My Experience with eTRAYz (NAS)

ashishkesarwani

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Guys finally the eTRAYz which I ordered on 1st of November arrived yesterday. It was packed well with box in box concept, and it just took 4 days for this parcel to reach me from its origin country i.e Hong Kong.
Last night I went home pretty late so after finishing my dinner quickly at around 9:30 Pm I went ahead with Installing this eTRAYz thing. The Box inside which it was packed had ample amount of protection to take the toll of International shipping. The first impression of looking at it gives you a nice feeling, the construction quality was good for the price, also it was smaller than what I had anticipated about it, slightly longer than a 3.5" internal HDD and the width constists of slightly more than the 2 HDD kept on top of each other.
Now came the part when I needed to install a HDD internally into it and for this purpose I had bought a WD 1.5tb green HDD. There was a Quick Installation guide for installing it inside but the way in which it was explained was inadequate, so after fiddling for a while I finally managed to open the top cover of the Unit which work on pull up principle with a lock at the bottom to support the top cover. Then the rest of it i.e Installing the HDD was a piece of cake I just had to push it inside the enclosure and it gets locked, after that I put the top cover back into its position and now this thing was ready for a trial. Now comes the part in which I had to download its installation software from Xtreamer website which is 140mb+ size which takes around 20-25 minutes on a descent internet connection. The file which is downloaded is in the zip format so I had to unzip it which increases the file size to around 400+mb.
I had connected eTRAYz with the network cable running to the ethernet port at the back of my D-link Wireless Broadband Router, and my Laptop was connected to it via wifi.
The file which I had downloaded had a setup file and when I selected that, it comes up with a screen which has the option of installing the eTRAYz software onto the unit so I went ahead with it, this setup searches for the etrays over the network and once it is found, it asks for an Installation key which is printed onto a sticker at the bottom of the etayz unit. After entering that code, software goes ahead with formatiing the internal HDD and then installing the software onto the unit, and here comes the problem which took 6 setup re-runs as well as took 3.5 hours of my time and I realised that when I looked at the time which was 1:30 AM, I got really furstrated with all this but I still didn't loose hope, so I turned off the unit and opened the Top Cover again, I also took the HDD out of it and then inserted it back, put the top cover on and then fired up the unit again. This time when I ran the setup it went ahead smoothly and finished installing the required software onto the HDD of the unit.
After setup was over, a new window opened up in the internet explorer which was a sort of welcome screen for this device and there lies all the instruction to set it up. By the time I had installed and finished with the setup it was already too late as I had some urgent work today in my office other wise I would have taken off from work to finish with setting up etrays, but last night itslef I managed to set it up for etorrent downloads so I ended up downloading a couple of movies which I confirmed this morning.
In the morning I managed to check out the movies which I had downloaded over night, I tried playing them through Xtreamer which is connected wirelessly to my router, now I noticed that the initial loading time for movies player over the network was rather more than what was stored internally or attched via the USB port of the Xtreamer, but this lag was expected so I am not complaining on that front since it was far better than the PS3 and Ps3 media server route.
Now the disappointment came when I played the movie over the network, as it crashed a couple of times say after 10 minutes of playback or so and the resume was not functioning here so everytime I had to restart the movie from the begining.
Now I know that there must be something wrong with my settings here which I intend to correct during this weekend. But being a non Networking guy it would be a rather difficult job for me to setup it up straight away, as I happen to have a lot of practical knowledge whereas a professional of this field would have more of practical as well as theoritical knowledge so for him it would be an easy experience.
This devices opens up a lot of scope in my home as I live in a joint family so there are 3 parallel setups running simultaniously which includes the bedroom setups and in my case I just need to buy 2 more Xtreamer units to play contents wirelessly in my house. Box.jpg Box Open.jpgUnit.jpgHdd Inside.jpg
Unit Rear.jpg
 
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Pls check if it is able to support 3 movie streams.

For that I would need 3 Xtreamers or I could also check this out with the help of 1 xtreamer or 2 laptops which is already present at my place. But if I needed to check it through Xtreamer then Anant I would need your help here.
 
I would try using a static IP instead of DHCP if you run a NAS and don't have a 24x7 setup.

IF you are planning on streaming video files off a NAS, you need a pretty beefy network, I suspect wifi may not be the way to go, or if you do, you need a minimum of N wireless, or even N enhanced, the super-routers by Linksys or Netgear.

If you want to use the network *now*, then you'll have to turn off encryption as well. All in all, this makes for a loose and easily misused network, so upgrading your routers and interfaces is the way to go.

N wireless is much quicker than G, I just upgraded my setup when my 18-month old Linksys router started acting up. Definitely worth the price if you transfer files or stream media over the network, almost as fast as 100mbps wired ethernet.

About the DHCP part I tried activating DMZ on my router and have fixed the IP address which is assigned to the NAS there.
About the other suggestion of upgrading the router to N grade, I would like to ask you about the pricing and could you also specify me the exact model number.
Thanks
 
Someday, when we meet, I will bring along my nad cdp for DAC comparison, as well as my xtreamer :)

I saw few N routers in reliance digital shipra mall indirapuram for about 3.5k. Could be cheaper in Nehru place.
Did you try playing a movie off an external usb DVD rom?

regards
 
I was going through Xtreamer site and there its mentioned that if I don't have a wireless N standard network then I could use their USB wifi antenna, one at the back of the Xtreamer and the other at the back of the etrayz to make my own wireless N standard network, and since I already own 1 of these USB antenna so in all I just need to buy another one for etrayz which is avaliable around 1.5k from their Indian distributer. What do you think about this solution Cranky?
 
Thanks for your inputs Cranky. For now I will go ahead with the USB antenna and create an Ad-hoc network between the etrayz and Xtreamer, but ultimately I will aim for a Linksys or Asus wireless N standard router as you suggested. My sole aim to purchase etrayz was to free my laptop from torrents downloading, and I am happy with that job as of now, since the only contrain was wireless lag as well as media crashing which I think would be solved by this USB antenna to an extent.
 
Best solution will be connect your eTrayz directly to your wireless router via ethernet cable and use the router for broadcasting the streaming media as it cuts down one hope of wireless network to provide maximum bandwidth, for normal movies its ok to have 2 hopes of wireless but for playing HD movies my above solution will be best.Also with this connection you can use your eTrayz for 24x7 downloads without switching on your laptop or desktop.
Get latest N series router with 300 MBPS through put and enjoy wifi streaming.
One more thing did you got this via UPS services?How much the customs guys charged you?
 
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Best solution will be connect your eTrayz directly to your wireless router via ethernet cable and use the router for broadcasting the streaming media as it cuts down one hope of wireless network to provide maximum bandwidth, for normal movies its ok to have 2 hopes of wireless but for playing HD movies my above solution will be best.Also with this connection you can use your eTrayz for 24x7 downloads without switching on your laptop or desktop.
Get latest N series router with 300 MBPS through put and enjoy wifi streaming.
One more thing did you got this via UPS services?How much the customs guys charged you?

At present my etaryz is connected with my wireless G router through ethernet cable, and I intend to buy a new Wireless N router soon to take full advantage of this thing. Could you be more specific with the exact model number to look out for and its price bracket too if possible.
This thing was shipped thorugh UPS courier services but the delivery was undertaken by DHL and I didn't pay any duty as such, since the invoice value was mere 39$ and it was also marked as a sample pc.
 
I have noticed one more problem last night, that whenever the etrayz is on then I am unable to open any web pages on my Laptop this is even after nothing is being downloaded onto the etrayz, and as soon as I turn it off then my laptop is back to normal. I don't know where I am going wrong here, so I need help. Even my broadband connection is of descent speed i.e 1mbps so this angle is out of the question.
I have turned on DMZ in my router with the Ip address of the etrayz assigned to it, I have also activated port forwarding as per the instructions given in the etrayz manual. Upnp is also checked in the router and my guess is that in the etrayz settings menu I must have done something with the Upnp setup which might cause this problem. Since I am not a networking guy so these things are way above my head and I would definetely need some help from a forum member to set it up properly. To understand it better I am also providing the link to the mannual of etrayz here:http://gator884.hostgator.com/~xtreamer/eTRAYz_userManual_eng.pdf
Thanks in advance.
 
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Buy this router Buffalo Nfiniti WHR-HP-G300N and pair it with your Boradband modem along with Xtreamer media player using USB antenna and see the results.
 
Ashish,

When buying the N Router - Do search for models compatibility with PS3. It has got a strange history of not working with few N Routers especially Belkin.

Re: Your problem can you let us know what model router you're using? Also is your PC a DHCP client - If so are you getting IP address from your router? (When eTRAYz is connected)
 
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Re: Your problem can you let us know what model router you're using? Also is your PC a DHCP client - If so are you getting IP address from your router? (When eTRAYz is connected)

At present I am using a D-link Wireless Broadband Router model no. is DSL-G604T, and yes I have enabled the DHCP server option on my router which assigns the ip address to all the devices connected on my network automatically.
 
Guys I have just concluded a transaction on ebay india for buying a Linksys WRT610N wireless router and I think that this should clear all my etrayz blues.
 
Looks and specification looks same but the router what i was talking about is comes with 2 external antenna and works well for streaming HD content also.
 
Buy from India's official online dealer!
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