10 hours ago
Hi, thanks for reaching out and for testing that unit so carefully. Yes, the Yxk 2-bay (often called the “Iron Cow”) is one of those surprisingly capable budget NAS boxes, but the default firmware raises the same concerns we’ve seen with a few of these no-name Chinese systems. Asking for a phone number during setup is definitely not normal for a local NAS OS, and you did the right thing keeping it isolated on a VLAN.
Flashing it with Debian or another clean Linux build is the best way to go. Once Debian is installed, you can add OpenMediaVault or CasaOS to get a proper web interface and clean user management. If you’re up for it, I’d love to hear how your re-flash process goes, since these models sometimes ship with slightly different eMMC layouts or BIOS restrictions depending on batch.
Flashing it with Debian or another clean Linux build is the best way to go. Once Debian is installed, you can add OpenMediaVault or CasaOS to get a proper web interface and clean user management. If you’re up for it, I’d love to hear how your re-flash process goes, since these models sometimes ship with slightly different eMMC layouts or BIOS restrictions depending on batch.