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Budget NAS Solutions?
DeliBoy asks: "After getting tired of the noisy power-sucking IBM PC Server 325 that I've been using as a JBOD server, I've decided to purchase a small network disk. Specificially, I'm looking at the Buffalo HD-HG300LAN. With FTP, a USB print server, and expandibility options, this unit looks very attractive. I was wondering what other NAS solutions Slashdot readers were purchasing for their home or small office. Is there anything better out there for around the same price?"
There are good basic ethernet NAT units from e.g. Asus and Linksys.
Most do FTP, some do SSH. Watch out for overheating and buggy Samba installations.
http://blog.grcm.net/
It even runs Linux! (and is hackable to have it do all kinds of extra stuff)
http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
Kormac
I have a 160Gb Linkstation, and while it's great for what I use it for, it's certainly not silent. It's not loud, but it's louder than I expected. Given the fan was described as 'silent', that is. No way is it silent.
Apart from that, though, it 'just works'. Which is nice.
Why not build your own? Check out somewhere like pricewatch
You can get a 400G HD for about $190 and a P4 combo board for about $160.
Install slackware and you're ready to rock and roll.
Good luck.
The Infrant ReadyNAS systems appear to be a good bet. More expensive that the Buffalo, etc., but they seem much more capable and they seem to be willing to add a lot more features. About the only (minor) downsides I can see to them is that they're not fully open (compared to having your own linux box, for instance), and you have to tear open the case to get to the drives.
However, I'd think you could get a cheaper and more capable setup by building a low-power *nix system with a quiet case. If you have the experience (and based on your submission, it seems you do), this is what I'd recommend.
Convert the Buffalo to a Kuruo Box!
http://penguinppc.org/embedded/kuro/
Kriston
Okay, it isn't exactly what you were asking for but I just read about it the other day and thought it was worth mentioning because it's pretty cool. Check out the Yellow Machine(TM) Terabyte Storage Appliance P400T.
See if any of the suggestions in Data Storage For Home? apply to you.
I have done DIY and bought a rig from eRacks & am happy with both.
if you dont know what NAS stands for you are probably not in a position to answer the question.
Have you looked at Linksys' NSLU2? There's a very active community focused on exploiting the flexibility of a low-cost, low-energy, Linux-based NAS device. I don't have one myself, but have been eyeing one for some time.
I just got one of these today: http://www.netgear.com/products/details/SC101.php
:)
Pop in two IDE drives in either RAID 1 or 0 and you've got a simple NAS device. I call it the hard drive toaster
Tim Dorr
Owner/Manger
A Small Orange
That doesn't look very expandable. Are there any relatively inexpensive solutions for housing a significant number of disks (5-10) or is it only professional grade equipment that can manage that?
If you are looking at Gigabit Ethernet products, consider the I-O Data UHDL-G400U. It supports larger jumbo frames (the Buffalo can do only up to 7k I believe), has a faster CPU which leads to much faster transfers. It has been available in Japan for a while. Their usa web site list the product, but their web shop is not selling it yet it seems.
Recently, a friend asked me to look for a cheap NAS solution. One of his (many) requirements was native interoperability with MacOS 9. Most NAS solutions integrate well in an environment with modern OS versions, but don't play nice with older SMB or AFP versions.9 4
i ndex.php
I looked for weeks, until I found this goodie from Lacie (a french company known for its MAC products): http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=105
compatibility:
Windows® 98SE*; Windows® 2000*; Windows® Me*; Windows® XP (SP1 & SP2); Mac® OS 9*/X, Linux 2.4 & higher*
* Only on the Ethernet network
It has everything he wished for, it's cheap and easy to use.
If compatibility isn't an issue, just google around for some reviews. If I remember correctly, most of the reviewers were quite impressed with the solutions from SimpleTech: http://www.simpletech.com/commercial/simpleshare/
Hey, Anon. Grandparent may be reading this thread to see the answer. So the answers are more meaningful if the question is comprehensible.
USR 8200.. I love mine.. found the only flaw was the implementation of the print server didn't play well with my epson printers bi-directional communication..
hard drive NOT included, add any external drive you like.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I'm all for explaining acronyms where appropriate, but really, some are common place enough that you just got to assume that your average reader of this site will know what you are talking about. If someone posts about an Automated Teller Machine, I expect them to just use ATM without spelling it out (though this case might require the distinction that they don't mean Asynchronous Transfer Mode(I think that's right)). Even if you don't know a common acronym - I actually, had forgotten what JBOD stood for - since it is common, the answer isn't far away. It took me all of 5 seconds with Google to clear up my confusion.
So, if someone explains the acronym, great, but if it's common enough, I don't expect them too.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I recently bought a LaCie ethernet disk 1TB at work. It's mostly used for backups and a couple of office file shares. We've had it for about two weeks and so far so good. It runs Windows XP embedded and can be joined to the win2k domain. Actually, it's just a standard PC with a VIA 667mhz cpu, 128mb RAM, and two 500gb hard drives. I've managed to hack it so I can reach Explorer and a command prompt, and run scripts and all that stuff. I probably could have built one of these..
Simple NAShttp://www.trittontechnologies.com/products/TRI NSS001.htm
You can get capacities up to 250GB, but I bought the bare enclosure.
Upsides:
Cheap
Built-in SAMBA server
Built-in FTP server
Works with Linux
Public/Private shares
Downsides:
FAT32
100mb/s
Telnet doesn't work right
No SSH or SFTP
Bought it for $99 at Fry's.