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Cheap NAS
Looking for some help here guys,
You may have seen a previous thread from me looking at setting up a wireless hard drive. Essentially, what I have decided to do is buy a cheap wireless n router (the linksys wag160n) off ebay, to which I will then connect a NAS.
So therefore, am currently looking at buying a cheap NAS that is capable of handling a 1tb hard drive.
Features that I need:
- Multiple users accessing the NAS simultaneously (ie at least more than 10 - I realise this may make it extremely slow, but realistically there should never be more than about 2 people accessing at one time)
- Password protection on different folders (so I can choose who has access to what)
- Support for 1TB hard drives
- Support for Vista, XP and Mac without having to install any software on the respective computers
Features that I don't need:
- RAID
- An iTunes server/media server/bit torrent server (you get what I mean) etc
- Any included backup utilities/software
- Any online services (such as online backup etc)
(As you can see I just want a basic NAS that does exactly what it says on the box.)
As the NAS will be used predominately over wireless (there may be 1 or 2 wired users), I don't know if the performance of the NAS will be an issue. I want to get the maximum out of the router's wireless - ie I want the router to bottleneck the performance, not the NAS. Having said that, I don't want to pay for some entreprise NAS box with dual gigabyte LAN ports that will cost a fortune and never be fully utilised.
I'm fully open to all options (apart from buying an old laptop and installing freenas). For starters, here are some products I've found - any thoughts?
NAS with Hard Drive Included
NAS without Hard Drive, but using 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 (£78)
NAS using a USB enclosure and USB to Ethernet Adapter (also using 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1) (£78)
Any comments or NAS options I have missed appreciated.
Cheers!
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Re: Cheap NAS
For completeness sack, I decided to go for the third option (ie creating a NAS with a USB to Ethernet adapter and an enclosure with a terabyte hard drive).
Got the Linksys Slug (NSLU2) from ebay, supposedly new, for £41 including delivery which even if it is used is a bargain.
Will buy an enclosure and the 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 of scan later tonight.
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Re: Cheap NAS