Software

You will have to load the bundled software disc into the drive of a client PC after installing the HDDs into the NAS and connecting all cables (power and network). Asustor suggests reading through the Quick Start Guide first, and we agree with them. You will also find their User Guide on the same disc, so you should take a look at it as well.


The provided disc comes with Asustor's Control Center, which we will discuss below, and the Backup Plan application. As it name suggests, it allows you to create a backup plan or restore from a backup file.


As you can see in the above, the Backup Plan application comes with a lot of backup options.


Asustor also provides you with their Download Assistant, an application that allows you to interact with the Download Center app, which you can install to the NAS via any Windows or Mac system. Download Center also gives users the ability to pick the content they want to download off a torrent before a download starts.


The Download Assistant includes a customizable download schedule, the Smart Download function, which allows users to automatically add download tasks for torrents placed into the Smart Download folder. We should stress that you must install Download Center on the NAS for Download Assistant to work.

Asustor Control Center & Initial Setup

It's now time to install Asustor's Control Center. This application will not only find the NAS on your network, but will also allow for its effortless and quick configuration.


Once inside the Control Center, easily configure various options of the NAS, map a network drive, create a remote file folder, or connect to the NAS via FTP.


Asustor's Control Center also easily allows you to initialize the NAS through Web Setup. The first step of the initialization process asks you to make sure that at least the first tray has an HDD installed, and not to power the NAS down or remove the aforementioned disk. You will then be prompted to either download a fresh version or install a version of ADM. If you have access to the Internet, we highly recommend installing ADM off the net to make sure it is up to date. The initial configuration begins after you have done so, and you will be asked whether you'd like to one-click setup everything instead of doing so manually. We chose the manual route since we like to be in control over every step of the initialization procedure.


You will now be asked to pick an admin password. You will then configure the time and network settings and pick the RAID configuration that best suits your needs. There are RAID levels, but you can also configure your disks in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) or pick to run everything off a single disk if you cannot afford to install an HDD into every tray.


We started the second part of the initialization process after setting the RAID level. Configuring RAID didn't take long, and we were then quickly prompted to register our NAS to obtain an Asustor ID, which is necessary in order to download additional applications for the device.


You will now be redirected to the login page, where you have to input your credentials to proceed to the administration interface.