Today, more and more people have started using smartphones. It’s commonplace to see people with their smart phones taking photos or videos. With the Rapid Evolution of Smart Phones, photo and video size are getting bigger and bigger. If your NAS only support 1GbE, it will takes lots of time to upload/download these photo and video from NAS.
Because of Hardware restriction, low-end NAS usually cannot upgrade their network speed by change or upgrade their network interface card. If you want to change a high-end NAS, it will costs a lot of money, and takes a lot of time to move all the files.
Therefore, Brand manufacturer release a product that can easy to upgrade NAS network speed – USB Ethernet adapter.
Low Cost Solution – USB Ethernet adapter
A USB Ethernet adapter is a low cost device that can help you get faster internet from your device. Plug the USB connection of the adapter into your device and your device will support 2.5GbE/5GbE/10GbE* connections, so that you can build a high speed Ethernet environment with a high speed switch or other devices.
But, if you use the adapter to connect to your NAS, it doesn’t look that easy.
(*10 GbE Ethernet adapter need to use Thunderbolt 3.0 connection)
Plug and “Not” play – the problem of driver
Because all NAS manufacturer use their own operation system, the adapter they make usually can’t support to other NAS manufacturer.
Although some user develop third-party driver and upload to “GitHub” for people to download, people still need to have some knowledge about hardware, select the correct version driver, and enter the specific command line to install the driver to the device. So that the adapter can be used normally.
If you select wrong version of driver, the driver may not be used normally and may lead to NAS failure.
In general, unless user use the adapter and the NAS with the same manufacturer, otherwise the driver problem would be a threshold for beginner.
Windows NAS – applicable for all adapter
But as we know, all the adapter manufacturers must support 2 of OS: Windows and MAC OS.
So Why not to choose a Windows NAS?
ITE2 Technology Inc. released 2-Bay NAS “NE-201” with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS. Plug the USB connection of the adapter into NE-201. Windows should recognize the connection and the Ethernet port connection, Make the real Plug and Play. Even if Windows can’t recognize the adapter, user can download and install the driver for Windows 10 from the adapter official website. Don’t need to enter the complex command line.
So, for the NAS beginner, if you want to upgrade your NAS in the future, it’s a wise choice to select a NAS with Windows 10 OS.