Seagate IronWolf Pro 18TB

Seagate IronWolf Pro 18TB hard drive: Fast, Tons of Capacity, No Shingling

Seagate's latest entry into the spin-platters-because-they-make-storing-data-cheaper market is the rather excellent and exceedingly capacious 18TB IronWolf Pro. I once paid $700 for a 4GB drive. $550 for 18TB? Amazing. Design and Specs The IronWolf Pro 18TB...
FreeNAS Mini XL+

iXsystems FreeNAS Mini XL+ Review: 8-bay ZFS Power for Pros

I've always wondered about the concept of an extra-large mini. But hey, if BMW can do it with cars, iXsystems can make hay with its FreeNAS Mini XL+--a powerful, 9-bay NAS box running FreeNAS....
QNAP's M.2/10GbE PCIe expansion card

How to Upgrade your QNAP NAS Box to NVMe and 10GbE or 5GbE

A number of QNAP NAS boxes, including the TS-253B, TS-253D (that I use), and the TS-453KX recently reviewed here sport full-on PCIe slots. You can use these to add features not present in box...
Kingston DC500M 7.68TB

Kingston DC500M Data Center SATA SSD Review: Up to 7.68TB of Reliable, Balanced Performance

Kingston's DC500M Data Center SATA SSD is exactly what I've come to expect from the company over the years--a good, stable performer with top-shelf, reliable components. For its intended role as an SMB server...
Amber storage device review unit on a desk with a tv in background

Amber Review: AI-Powered Smart Storage

Amber, the flagship product of LatticeWork, Inc., is a smart home storage device with a built-in AC2600 wireless router. It contains an Intel Dual Core Gemini Lake CPU (1.1GHz - 2.6GHz), comes equipped with...
Diskashur M22

Diskashur M2 Secure SSD Review: IP68, FIPS 140-2 Level 3 (soon) and a Good...

iStorage's Diskashur M2 is stylish, stealthy and a pretty decent bargain as far as secure flash drives are concerned. More importantly, it's a good performer, and ticks all the security boxes. Or it will...
QHora 301W

QNAP QHora 301W WiFi 6, 10Gbps Router Review: Fast, Affordable, Lots of Virtualization, Weak...

QNAP's $329 QHora 301W is an excellent WiFi 6 router. It's not styled to attract gamers, but creative pros and IT types will like it. They'll also appreciate that it's fast, offers multiple virtual...

QNAP TS-431KX NAS box review: Affordable 4-bay, 10GbE for small business.

The QNAP TS-431KX is a small-business grade, 4-bay NAS box that carries a price tag of $389. Considering it features 10Gbe SFP+ and nearly all the capabilities of QNAP's second-to-none operating system and app...
Zyxel Armor G5 AX6000

Zyxel Armor G5 AX6000 (NBG7815) Wi-Fi Router Review: 802.11AX, 10/2.5Gbps Ethernet, Forced Cloud Setup

Zyxel's $349 Armor G5 AX6000 (NBG7815) had me happily anticipating a smoother, faster, Wi-Fi and Ethernet experience for my local network, which is currently mired a couple of generations behind at N wireless. AX,...
World map with pins and strings connecting cities

ExpressVPN Review: How Does It Perform (and How to Install) on Ubuntu?

ExpressVPN is considered one of the top-tier VPN products. We install it on Ubuntu 21.04 and use it from the command-line and from within a browser. How does it shape up? What is VPN? A Virtual Private...

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A Practical Guide to Small Business Network Security in 2025

This article provides a clear roadmap for implementing crucial cybersecurity measures to safeguard your company's digital assets.
What is BTRFS file system linux kernal

What is Btrfs? The Better (than most) File System

Btrfs may be a "better" file system next to everything except ZFS, but what Btr actually stands for is not "better", or "butter", but...
Mac floppy disks

A Brief History of the Floppy Disk

Ah, the floppy disk. How I miss thee. How I don't. There was a certain tactile pleasure to inserting you into your drive, and...
hard drive showing platter and read write headread-write-head

How to Install ZFS and Create a ZFS Pool on Ubuntu

ZFS is a stable, robust, and fault-tolerant file system with built-in RAID-like properties and drive pools. We show you how to create a ZFS...
UnRAID array with parity and caching drives

What is UnRAID? Outstanding Capacity with Parity

There are a number of NAS operating systems out there, including several based on the BSD (Berkeley System Development) operating system. Most are proprietary...