Home > Consumer Reviews > 120GB Etherfast Nas/print/ftpserver 1 Open Bay for Addl HD

I installed the Linksys EFG 120 in my small office about three months ago. It's an expensive way to buy additional disk space, but it offered the promise of easy-to-use networked storage. The basic file server functionality has worked OK, but the FTP functionality (which would have allowed us to access files from outside the office) has never worked. Several of us took turns spending an eternity on the phone with Linksys technical support, but they could never solve the problem. The technical support people were very difficult to understand, they knew very little about the product, and the phone connections were terrible. We had similar issues with the print server functionality. It was poorly documented, and the technical support people were of little help, but we eventually managed to get the feature working (although you should be warned that the Linksys EFG120 supports only parallel printer connections, whereas USB connections are the standard for printers these days -- odd choice on Linksys' part). In short, the idea of a $700 easy-to-use networked storage box is great, but this product isn't ready for prime time. Key features are not reliable, technical support is weak, and it's hard to find some of the accessory products you need to get the most from the product (like trays to facilitate swapping in an extra hard drive). The "new" knowledge base on Linksys support site has only one entry for the EFG120 storage product. If you enjoy beta testing, and are willing to pay retail prices for the privelege, this product will have great appeal. Personally, I wish that I had waited longer for Linksys to work the kinks out and get the technical support in shape.

Problems experienced include:
1. EFG "disappearing" from the network in the midst of large backup transfers (This happened on every large transfer except for one. When it happened, afterwards the EFG was pingable but it was no longer responsive in any other way to the network. Had to reboot the EFG to "fix" it and in several of the instances I also had to reset it).
2. Disk 1 or 2 or both occasionally showed up as Not Installed after rebooting the EFG or resetting it. Subsequent rebooting and /or resetting would "fix" this, eventually.
3. Disk 1 suddenly showed up as "Unformatted" in spite of having been in use and having 48GB worth of files stored on it. No amount of rebooting, resetting, or reseating (of the drive) would "fix" this. I had to reformat the drive to make it useable again!
I would very strongly recommend avoiding this product, period. I returned mine for a refund. P.S. Linksys technical support was "supportive" but had nothing to suggest beyond resetting, rebooting, reseating. They concluded the unit was defective - I say it was flaky.

I purchased this unit and an additional 120GB drive. Found the unit installs quickly and comes up quite nicely. I had some issues with the automatic back-up configuration. Their help line was polite, but not very knowledgable about the product. They finally decided that I had to upgrade the system ROM. Following their instructions, I attempted to do this and it failed mid-way thru the upgrade. I decided it wasn't worth the time and effort to try and resolve it thru their support, I'd just wait a few months until they had some more experience.

Now I have had the network connection die and I'm unable to connect. Calling support again, I was given a return authorization and told a new unit would ship within 24 hours. Alas, it will be two weeks, because the unit is on backorder. In addition, their policy is to charge you for the new unit and refund the money when they receive the broken one. Shipping takes 2 weeks, charging takes 5 minutes!!!

Being somewhat self-sufficient, I decided to just remove the drive and install it in a USB enclosure, so work could continue. Wrong again, as the EFG120 uses a stripped down version of Linux and the disks aren't compatiable with anything but Linux.

Every other piece of Linksys gear I have (which is a lot) works great. I'm sure this will get better over time, but right now this product needs to mature, before the average user buys it.

I am the not-so-proud owner of this model as well as a couple of its previous incarnations. Of the 4 I've had in my possession, 3 have died without explanation, and without any kind of manufacturer support beyond "ship it back and we'll replace it for you". I don't know that I should expect any more than that given the nature of the device, but it is indeed frustrating for that to be every problem's answer.

Additionally, the Linksys tech I first talked to after it failed told me that my data was simply "gone" beyond any ability to recover it. I asked to be moved up to the next support level. The new tech support person told me that the data wasn't gone, but he couldn't find out what filesystem the disk used when asked.

(XFS, for those who find themselves in need of that information. `mount -t xfs /dev/hdb1 /mnt/`. The data is in the directory of the same name). If the filesystem is ok, this should allow you to get your data back.

Had major issues with this due to file locking settings (oplocks)
This unit will not work with FoxPro programs and multiple users properly, and Linksys does not give access to be able to change the oplocks configuration.