Posted: 12/5/2005 10:29:06 AM EDT
| I am looking into network storage. I would like to be able to share files between different home computers without having them stored on each computers drive. I am looking into the Netgear Storage Central. It is cheap and seems easy enough but it has some bad reviews. Are there any other options? I don't want to have to lug around an external hard drive to share data. |
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Linksys has a few options. The NSLU2 is a $75 device that allows you to plug up to 2 usb drives into it or even thumb drives and other storage media. Also, its hackable. I work on one of the projects for it  I wouldn't give it a huge thumbs up though. It uses a linux filesystem on the disk which means you can't plug the drive into a windows computer after the device formats it. www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1118334819312&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper Then theres this which has the drive built in with room for a second. www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1118334819238&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper The linksys stuff is actually using linux internally. The performance isnt great because its running on low-end hardware. Thats about my experience for home type NAS systems. Call me when you want small business and up.  (Working on a 60 terrabyte storage array now...) -Foxxz |
I assume you mean by allowing the other computers to access that spare HD? I am having a hell of a time setting up a network where computers can 'see' and read the other HDs on other computers in the network. The broadband works fine. I am no computer guru. |
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For some network storage with open access, I grabben Ye Olde Pentium II and put four 250GB drives in it and a version of NASLite (when it was free). The OS fits on a floppy, CD, or USB key. The hardest part for me to set it up was finding Ye Olde Floppy Diske to put it on. After I got it on there, I put in the diskette, booted the computer, went throught a extremely simple setup, I disconnected the monitor and I've never had an issue with it since. It's no longer free, now they charge like $25-50, but they send you the CD or diskette. If you've got Ye Olde Pentium or 486 around, it's much less expensive than a $1600 1TB NAS enclosure. Then you can brag at the family reunion how you McGuyvered up your own NAS from old PC parts, some string and a spoon. Not that it'll help you pick up women or anything, but that's probably not the place to be pickin' up the women anyway... ...but I digress. |
You must be a Windows guy. In the rest of the world you're not limited to only the small drives that the BIOS allows. With other OS's like Linux, the BIOS is only used to boot. After that, you can use any size drive you want. With GRUB, as long as you can read the IIRC the first 512 bytes consistently, you're allowed to use any IDE drive with any controller. It's only Microsoft that builds-in obsolescence. I've switched several computers over to Linux after upgrading the harddrive and realizing Windows refused to run.z |
yes all the computer i work on all day are running windows. several of my home systems run dual boots of Xp and fedora. So i use linux too. just started using linux a couple years ago, so im still new. I STILL don't understand how you can physically hook up a 250Gb hardrive to a PII system he can't be using 80 wire cable because the pin out is different on the oldermotherboards. so he is using 40wire cables. and not getting the performace he could. not only that i don't see how the computer would post. if it doesn't detect a hardrive how would it even begin to boot?? sorry i guess i would have to see it to belive it (shrug) |
Count the # of pins. There's only 40.
At worst case, you can just boot from a floppy or CD. You simply disable the harddrive in the BIOS to get it to boot, and it works. You can also set the drive geometry to something different from what it's supposed to be that's small enough for the BIOS to support. You only have to get the BIOS to load the first part of your boot loader. Then if your boot loader understands larger drives, it just works. The Linux guys have been doing this for over a decade to get around the stupid limitations of the pitiful IDE interface.z |
Ok, looked into the NasLite. Seems like the way to go. If I understand it, it boots from the floppy drive, you need no OS, and you can use larger HDs. How is the speed once it is hooked up? I mean accessing and writign files. The Netgear Storage has complaints of slow speeds. Will the NasLite access the HDs fairly fast for larger files? It is basically just another computer on your network that is just for storage and shows up as a letter drive on your other systems? |
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Might want to check out Mirra I've set up a few of these for some clients. Seem to work really well -d |
Yup, NASLite is basically a stripped down version of Linux...down to about 2MB to fit on a floppy disk. They aren't limited by 1.44MB on a floppy like Windows formats it. NASLite boots up, takes over everything and defines what can be done. The PII's BIOS isn't a factor at that point. |
Speed is good, but not exceptional. Definitely faster than a typical WiFi network can keep up with. Also fast enough to stream video from one computer to the other. My NAS storage is archive type stuff, so I'm not accessing it all the time. Here's a site that goes through what it's like, unless you read German, you'll need Babelfish or something to translate it. www.terabyteserver.de.ms/ |
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IMHO, there isn't much reason for a NAS not to be able to deck out a 100mbps connection. The only exception to that is if it has many concurrent connections from different hosts. Even then, most NAS' aren't limited by HD speed, but rather a low-end CPU and lack of RAM for caching. A P200 with 128MB of RAM would work for a NAS. I built a fanless (its in my bedroom) linux box using a VIA 1ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, and a 60GB laptop hard drive (barely audiable when seeking). It serves as a small file dump. I am thinking about building a 1TB raid array with it. Probably cost $700 for the drives and extra parts I need. -Foxxz |
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