Slashdot Mirror

You can get 3mail system.

WLE-HG-DYG:$219.99 * 2
WLE-CC5:$54.99 * 2
WLE-LNC:$24.99 * 2
WLA2-G54C:$79.99 *2
Total:$759.92

And, if WebCam, Power, and some options are added, it is perfect!
So,You must buy ;-P

You can get 3mail system.

WLE-HG-DYG:$219.99 * 2
WLE-CC5:$54.99 * 2
WLE-LNC:$24.99 * 2
WLA2-G54C:$79.99 *2
Total:$759.92

And, if WebCam, Power, and some options are added, it is perfect!
So,You must buy ;-P

You can get 3mail system.

WLE-HG-DYG:$219.99 * 2
WLE-CC5:$54.99 * 2
WLE-LNC:$24.99 * 2
WLA2-G54C:$79.99 *2
Total:$759.92

And, if WebCam, Power, and some options are added, it is perfect!
So,You must buy ;-P

You can get 3mail system.

WLE-HG-DYG:$219.99 * 2
WLE-CC5:$54.99 * 2
WLE-LNC:$24.99 * 2
WLA2-G54C:$79.99 *2
Total:$759.92

And, if WebCam, Power, and some options are added, it is perfect!
So,You must buy ;-P

I'm with you on this issue. I've gone from 20MB way back when in the day to about 2TB of storage on my current network. I have 2 Desktops with RAID1 setups (2x200GB and 2x250GB respectively), a small server with RAID1 (2x120GB) and a few other assorted PCs with multiple different drives of varying capacities.

And I don't want to sound like an ad, but... ...the machine I am loving the most these days is the Buffalo Terastation (http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai l.php?productid=97&categoryid=19). This thing rocks. 4x250GB you can configure anyway you want (I went for RAID5, 750GB of NAS storage), with gigabit ethernet, SMB, AFS, NFS and FTP. Runs some embedded Linux I believe. Also has 4 USB2 ports through which you can attach more disks for more storage. I think it can also print through them, but I don't use that feature (stupid old parallel printer) so I'm not 100% sure on that.

Coupled with an SMC 8 port gigabit switch I am flying through files and backups. And the damn thing ran about $900 from buy.com. They also have a 120GBx4 model and a 400GBx4, but the former's disks are too cheap for the expense of the surrounding hardware while the latter's disks are too expensive for their own good. The 250x4 seems to be the sweet spot. You can almost buy 2 for the price of a 400x4.

As for DVD storage like people are suggesting, I'd say screw it. I hate having to reach for something physical to find bits. These days I even try to keep my games as ISOs so I don't have to find a CD case. Of course all the new copy protection mechanisms suck, but hey, gamecopyworld is your friend. :) And before I get my ass roasted, I do pay for those games, I just like to play them with the convenience of a virtual CD and not have to keep shuffling CDs in and out of my computer. If I want to play the CD swap game I'll sit in front of my game consoles.

-Jack Ash

Buffalo TeraStation

Supports RAID 5.

I emailed if external USB hard drives could be added and swapped to a raid 5 array, and if it can be done "on the fly"...

but all I got was this lousy message:

"Please call (800) 456-9799 x. 2013 between 8:30 and 5:30 CT and our presales guys will be able to assist you."

I'm one of those weird people that would rather communicate in writing. Oh well - no sale.

Good god man, get rid of those Lacie Big Disks now! I just posted to another thread where someone had trouble with them. I've lost 2 500GB Big Disks this year and if you don't have backups you're hosed.

Try two or three of the Buffalo Terastations (No I don't work for them, just a satisfied customer). 4x400GB drives, RAID 5 gives me 1.2TB of usable space per box. The redundancy is nice, but don't forget to back up now and then :)

It's just another /. ad. They gotta make money somehow.

To me, this looks much more interesting:

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-
detail.php?productid=96&categoryid=18

Fry's here in Silicon Valley has a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box called a Buffalo that provides 1 TB of storage. It goes on sale periodically for under $700. The company also have a range of sizes including 1.6 TB version as well. I would get two of these units, periodically mirroring one to the other and placing the second one offsite.

Here is the link the 1 TB version (http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai l.php?productid=99&categoryid=10) and to the 1.6 TB version (http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai l.php?productid=100&categoryid=10).

A quick Google search shows that buy.com has the 1 TB units for a shade under $1K. (http://www.buy.com/prod/Buffalo_TeraStation_1TB_N AS_RAID_1_0_5_Back_up/q/loc/10995/10396259.html)

-- Mache

Fry's here in Silicon Valley has a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box called a Buffalo that provides 1 TB of storage. It goes on sale periodically for under $700. The company also have a range of sizes including 1.6 TB version as well. I would get two of these units, periodically mirroring one to the other and placing the second one offsite.

Here is the link the 1 TB version (http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai l.php?productid=99&categoryid=10) and to the 1.6 TB version (http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai l.php?productid=100&categoryid=10).

A quick Google search shows that buy.com has the 1 TB units for a shade under $1K. (http://www.buy.com/prod/Buffalo_TeraStation_1TB_N AS_RAID_1_0_5_Back_up/q/loc/10995/10396259.html)

-- Mache

I was looking at this for my needs, but I no experience with it, does anyone else?

...Buffalo's Terastation. Check this.

I have yet to find an online company selling properly configured systems for a reasonable price.

There's the Terabyte Network Attached Storage which looks neat, though not rack mountable :(

How about the Buffalo Terastation? Only $1k.

No, it isn't if you bother to do 5 minutes of Googling and realize you'd better shell a few extra bucks for quality.

If you think you can beat a device like the Buffalo TeraStation go for it, you will be rich! It was shown at CES, and goes on sale next month in the USA for $999. Gigabit Ethernet, 4 250GB hard drives (RAID 0, 1 or 5 support), 4 USB ports to attach additional external storage devices, built in print server for sharing a USB printer, blah blah blah. I'm going to buy 2 of them!

or if you have a buffalo wap, you are good to go with an official firmware update. version 2.2 for my (recently discontinued but still readily available around the net) wbr-g54 has signal strength settings and allows you to crank the channels up to 11. are there other brands that offer official firmwares with these capabilities?

The Linkstation from Buffalo seems to be a decent NAS. My supervisor and I have been drooling over them ever since we found out about them (and the NSLU2). Right now Buffalo is offering a $50 rebate and it seems the price is around $200 (w/o rebate) for 120GB version.

In Japan, there's another company that sells basically a rebranded Linkstation sans HD and it goes for about $140. It's a decent deal considering the 120GB Linkstation is $260.

And just if you're wondering, it does run Linux with ext3 formatted HD. I believe it runs 2.4.18 out of box on a PowerPC.

This guy's page ("English" here) explains how he hacks the box to do almost everything. You should be able to follow what's going on even though the machine translation sucks.

There's a tons of links to everything this guy has done, but the interesting one would be the hardware breakdown. The middle column is the NAS sans HD model and the last one is GigE version of the Linkstation. I don't think the gigabit version is out in the US yet, but it is in Japan.

I'm just waiting until payday so I can buy one of these...

- David

There appears to be a fair sized amount of information on how to modify these boxes on various Japanese sites which I can not read a word of. So I have yet to take my LinkStation appart but will hopefully get around to it soon. So far it has worked well and I am pretty happy with my purchase.

i've had to test a few wifi routers, and the buffalo routers [buffalotech.com] have significantly outperformed anything from linksys, netgear, or d-link. i recommend them to everyone i work with.

If you've ever dealt with the frustrations of supporting access to secure systems, you'll know first hand that security is not convenient. The addition of security at airports is a perfect example. It's a lot less convenient now to fly than it used to be. But the security is necessary. Manufacturers are simply trying to sell their products. With the thin margins these networking devices have, mass appeal is necessary. And mass appeal equals ease of use in the consumer market.

I like what Buffalo Technologies has recently come out with. They've got a pushbutton process to set up WEP between a client and the access point. I spoke to one of their reps at a show recently and they said they were trying to make security easy enough so Mom could set it up. The demo looked easy enough...

The basic message here is that if you force people to enable security, they won't buy your product. If you don't force them to enable security, they might as well leave their front door open. And most people won't enable security because they either a) don't think anything is going to happen to them or b) don't understand what COULD happen if they don't. Articles like this one from CNN are great because it has a wide audience.

(typing this on a Centrino-based WinXP laptop)

Indeed.

However, when I decided to purchase a decent wireless card , I would've liked to have been able to use it under Linux without paying extra. When you spend nearly UKP50 on the card, a discount on the Linuxant driver (at the very least!) would have been a nice gesture.

for those folks who bought g stuff from companies like linksys who haven't made any promises on upgrading their g stuff (dunno about d-link tho), you shoulda bought a buffalo card like this one, or the earlier model. ;) buffalo has a tech guarantee stating they will upgrade or replace their g equipment to meet the ratified standard when it becomes available, at no cost to you. a few days ago they released their wpa update. i would expect them to have their ratified firmware updated soon as well.

for those folks who bought g stuff from companies like linksys who haven't made any promises on upgrading their g stuff (dunno about d-link tho), you shoulda bought a buffalo card like this one, or the earlier model. ;) buffalo has a tech guarantee stating they will upgrade or replace their g equipment to meet the ratified standard when it becomes available, at no cost to you. a few days ago they released their wpa update. i would expect them to have their ratified firmware updated soon as well.

NOTE TO OUR CUSTOMERS: As you may know, IEEE802.11g is slated to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance in mid 2003. We understand this could affect current 802.11g technology. We are dedicated to ensuring that our customers have the most current and reliable products available on the market today. If the certification materially changes the principal operating features of our pre-standard 802.11g products, we will replace or upgrade any of those products at no charge and provide toll-free technical support. We thank you for your loyalty and confidence in our products.

So in case anything changes they're guaranteeing you'll have what works. That's pretty cool if you ask me. I've worked with these guys before and have purchased a number of AP's and cards and they work well. People are nice to work with too.

It used to be the only one was Lucent's Orinoco/EC - very expensive and not in stores.

There is now a product from Buffalo Technology which does this, call the Airstation Bridge

A lot of people are using these with our ethernet MP3 player. Everybody says the Airstation works great, and it's only about $160. I can't say I've used one yet, myself.

Until P2P comes up with a solution to the NAT problems, it will continue to suck more and more. NATte home networks are going to become more and more commonplace, as handhealds and kid's computers get 802.11b in them and Airports or AirStations are sold to home consumers

802.11b specifies WEP, but it does not have to be used. I would imagine that they will enable WEP however. Plus, the SS should help keeping things private.

From the Buffalo AirStation FAQ:

Question
What about security, can my neighbor steal my information?

Answer
There are two levels of security in WLAN. First, the RF communication is protected by the special transmission method called Spread Spectrum, SS. The SS method is not the "tune in" method used in normal radio transmission, it is almost impossible to tune. Secondly, 802.11 wireless communications have a function called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a form of encryption which provides privacy comparable to that of a traditional wired network. If the wireless network has information that should be secure then WEP should be used, ensuring the data is protected at traditional wired network levels. Also it should be noted that traditional Virtual Private Networking (VPN) techniques are not supported in the current firmware. The firmware upgrade will be available in the 2nd quarter of 2001.