iPad2 and Windows

[apeka]

Hello,

I'm new here and looking for some answers before buying an iPad2...Still have some doubts, so he're my questions:
At the moment I'm using Windows OS based computers in a Windows network. I also owe a NAS (Ext3 OS) for data storage. All my client computers log on to their network partition by using a logon script ("net use XXX").. All computers also have MS Office 2007 or 2010 for e-mail, word processing. All the data (Outlook, Word, Excel files)are on the NAS
I don't know anything about the iPad OS and neither if this would work in my network. How can I log on with an iPad to the NAS?
I know there are several clever apps for the iPad i.c.w. Windows, but don't know which ones would be the right ones.
Maybe anybody can give me some clues? Maybe the iPad isn't the way to go for me?
Thanks in advance..

 

[f4780y]

I can't give you all the answers you are seeking, but I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice from our members.

Just a word of caution before you commit, it does not sound, from your described setup, that the iPad is going to be the sort of device you expect it to be. iOS is quite a closed and restricted OS. You don't have access to the whole file system. Apps work in a sandboxed environment and again, the files they can use are restricted.
Connecting to a NAS and using it as freely as you do on other devices is going to be a big challenge. Jailbreaking your iPad helps (but there is no JB for iPad2 yet), but even then (like all good things!) it's a bit of an effort to achieve things that you probably expect to be trivial.

Don't let me put you off! But make suer you understand what you are purchasing.
Now I'll let others come in with some positive stuff...

 

[Kin Lau]

I have a dlink nas and an iPad 2. There's currently no way to map shares on an iPad. I use both DocsToGo and GoodReader, which can use a sync program to sync files. Also, there are nas which support WebDAV and both of the programs above use WebDAV.