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...
QNAP T310G1 Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE Adapter Review: 10-Gigabit Network Speed for Expansion-Challenged Computers
QNAP's T310G1 enables 10GbE network speeds on computers that don't have PCIe slots, but do sport a Thunderbolt 3 port. That shouts Mac, of course, but the adapter will also work with the rarer...
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...
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...
Asustor Lockerstor 10 Pro (AS7110T) NAS: 10 Bays of Storage Goodness
ASUSTOR has been making a name for itself over the last few years on all NAS fronts: consumer, prosumer, and corporate. SMB boxes like the $2400, AS7110 reveal why. The AS7110T is attractive (if...
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...
Signal Messenger: Simple Security, Guaranteed Privacy, Great Functionality
In our hyper-connected, always-on world, privacy is in everyone’s thoughts. Instant messaging is the dominant tool for remote conversations. How can we use instant messaging and maintain our privacy? By using Signal.
Signal Messenger
Signal is...
Seagate IronWolf 510 Review: A Long-lived NVMe Caching SSD Specifically for NAS
Seagate's IronWolf 510 NVMe SSD is a fast reader with an excellent endurance rating, but it's a very slow, albeit hyper-steady writer. When I say slow, I'm talking less than 1GBps for the 1.92TB...
Terra Master F5-422 NAS Review: 5 Silvery bays, 10GbE, middling read performance
I'm pretty familiar with Terra Master products which generally offer good value as basic storage. Hence, I was expecting more of the same from the $600 F5-422, a 5-bay box with 10GbE connectivity. What...
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? 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...
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...
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...
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...