes

A nice feature showing what additional licenses can be purchased

WirelessAP Station

A new feature that QNAP have introduced is the WirelessAP Station. WirelessAP is capable of turning your QNAP TVS-x73 NAS into a wireless access point. The advantage of using WirelessAP is that it allows you to shift data heavy transactions from your regular Wireless router to the more powerful processor on the NAS. Bypassing the traditional wireless router provides a more optimal data route when devices connect directly to the QNAP NAS.

WirelessAP Technical Architecture (Image courtesy of QNAP)

In addition to improving performance for wireless devices connected to the QNAP NAS, WirelessAP can also allow administrators to assign individual wireless NICs to different services or containers. In a practical sense, this means that you can setup a secure/private Internet of Things (IoT) environment that is fully independent of the network the NAS resides in.

WirelessAP allows you to separate environments easily (Image courtesy of QNAP)

Hardware Required for WirelessAP

A list of compatible wireless network cards is available on the QNAP website. For this review, we used the TP-Link TL-WDN4800, a N900 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter.

QNAP TVS-473 with TP-Link TL-WDN4800

Installing the card was a straightforward process. The only annoyance was the need to remove the TVS-473 powersupply in order to gain access to the PCI Express slot.

The TVS-473 with the PSU removed

Wireless adapter installed and ready for use

QNAP TVS-473 now with wireless 8-)

Configuring WirelessAP Station

To complete the setup of WirelessAP, we needed to install the application from the QNAP App Center and finish a few additional configuration steps.

The WirelessAP Station in the QNAP App Center

On first load, we need to add the wireless network card

The TP-Link wireless card was detected without issue

Configuring the wireless access point. It was a shame that you are unable to configure as a dual band AP though

A summary of our settings

We can confirm that the wireless AP is up and running

Testing WirelessAP

To test our newly created wireless access point, we used an iPhone 7 plus. The network that the TVS-473 has a capped download limit of 10Mbps.

iOS detected the QNAP’s access point successfully

Our default network settings from the core router were applied correctly

Speed test shows that we are hitting our ISP speed limits without issue

Performance

The QNAP TS-473 was configured as follows:

RAM – 8GB

HDD #1 – Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

HDD #2 – Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

Hdparm was used to see how the unit performed with buffered and cached disk read speeds under RAID1:

[~] # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing cached reads:   11164 MB in  2.00 seconds = 5582.47 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads:  1150 MB in  3.01 seconds = 382.43 MB/sec [~] # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing cached reads:   11824 MB in  2.00 seconds = 5912.73 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads:  1156 MB in  3.00 seconds = 384.85 MB/sec [~] # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing cached reads:   11752 MB in  2.00 seconds = 5876.91 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads:  1158 MB in  3.01 seconds = 385.31 MB/sec [~] #

I also configured a remote mount to the QNAP TS-563 and copied data to the TVS-473:

Saturated gigabit links on the TVS-473 during a remote NAS copy

Finally, a disk benchmark performed under Mac OS X:

QNAP TVS-473 DiskSpeedTest

Final Thoughts

QNAP continue to impress us with the performance, ongoing development and addition of new features with their NAS products. The TVS-473 was no different, a solid performer that continued to work flawlessly under a heavy network load. I could saturate the gigabit links consistently on the client devices and the TVS-473, combined with port trunking, continued to hum along without missing a beat.

Similarly, QTS 4.3, despite being beta, was a refreshing update to its predecessor. It continues to be simple yet powerful to use with access to an abundance of 3rd party enhancements in the App Center.  I did encounter a couple of minor performance issues initially but these cleared themselves out. As I was unable to replicate the issues again, I am putting this down to it being a beta version.

Lastly, WirelessAP. QNAP did this with Virtualisation Station, and they have done it again with the WirelessAP Station. The lines are truly blurred when it comes to a NAS being just a NAS. With the addition of WirelessAP, the TVS-473 becomes more than just a “NAS” in the traditional sense. It’s now an integral part of the household entertainment eco system serving both content and access. WirelessAP was easy to install and worked well. The only disadvantage is that if you go down this route, to add 10Gbps capability you will need to decide between WirelessAP and USB 3.1 to free up a PCI Express slot.

Overall, the QNAP TVS-473 was a great product. If you are in the market for a NAS with additional features such as 10Gbps or Wireless capabilities (via optional cards), you will want to have this one on your shortlist.

Highly Recommended

QNAP TVS-473 4-Disk NAS Reviewed QNAP seem to be sharing the love across multiple processor manufacturers by pairing them with products that match their capability.

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无线WIFI—1 相关概念

SSID: Service Set ldentifier,服务集标识符。标识某一无线局域网的唯一标识符。无 线客户端(笔记本、PDA 或者带Wi-Fi 的手机)用它入网后与接入点进行通信。SSID 可以是任何字符，最大长度为32个字符。 WAP: Wireless Application Protocol,无线应用协议，是- -1开放式标准协议，利 用它可以把网络上的信息传送到移动电话或其他无线通信终端上。WAP 能够运行 F各种无线网络之上，如GSM.GPRS.CDMA 等,WML 是无线主标语言(Wireless Makeup language )的英文缩写。支持WAP技术的手机能浏览由WML 描述的Internet 内容。 AP: (Wireless) Access Point,即1无线访问点或无线接入点。无线客户端需要连接无 线接入点才能获得登录外部互联网的能力。无线接入点可以是一座大型无线接入设 备，也可以是- 一台小型无线路由器。由于在有的资料中会把WAP (WirelessAP) 和 WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) 概念相混淆，所以在本书中都将使用该简化词 汇AP 来指代无线接入点。 是目前市面上最常用的无线网络的认证机制之一， WEP: Wired Equivalent Privacy, 它是802.11定义下的- 一种加密方式，简单地说，就是先在无线AP中设定- 一组密码, 使用者要连上这个无线AP时，必须输入相同的密码才能联机。此部分在第3 章将有 详细描述。 WPA: Wi-Fi Protected Access,是目前市面上常用的无线网络的认证机制之一，分 为个人和企业的WPA-Personal 和WPA-Enterprise 两种。此部分在第3 章将有详细 描述。 EAP: Extensible Authentication Protocol,是一种用于验证网络设备身份的鉴权机制。 由于本书定位为无线黑客攻防入门图书，故关于EAP 的安全攻防暂不涉及。 WiFi-Mesh: 是一种新型公共无线局域网和城域网解决方案,其网络结构类似于渔网， 从一个点到另- 一个点有很多路可以走，这样即使有个别站点故障仍然可以保持较好 的覆盖。

[elizaraylife]