Re: Budget network attached storage?

["Matthew Miles" <m_miles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey all,

Just throwing in my 2 cents as it were (not Cent 3! LOL).  Sorry, bad
joke, and far to early in the morning!

Anyway,  I am currently using NASlite+ as my NAS OS
(http://www.serverelements.com).  A
few thoughts:

Pro's:

1) Runs headless (so no monitor or keyboard) - remote admin via web or
telnet.
2) Reuses some of the old stuff I have lying around
3) Minimal hardware spec - I have 3 x 80Gb hard drives on a p133 with
32Mb RAM - and it works great.
4) Actually does talk straight to the drive, so even on old m/boards
with no large disk recognition you still get the full drive size.

Cons:
1) Can only use onboard IDE controller - so max 4 drives.
2) Boots from LiveCD so you can only use 3 drives for storage (it
ignores the CD).
3) As its a live CD the config must be stored elsewhere - its only
realy used for about 2 secs (like the CD) on bootup - seems a waste to
me.  I use floppy but you can use usb.
4) No RAID support - HOWEVER, it is being looked into and there is
software available to 'mirror' the entire box onto antother one (via a
windows machine) - this means you have to have 2 complete machines though!
5) To get the CD version you have to pay!  Admittedly, it is only  a
few quid but still! Grrr... the original Naslite is free but for those
who don't adventure into Linux much (myself included) you may find a
bit out trouble making the boot disk - its 1.7Mb and Windows CANNOT DO
IT.  You need to use Linux.  I just paid for the Server suite (approx.
=A325) - you get all the versions of Naslite available and upgrades.

Overall, for "small" home use - i.e I backup my email etc to it
its
perfect - using old tech which doesnt need cooling means I have a near
silent machine that is quick etc etc.  I can manage it via Telnet
locally, or over the'net and the same with the web GUI - THERE IS NO
PASSWORD PROTECTION OF ANY KIND HOWEVER so if access over the 'net is
required it may be a good idea to secure it via an ISA server or
something.

I haven't used Openfiler myself, but after looking at the product
website (http://www.openfiler.org)
I think I may have a go.

Hope this helps somebody!

Regards,

Matt

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Hawes,Timothy Edward \(GEG\)"
<haweste@a...> wrote:
> An old PC and some big disks ?
> Or:
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/modules.php?name=3DContent&pa=3Dshowpage&pid=
=3D10
if you're felling a bit more flush?
>=20
> HTH,
>=20
> Tim.=20
>=20
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:  Jim Andrews
> >=20
> > Does anyone know of any budget-priced network attached=20
> > storage with Ethernet interface?
> >=20
> > I'm looking for something that will be a more practical=20
> > solution for backup than using tape, as I've now exceeded the=20
> > tape size of my DDS4 drive, even on one PC.
> >=20
> > Prices of =A3400+ seem excessive, considering all they are is
a=20
> > drive, controller and Ethernet card!
> >=20
> >=20
> >=20
> > Jim