External NAS drives.

rabbitinlights

Hello,

I currently have a Laptop connected via wifi to my ADSL router, Id love a NAS drive that I could leave connected to the router (CAT5) and when ever im connected to the router see the files via my laptop, I dont want a web interface to access the files, I just want to be able to see the external drive in "my computer" beside my C: drive and DVD drive, is this possible?

I nearly bought the WD My Book world edition, but that was all web based access and didn't support Vista, anyone have any Ideas? or does anyone actually have something like this working?


S.

ethernet

I have a device from Linksys for this. It allows you to connect two USB 2.0 hard drives or one hard drive and a flash memory key. The data can be accessed through a web browser or through Windows Explorer/My Network Places. It also works on Mac OS and Linux.

You can create shares on the drive for each user and protect their files using passwords. The address is like: \\servername\user or \\ipaddress\user

Just map this as a network drive in windows so the above becomes Z:\ or X:\ or whatever you like [if it's available].

If the username and password you use to log in to Windows are the same as that you've set up on the NAS device, you won't need to enter a password when logging in to Windows.

wasim21k

i been wandering around to make some old pc into NAS with 0 extra cost but if you have then its very very easy, just install extra hard drives and then run some Linux from CD. and few web based configuration and then thats it. and you can use that share web base(even from remote location if you want to do it this way) and from your windows explorer.

damoth

I bought the Western Digital My Book World Edition II 1TB NAS and it was a disaster. Very, very slow transfer speeds (A review pointing this out has been placed on the site since i bought it). I would be very wary of the transfer speeds on any NAS product. I have since just taken out the 2 500GB drives and added them as internal drives in one of my PCs.

I had heard that in general NAS was slow but didnt think it would be as bad.

The device recommended by ethernet looks good. Nice price too.

ethernet

wasim21k wrote:

i been wandering around to make some old pc into NAS with 0 extra cost but if you have then its very very easy, just install extra hard drives and then run some Linux from CD. and few web based configuration and then thats it. and you can use that share web base(even from remote location if you want to do it this way) and from your windows explorer.

Or you could use FreeNAS if you didn't feel too comfortable with Linux. Painless to set up. It uses its own file system though.

dingdong1234567

Hi there, i've been on the look out for a SATA Network NAS now for a while as i have a 250GB hard drive that i could use in it, through my wireless router without leaving the main PC on. Has anyone seen any could enclosures that would suit? Thanks.