When you turn it on, the device will boot up, communicate with your network, and obtain a network address. At that point, it’s ready to go.

Configuring the device is generally easy as well. If you want to change the default settings — such as defining groups or limiting the access to certain folders (more on these options below) — the device’s utilities will step you through it. In almost all cases, the device will have a Web page contained in its controller which you can access using any browser. Type the IP address into your browser, and you’ll typically be presented with a login screen where you’ll be asked for a name and password. From there, you’ll be able to set up users and groups, backup settings, and enable features such as Web access.

For the easiest access, you'll want the device to look on your computer like another local hard drive. Here’s how you do it in Windows XP:

Open Windows Explorer, and select Tools, Map Network Drive. The Map Network Drive window lets you specify the drive letter to use for the drive. You can choose any letter that isn’t already assigned to your computer. In this case, we’ve chosen to have it be Drive Y, but you can choose any letter you want, such as Drive N for “Network”.

Next, click on the Browse button to find the NAS device on your network. The Browse for Folder window lets you find devices on your Windows Network, and then connect to the shared folder on the NAS.