Network Attached Storage

[Robert Solomon]

Hi. I am looking for information on NAS. I know very little. I would
like to add such a device to an existing wired Windows network.

What should I be looking for?

Thanks,
Rob

[George]

There seem to be two different flavors- one is a box that appears on the
network like any peer machine. It simply offers its disk space to any
authorized user on the network. You'll find the better ones offer services
for more than one OS, but I haven't seen one yet that won't support Windows.

The second variety requires that you load a driver or an application on your
machine to access it. I'd avoid those.

The current scheme is that instead of putting the storage in the server,
they equip the server with USB or Firewire ports. You add an external USB
2.0 or Firewire hard drive, let the device format it and off you go. You
typically control the user lists and passwords through a web server built
into the device.

Another option is to use an old retired machine to serve as your storage.
Just set the old machine in a corner and let it play file server. Internal
hard drives are way cheaper than externals. I was look at these server
things a few months ago and settled on putting Linux on an old 700MHz box,
addding a 250G drive I found on clearance for $75 and calling it a day. It
provides really nice service to a network of Macs and Windows machines. For
me it was a good choice.

If you decide to play with one of these, just try and steer clear of the
ones that require you to install special drivers or access applications on
your client machines.

"Robert Solomon" <r...@drrob1.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1cdf607e6...@news.supernews.com...

[Robert Solomon]

I tried installing Red Had Fedora Core 2 and could not get it to talk to
my windows network. I am now using Xandros 3 which was fairly easy to
get it to connect to win. I'm going to try the Buffalo Linkstation 250
GB

> There seem to be two different flavors- one is a box that appears on the
> network like any peer machine. It simply offers its disk space to any
> authorized user on the network. You'll find the better ones offer services
> for more than one OS, but I haven't seen one yet that won't support Windows.
>
> The second variety requires that you load a driver or an application on your
> machine to access it. I'd avoid those.
>
> The current scheme is that instead of putting the storage in the server,
> they equip the server with USB or Firewire ports. You add an external USB
> 2.0 or Firewire hard drive, let the device format it and off you go. You
> typically control the user lists and passwords through a web server built
> into the device.
>
> Another option is to use an old retired machine to serve as your storage.
> Just set the old machine in a corner and let it play file server. Internal
> hard drives are way cheaper than externals. I was look at these server
> things a few months ago and settled on putting Linux on an old 700MHz box,
> addding a 250G drive I found on clearance for $75 and calling it a day. It
> provides really nice service to a network of Macs and Windows machines. For
> me it was a good choice.
>
> If you decide to play with one of these, just try and steer clear of the
> ones that require you to install special drivers or access applications on
> your client machines.
>
> "Robert Solomon" <r...@drrob1.com> wrote in message

[Danny Kile]

You may want to checkout these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Category&Category=24&InnerManu=1932

--
Danny Kile
Certified FCC, ISCET, A+ , Network+

Please reply to the Newsgroup ONLY
Your cooperation is appreciated.