Cheaper Server for home LAN?

I want to have another PC on my home LAN to use to run the External 250 GB
HD backup I used to backup 4 PCs.
I have 4 PCs on my LAN and when they backup over LAN it bogs down the PC I
use, this is the same PC that interfaces (USB 2.0) to the External HD.

What is the cheapest way to get a server (or is there a simple device that
will act like a server) to interface from the ethernet (100 baseT) LAN to my
External USB HD backup?

I have a spare old laptop that would work, but I need USB 2.0 for the HD and
it doesnt have that.

Any thoughts or tips or suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks!

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:22:35 -0800, "jtsnow"
<jtsnow@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I want to have another PC on my home LAN to use to run the External 250 GB
>HD backup I used to backup 4 PCs.
>I have 4 PCs on my LAN and when they backup over LAN it bogs down the PC I
>use, this is the same PC that interfaces (USB 2.0) to the External HD.

Do you leave it plugged in? If so, the cheapest and easiest
might be to simply install it in your PC, or one of the
others. If you were unplugging it I could see the advantage
of it being more secure, but if not, there's only down-sides
to having it as an external USB2 drive... assuming of course
you have a free bay slot and channel in one of the systems
on the LAN.


>
>What is the cheapest way to get a server (or is there a simple device that
>will act like a server) to interface from the ethernet (100 baseT) LAN to my
>External USB HD backup?

An old Pentium 2 era system with a NIC and USB2 card in it?
Perhaps a Via Eden type mini all-in-one integrated board is
next, if you have an old case and >= 100W ATX PSU.

Basically your HDD enclosure is limiting you, USB2 needs a
host device, so it's all matter of how cheaply that host
(which is a computer with a processor of one sort or
another) can do 100Mb LAN and USB2.

Then there's the option of using another drive enclosure
entirely. Something like this:
http://www.provantage.com/buy-22092...ve-shopping.htm

Or along same line of thought (getting rid of the USB2
enclosure) you can just put the drive into any old system
that'll recognize it's capacity (buy a $20 PCI card if
necessary) and has 100Mb NIC. Or the old box idea might
work without the PCI card and any need for a hard drive for
the OS, if you used something like NASLite:

http://www.serverelements.com/

That requires a floppy drive though, which is certainly
cheap but floppies themselves aren't all that robust. One
with higher reliability needs might consider a CompactFlash
card based OS via an IDE adapter, so long as it wasn't a pig
of an OS like Windows, which obsessively writes to the
drive. That adds another ~ $30 to the cost though... it
depends a lot on what spare parts you have, which would be
the cheapest way to meet the goal.

I like the Ximeta NAS enclosure, it's small and hassle free,
so long as it keeps the drive cool enough (I don't know).
It's not really meant to be a removable device though,
AFAIK, but if you unplug it from the lan, it's removed!

jtsnow:

> What is the cheapest way to get a server

A few weeks ago you could have bought a Dell SC420 for less than $250. I
think they are back up to $325, but keep an eye on them.

Would this work?
LINKSYS Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewprodu...ription=33-124-
036
--
Mac Cool

yup...that would be way cool to do the job!

thanks!

"Mac Cool" <Mac@2cool.com> wrote in message
news:Xns95E1D286FE5C9MacCool@130.133.1.4...
> jtsnow:
>
>> What is the cheapest way to get a server
>
> A few weeks ago you could have bought a Dell SC420 for less than $250. I
> think they are back up to $325, but keep an eye on them.
>
> Would this work?
> LINKSYS Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives
> http://www.newegg.com/app/viewprodu...ription=33-124-
> 036
> --
> Mac Cool

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:22:35 -0800, "jtsnow" <jtsnow@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>I have a spare old laptop that would work, but I need USB 2.0 for the HD and
>it doesnt have that.

An USB 2.0 port PCMCIA ?

--
WebWalker

jtsnow wrote:
> I want to have another PC on my home LAN to use to run the External 250 GB
> HD backup I used to backup 4 PCs.
> I have 4 PCs on my LAN and when they backup over LAN it bogs down the PC I
> use, this is the same PC that interfaces (USB 2.0) to the External HD.
>
> What is the cheapest way to get a server (or is there a simple device that
> will act like a server) to interface from the ethernet (100 baseT) LAN to my
> External USB HD backup?
>
> I have a spare old laptop that would work, but I need USB 2.0 for the HD and
> it doesnt have that.
>
> Any thoughts or tips or suggestions are appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
>
>

Linksys has exactly what you're looking for. It's their NSLU2 network
storage link. Here's the product page:
http://www.linksys.com/products/pro...cid=43&prid=640.
It's retailing on buy.com for about $80 at the moment. Since you already
have the external hard drive, that'll be much cheaper than getting a two
or three-year-old PC to do the same job.

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:22:35 -0800, "jtsnow" <jtsnow@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I want to have another PC on my home LAN to use to run the External 250 GB
>HD backup I used to backup 4 PCs.
>I have 4 PCs on my LAN and when they backup over LAN it bogs down the PC I
>use, this is the same PC that interfaces (USB 2.0) to the External HD.
>
>What is the cheapest way to get a server (or is there a simple device that
>will act like a server) to interface from the ethernet (100 baseT) LAN to my
>External USB HD backup?
>
>I have a spare old laptop that would work, but I need USB 2.0 for the HD and
>it doesnt have that.
>
>Any thoughts or tips or suggestions are appreciated!
>
>Thanks!

What program are you using for the backups?

Consider xxcopy. It does incremental backups...only for files that
have changed. I use it on my LAN...and it works very well.

You should also consider using a different, INTERNAL drive for your
backups. USB is slow for what you want to do.

Good luck.


Have a nice one...

Trent©

Budweiser: Helping ugly people have sex since 1876!