Setup - more
Web Server—The QNAP TS-409 has a built-in web server with MySQL and PHP support. By default, the server runs on the standard default port 80, but you can change the port. Web server files are stored in a share named \qweb, and only the administrator has rights to the server. The default page shows you how to upload your own pages to the TS-409.
MultiMedia Station—The TS-409 also lets you browse your multimedia content from the web. To test this feature, I created both a \music directory and a \photos directory in the default multimedia share named \qmultimedia. I copied my entire music library, some 23.9 GB consisting of 7315 files and 1447 directories. The photo directory consisted of three directories, 148 files, and 157MB of photos.
When I clicked on the Multimedia Station icon and logged in with my user name/password both IE6 and IE7 reported that a script on the page was causing it to run slowly.
Figure 6: Internet Explorer Script Error
I clicked "Yes" to stop the script running. I then clicked on one of the photo directories above, and the server responded with "Thumbnails generating – Remained [sic] photos in this page 18". However, the number never decremented and I was not able to browse my photos. If, however, I let the script run, thumbnails were eventually created for the current directory photos.
Thumbnails are supposed to be automatically created at midnight each day, but apparently that feature isn’t working. QNAP is looking into this issue, but as of this writing, it remains unresolved. QNAP did say that they are planning on updating the Multimedia component of the product in a future firmware release.
With the script stopped, I could browse my music directories and click on files to play them. Once the thumbnails were generated, I could also browse the photos, see large versions along with EXIF file information, or run a slide show.
Figure 7: Enlarged photo from the Multimedia Station showing EXIF information
In addition to the web-based applications, the TS-409 has a built-in DLNA compatible UPnP AV server and an iTunes server. I tested the iTunes server on both the Mac and PC platforms; the server appeared as a shared resource on both, and I was able to play music from the TS-409.
Contest #29 Results 
