cheap NAS alternative?

[kris.vandevijver]

Hi,

It seems that everytime i'm working wireless on my laptop, the file i
need is on a usb drive somewhere in the house so i can't get to it.
In other words: i'd really love to have a NAS solution. Of course, i'm
dreaming of a 2TB NAS device to which i can hook up my existing usb
drives, supporting all kinds of RAID technologies and supporting GB
ethernet. The only problem is the price.. it's just too expensive
for me at the moment. And building my own NAS server will take way too
much time.... but there's a third option so it seems ... the
Linksys "Network Storage Link" (http://www.pcauthority.com.au/
review.aspx?CIaRID=2361). It's a cheap gateway or convertor (or
whatever you want to call it) which makes it able to connect your USB
drives and share it over the LAN. Sounds cool, sounds perfect even..
but there are two major problems: a) the devices uses it own
proprietary disk format so you cannot disconnect the usb drive
afterwards to use it directly with the laptop (over usb) (?!) and b)
it doesn't support GB ethernet.

So my question is... does anyone know a similar device not having
these two major problems? Or at least.. not having the proprietary
disk format problem?

Thanks!
Kris

 

[- Bob -]

So my question is... does anyone know a similar device not having
these two major problems? Or at least.. not having the proprietary
disk format problem?

A cheap box that you set up as a server and share drives locally. You
don't need much horsepower for a machine that only does file sharing -
if you make sure you don't install applications on it to bog it down.
Cheap, easy, you can install a DVD for backups. Keep all your data on
the server and solve two problems at once (global serving / backup).

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi,

It seems that everytime i'm working wireless on my laptop, the file i
need is on a usb drive somewhere in the house so i can't get to it.
In other words: i'd really love to have a NAS solution. Of course, i'm
dreaming of a 2TB NAS device to which i can hook up my existing usb
drives, supporting all kinds of RAID technologies and supporting GB
ethernet. The only problem is the price.. it's just too expensive
for me at the moment. And building my own NAS server will take way too
much time.... but there's a third option so it seems ... the
Linksys "Network Storage Link" (http://www.pcauthority.com.au/
review.aspx?CIaRID=2361). It's a cheap gateway or convertor (or
whatever you want to call it) which makes it able to connect your USB
drives and share it over the LAN. Sounds cool, sounds perfect even..
but there are two major problems: a) the devices uses it own
proprietary disk format so you cannot disconnect the usb drive
afterwards to use it directly with the laptop (over usb) (?!) and b)
it doesn't support GB ethernet.

So my question is... does anyone know a similar device not having
these two major problems? Or at least.. not having the proprietary
disk format problem?

I'd make my own NAS instead, its trivially easy to do.

 

[Steve Cousins]

Hi,

It seems that everytime i'm working wireless on my laptop, the file i
need is on a usb drive somewhere in the house so i can't get to it.
In other words: i'd really love to have a NAS solution. Of course, i'm
dreaming of a 2TB NAS device to which i can hook up my existing usb
drives, supporting all kinds of RAID technologies and supporting GB
ethernet. The only problem is the price.. it's just too expensive
for me at the moment. And building my own NAS server will take way too
much time.... but there's a third option so it seems ... the
Linksys "Network Storage Link" (http://www.pcauthority.com.au/
review.aspx?CIaRID=2361). It's a cheap gateway or convertor (or
whatever you want to call it) which makes it able to connect your USB
drives and share it over the LAN. Sounds cool, sounds perfect even..
but there are two major problems: a) the devices uses it own
proprietary disk format so you cannot disconnect the usb drive
afterwards to use it directly with the laptop (over usb) (?!) and b)
it doesn't support GB ethernet.

So my question is... does anyone know a similar device not having
these two major problems? Or at least.. not having the proprietary
disk format problem?

It depends on what your budget is but I'd check out the Infrant ReadyNAS
devices. For about $600 you get everything except the drives. Add up
to four SATA drives and have up to a 2TB volume. You can also attach USB
storage to it and it does have a Gigabit interface. Really simple,
great support. I have one and they seem to be as good as you can get
for this price. You can create one with better performance if you want
to spend the time as the others have suggested.

Another solution is a "Disk on Module" NAS or iSCSI device that you
connect to an IDE interface and boot from. It is a CompactFlash module
with a IDE connector and it quickly turns a computer into a NAS device.
Check out:

http://www.mendax.com/productInfo.aspx?productID=415376

I haven't tried one of these yet but it is tempting.

Good luck,

Steve