NAS boxes are great, but how about a NUS box? NUS as in Network USB Storage. Cirago recently launched the NUS1000 which is sort of like a four port UBS hub for your network. The NUS1000 is like a mini NAS box that uses USB drives and external USB hard drives as the storage instead of regular hared drives, it can also be a web server, a print server or a bittorrent client along with ability to share files and stream media from it. So read on to learn more about a rather unique little gadget…

We’ll start off with the video unboxing:

Box shots:

Inside the box we find the user manual, NUS1000 itself of course, ethernet cable, and power supply.

The NUS1000 is a small little metal and plastic blue box. On the front you’ll find a reset button, and several LED indicators along with an eject button.

On the back you’ll find the USB, ethernet and power connections.

The box itself seems well made, but a power switch would be nice, the only way you can turn it off is to unplug it or use the web interface.

Specifications:

Network Storage Link NUS1000

Features:
*  Access USB hard drives and USB flash drives over a network connection
* Share music libraries using the built-in iTunes server
* Stream photos, music and movies to compatible entertainment devices over your network
* Download directly to connected USB devices using the built-in BitTorrent client
* Access printers over a network using the built-in USB print server
* Simple setup and administration through web interface
* Supports multiple user accounts and roles
* Small size and low power consumption

Specs:
Interface: 4x USB 2.0, 1x Ethernet (100Mbps)
Supported network protocols: Samba, SMB, LPR (print server), UPnP
Supported file system: FAT32, NTFS (read only)
Maximum Hard Drive Capacity: 2 TB
User accounts: 8
Warranty: 1 year
Included Accessories: User manual, RJ-45 cable, AC adapter
Dimension: 4.4’’ x 2.8’’ x 1.0’’

Price: $57.99 (at Amazon at time of review)

I hooked up three USB drives and one external 2.5” HDD, they’re mixed NTFS and FAT32 file systems on the drives, two of each basically. Once you’ve gout the NUS1000 up and running all of the indicator lights will be on.

Once it’s up and running you can access the NUS1000 from your computer networking section or via IP address. I’m using Windows 7 and the NUS1000 comes up as two things for me, a computer and as a media device.

The interface resembles that of a regular NAS box, only with limited options. Down the left side are your choices and some will offer more choices across the top when you click on the category.

The first choice is status and it just gives you information about the NUS1000.

The next is setup, here you can set the name, Network settings, time zone and password.

The NUS1000 can be a webserver if you’d like, you have to set it all up yourself though and a little knowledge might be needed to get everything up and running correctly.

Under File Server you can set permissions and create users along with creating an actual sharing folder.

BitTorrent client is pretty much self-explanatory, you can set your torrents to go to your USB devices.

The iTunes server is easy, just set it up and your ready to stream music.

There’s also a Media Server so you can stream other things as well.

Under Tools you’ve got four choices, Unplug, Storage Tools, Configure and Firmware. You can use the Eject button to remove your devices or the Unplug button from the interface. Under Storage Tools you’ll see the devices attached to the NUS100 and the file systems, here you can also format them.

The last option is Shut Down, which is also for reboot.

There’s two things I don’t like about the NUS1000. The first is the fact that you cannot write to NTFS formatted devices, it only writes to FAT32, you can read from NTFS though. This means you’re limited in size as to what you can transfer to the NUS1000, no big files basically.

The second thing I don’t like is the lack of an FTP server, I’ve got NAS boxes and I use FTP transfers for pretty much everything, it’s quicker and easier to transfer a lot of files to and from the devices. Sure using the regular drag and drop style is easier for less knowledgeable people, but the option of using FTP would be nice.

I did run into a problem with the user configurations in that I couldn’t log in to the NUS1000 with my user name and password, not sure why it wouldn’t work. Once I disabled the user everything was fine, and I could easily access the box and transfer files.

Speeds are ok I guess for a home network, nothing to brag about though, I averaged a little over 4MB/s on my gigabit network which is rather slow honestly. For home networking use I guess the speeds are fine though.

Streaming is streaming, not much to say about that, it works and works fine.

It’s a quiet little device, no fans in it, and after leaving in on for several hours it wasn’t very hot, just slightly warm to the touch.

Conclusion:

The NUS1000 isn’t a bad product for those who want to quickly and easily add storage to their network, it works, but just don’t expect the features you’d find on a real NAS box. Honestly a lot of those features in NAS boxes do go unused by most people I’m sure, especially home users.

The NUS1000 is a nice little box for those that want a way to stream media and share files on their network.

Pros:
+Small and well made
+Fairly easy to use
+Simple and easy way to add storage to network

Cons:
-No FTP server
-Couldn’t login with user
-Only writes to FAT file system

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance

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