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Hello there... I've recently become aware of NAS drives, and was wondering if anyone had any experience of these? Would they work if they were plugged into a router?
Also, I was wondering if you could use one as a web server, to host a website for example....
Cheers :mrgreen:
no (just servers!), yes and depends if it has the web server built into it (or if you can install yourself)
Nox
ok cool. They do seem rather dear, and the enclosures only seem to support PATA FAT32 drives, and not SATA.
hmmm, without looking into it deeper, FAT32 suprises me - most are able to set up permissions, and most won't work with linux, both of which would make me think they would have NTFS.
If you're not after RAID safety, the linksys NLSU2 may suffice, it will run off any USB drive, but will format it first. It was also one of the first, and as such has a massive (hacking) following, letting you install pretty much whatever you want on it.
Nox
Unless you get a large scale NAS unit from one of the big vendors that runs a stripped down Win2K, you are not going to get NTFS as the open source driver for linux is read only. Some use FAT32, but i would stay away from them as FAT32 is a pants file system.
There are many NAS products out there offering both SATA and PATA connections. Most of these run a Linux based os so use something like ext2 or a derivative of. As they are Network Attached Storage they do *not* need a server to operate (unless you are foolish enough to get the Netgear thingy they requires windows drivers) and are fully indipendant of any OS you are using. The Buffalo Terrastation gets really good press, not tried one myself though. As most are based on linux, it is pretty easy to hack them to add other features too.
If you want a flexible and well supported NAS box, take a look at the X6 by Infrant (http://www.infrant.com) it allows you to add disks one at a time and will rebuild the RAID array as you go. You can also upgrade each disk with a higher capacity and when aøll disks are replaced, the RAID-5 array will increase to use all the new capacity.
what kind of NAS are you interested in? Single drive, or a RAID system? the RAID systems are far more expensive as you can imagine. Scan have a couple of units that look pretty good.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...Thumbnails=yes
just a single drive. I have a few PCs at home, and have a USB2 hard disk. Obviously the PC the USB har disk is attached to has to be on for the other PC to access it. NAS i thought would solve this (much like a print server solves the problem for sharing a printer).
Its really just down to my laziness - not wanting to carry the USB external drive round the house!
Absolutly, either a NAS box to house your drive instead of the USB case, or, a lot of NAS units can have several USB devices hanging off it that add to the space (not raid). some also have print server functions as well. Take a look at the spec for the Synology unit, gives you an idea what these little boxes can do.
Another one, which will be hitting these shores on the 14th (been waiting for it for a few months now for various reasons) is here: http://www.multitask-computing.co.uk...roducts_id=391. it's amazing what they can get these things to do now.
cheers Funkstar, lokos very nice indeed!
Don't forget that USB enclosures never allow the disk to spin down...
Which is not always a bad thing...Quote:
Originally Posted by ultim8um
Nox
These look way cool
http://www.thecus.com/products_index...62bfd5e38dda25
HEADRAT
can you buy them in the UK? look nice
@scan
Nox