DLNA function with N1T1

Quoted from Wikipedia, Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) members have stated the common goal of using standards-based technology to make it easier for consumers to use, share and enjoy their digital photos, music and videos. After building up the DLNA network, users will be able to access the file and display on DLNA devices. In my case, the home network devices including PC, NB, PS3 and cell phone. Depends on connection method, these devices have different ways to access N1T1.

Since PC1 and PC2 are connected by cable, I decided to direct mount the N1T1 as a partition disk through CIFS. That makes N1T1 act as a native drive of both PC. I don't need to login using FTP client, unlike DLNA only browses pictures, videos and songs, I can read write all the file types I want freely.

N1T1 can be found correctly in PS3 as a DLNA media server. Photos, songs and movies can be browsed correctly. And since PS3 supports Divx codec, many of the backup movie files can be displayed.

The 2nd device I would like to test is cell phone. I've downloaded a software named Skifta for Android. Skifta works properly to play my songs and photos stored in NAS. Of course, playing my files through DLNA on PC or NB is too easy to explain right here.

There is nothing special about my home network. It was basically built behind a D-Link DIR-300 router, for a 10/100 LAN speed and 54Mbps wireless connection, a very common and entry level of local network environment. I would like to test the multi-play capability of my NAS, but it's a pity that I don't have a HD level movie files to demonstrate. I picked a simple XVID movie files with a 608x464 resolution to do the testing. It's certainly not a HD file, but looks OK on my 42inch TV through PS3-DLNA. At the same time, I've turned on all of my computers and cell phone one by one to play the same file. Totally 5 devices are accessing NAS for movie display, and I'm glad to see that there is not any delay of the movie playing. Then I change my cell phone to play the MP3 files while other devices are still playing the movie. Still, everything works properly as well.

Up to now, N1T1 works great as a home multimedia center. I found from other user's experience for using NAS playing 720P/1080P HD movies. These kind of files seems to meet the limitation of NAS or LAN, I really would like to have a chance to test it some other day.

Using Torrent on N1T1

I'm not a heavy torrent user. As for P2P download, personally I prefer eMule. I understand torrent is technically having a faster downloading speed than eMule, but also a heavy loading to the computer or hard drive. It is great to separate the torrent download from my computer and leave it to NAS.

Using Torrent in N1T1 is very easy. There is a simple and clean torrent viewer at the right top of the NAS main page, next behind the file viewer. And all you have to do is to upload the torrent files which you download from pubic P2P web forums and done. Download speed is mostly depend on your bandwidth and the P2P sharing.

Access - Remote control

To do NAS far end control, it is never easy if NAS is locating behind the router. Although the user manual describe the setting so easy, it doesn't work on my case. According to manual, we need to go to [Network] -> [Remote Access] and enable UPnP port forwarding. If we need a name address, we have to enable DDNS. However, I still need to do something on my router to enable remote access.

I need to set port forwarding to the internal address of NAS as:

port 21 for ftp / port 80 for http / port 9090 for file viewer / port 9091 for torrent

Remember that do not test remote access inside the home network where NAS located.

Access - FTP connection by Linux & Android

As mentioned earlier, for Windows users, the best way to achieve folder cross access by My Network Places (SMB) and FTP using N1T1:

1. Set the language to UTF-8 in NAS

2. Use Filezilla as default FTP client software and set charset to UTF-8

The same approach can be used on Linux and Android as well. The better part of Linux is user can use native file manager (Dolphin) to browse FTP site, which is more convenient.

And for Android, the result looks very good as well.

Still I think this is not the problem of N1T1, I guess it is a charset encoding problem from SMB protocol. But for end user who does not want to spent too many time looking for solutions, probably N1T1 will have to take the blame. But since N1T1 is targeting mainly on US/EU market, probably this issue may not be serious focused, since there should be no problem on Latin alphabets.

The best way to avoid all of these issues, is to user the file viewer when you login to WEB UI, but...I'm not really enjoy using these kind of UI, maybe some other day.

Access - FTP connection and Issues

To enable FTP service is easy on N1T1.

[File Sharing Service] -> [File Server] -> enable FTP server.

You will need to enable the FTP folder sharing at [User Account] -> [Folder] and chose the target folder to enable the service.

There are many ways to access FTP, including using the Windows file manager, which is to connect the FTP using native browser. However, there will be many issues if using this kind of connection method. The best way is still using FTP software such as Filezilla.

Here I would like to share the issues I found about FTP service.

They might not be a problem from N1T1, but users still get confused easily when using NAS.

Issue 1. Character Encoding display between Windows SMB (My Network Places) and FTP.

If we enable a folder for both [Windows] and [FTP] options under [User Account] -> [Folder], we will found a character encoding problem. When storing a file name other than English through My Networks Places, the file name will not be displayed correctly when you access the folder through FTP, no matter which FTP software you use. The same issue happens if you do it in a reverse way (store under FTP, browse by My Network Places).

Solution (WinXP User as example)

1. Go to NAS [System] -> [Language], change the client language to UTF-8.

2. Use Filezilla [Site] -> [Site Manager]. Edit the FTP info and go to the tab page [Charset] and check [Force UTF-8]

3. Never use Windows native FTP connection method again.

Issue 2. Remote access and FTP

N1T1 has a great feature that is to access NAS out of your home network.

[System] -> [Network] -> [Remote access (DDNS)], enable DDNS, UPnP prot forwarding and setup your own domain name and password. Complete above setting will allow you to access to your NAS when out of the home network. But now here comes another problem, access to FTP within home network suddenly has been blocked.

Solution (using Filezilla)

Edit the site manager and select the Transfer Mode to Active.

Access - from Windows My Network Places

Now that I have finished adding user and folder, I would like to try accessing NAS from my PC or cell phone within home network. To do this, I have to make sure that the folders I created has the [Windows] protocol options checked. Again, this is super easy. Browsing the "My Network Places" under windows, I can find all the accessible folders in N1T1. No further settings need to be made from PC side.

How about Linux PC? "My Network Places" is a Windows protocol, Linux can also access them by installing Samba software. And after that, I can found the N1T1 group under Internet Devices, very simple.

How about creating folder in multi languages and access them from different devices? Multi languages support is always a problem between systems. I want to make sure that a folder name in a different language created from different operating systems can be well displayed. This time. I would like to try to browse them from my cell phone, and everything performs exactly correct as it should be. Sharing files using N1T1 is so easy~~

User and folder control

In order to enable the members of the home network can store or access the files, we need to register users and setup folders. Adding user is very easy under N1T1.
[User account] -> [User] -> [Create User]

Adding folders is very easy as well
[User account] -> [Folder] -> [Add Folder]
We can decide the folder name we want, and the protocol we want to support.
It is better to check all the protocol options to let you easier access the folder from Windows My Network Places or FTP. AFP is for MAC, check it if you have a MAC machine.

The add folder function here is only for adding the first order folder under the root directory. If you want to create a folder inside one of these folders, you should do this under [File Viewer] at the top-right corner of the page or by FTP, My Network Places. You should set up the authority for accessing these folders as well right here.

Setting up user account in N1T1 is very simple. However, I'm not sure is it very necessary to setup another account than admin. After login by new created user account, a huge cut off of options you have. As a normal user, what you can do now lefts only [File Backup Service] -> [DVD] , and [File Viewer]. As a normal user, you lost all the management function, but this is easy to understand, because management should only been done by administrator. But it is confusing that why the authority to do USB backup has been taken away from [File Backup Service] as well? Torrent download and DLNA folder setting has also been removed from normal user options. I guess N1T1 is targeting on a very limited members of group or small family.

PROS: A very intuitional menu control for adding user and folder creation.
CONS: User control is not meaningful, normal user only has a extremely limited function to access.

Firmware 3355 upgrade

After starting NAS, first thing I would like to check if any new firmware to upgrade. The latest FW up to now is version 3355.

Please check it over here.

New Features:

1. MySql support added to the Web server.
2. USB video class (UVC) video camera support added. -> You can connect UVC cameras to the NAS to be used as a web cam or for surveillance. UVC cameras only.

Feature updates:

1. Android mobile is now supported in the Mobile Web UI.
2. Updated so it will not to play movies (mp4 file) consecutively on the iPhone.

The Android UI looks simple but clear. It does not give you to many options like you have under the PC side, but as a file explorer, I think it is good enough.

There is a little complaint about FW upgrade. It took my quite a time to find out where to download the FW. And there isn't an auto FW upgrade detector function which can tells you a new version of FW is coming out. If there is such an auto update function which connect directly to the internet, it would be lot more easier.

As for the USB camera support, I've seen this function once, it is pretty cool. I like this idea quite much. I'm not that sure could this function embedded with the Android UI, if it does, that will be very interesting to monitor your house through the cell phone. I really would like to give it a try sometime.

Locating NAS under Linux

A NAS living without a router is almost useless. If NAS relies so much on a router, why not having some promotion activities with the router together.

Anyway, soon I found that locating the NAS address under Linux could be super easy. Under my OpenSUSE 11.3, open the file manager and explore Network Devices, soon I will found N1T1 without any help from any software, and no need to login into the router setting page to setup N1T1. Click the N1T1 icon - LG NAS N1T1 , there will be a weblink inside and guide you to the NAS setting webpage. Setting NAS under Linux is very easy.

Locating NAS IP address

The first thing to setup NAS after all the network environment were all well prepared, should be locating NAS. It shouldn't be hard to control it under the router page, but I decided to test the NAS detector software for Windows first.

The first window you see after inserting the software disc, four options appears in front of you

including NAS Detector, NAS monitor, Nero BackItUp&Burn and LG NAS Installaion Wizard. I clicked the NAS Detector, and soon I have the detector software installed. Automatically, the detector program launched after installation and found my NAS IP very easily. It is only a two step process and I get to learn my NAS IP. No need to login into my router setting. I am amazed of this friendly setup process. Having this IP address, I am able to manage NAS by accessing the IP using a normal web browser.

Still, unfriendly to non-Windows user is still a problem. There is no similar way as a Windows version NAS detector software, I have to find out which IP address was occupied by any unknown MAC address, and guess this should be the correct NAS IP. Soon I found that the NAS MAC address is actually printed on the barcode at the back of the machine. This should be a very easy process, I wonder why it isn't being pointed out in the quick user manual.

PROS: Simple and quick IP locating software under Windows.

CONS: Not friendly enough to non-MS users.

First impression - LG N1T1 NAS

N1T1 gives people a first impression that it is a compact size NAS with an ODD inside. The one I have is mainly white at the both side of the case, and black in the middle part. Size is around 6.5x15x21cm.

You can mount N1T1 on a pedestal to make it stands as well. As usual, the ID design of LG looks simple but elegant. I'm not sure how often I will use the optical disc drive of N1T1, but I'm very glad to see it comes with a slot in type. However, it will be weird to see a such kind of elegant device has tongue.

The full packing includes: N1T1 main set, pedestal, PC software installer disc, multimedia user guide disc, a installation manual with multi languages, power supply, LAN cable, USB cable.

I haven't really finishing reading the manual yet, but I believe the colorful manual with a step by step installation guide will certainly be very helpful for the beginner. You can find another detail setup manual in one of the discs. I do feel a little disappointed that the setup manual is basically for Windows users. There are not much description of how to setup NAS from a Linux machine or MAC. But still, the manual still teaches how to connect to NAS from Windows, MAC and Linux. There is something which really impress me is the CD manual creates a very unique UI embedded with flash which makes you being able to choose the difficult parts and learn them from the flash animation.

Indeed, end users who are interested in these kind of products always get scared about a bunch of internet concepts. Google does not really make it easier, sometimes even worse. LG really does spend a lot of efforts to make this product to become user friendly, or at least, manual friendly. Next step will be the network setup.

PROS: Nice looking design, great setup manual.

CONS: Not enough details for non-Windows setup process.