Cheap NAS

[jamiesalter]

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

• 1.0TB Buffalo HD-CE1.0TLU2 DriveStation 2share Ethernet & USB 2.0 Hard Drive with TurboUSB (Total: £134)
• Freecom 30725 1TB NAS Drive Hi-Speed USB/Ethernet 10/100 (Total: £121)

NAS without Hard Drive, but using 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 (£78)

• IB-NAS902St-US2-B single drive 4 in 1 NAS server for SATA HDD with eSATA and USB interface (£67, Total: £145)
• Icy Box IB-NAS901-B External Black Aluminum, PATA/SATA to 1x USB 2.0/1.1, 1x RJ45 NAS (£64, Total: £142)
• Icy Box IB-NAS4220-B Ethernet NAS Enclosure (£96, Total: £174)
• D-Link 1-Bay SATA NETWORK STORAGE ENCLOSURE 10/100/1G + USB (£73, Total: £151)

NAS using a USB enclosure and USB to Ethernet Adapter (also using 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1) (£78)

• Linksys NSLU2 (£50) with AKASA AK-ENP2STON-BLUK (£18, Total: £146)

Any comments or NAS options I have missed appreciated.

Cheers!

[jamiesalter]

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.

[prehensile]

svp has cheap nas
http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?p...lebase&id=4701
+ others