Looking for external HDD/file server.

ming

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Hi all,

My mate is looking for an external HDD/file server type device where he can stick a HD on to his home network. I know there are NAS and ethernet HDDs, but there was one device I saw about 1 or 2 years ago which was just an enclosure for HDDs, with wifi and also has the ability to run file sharing apps (if I remember correctly).
I was wondering if you guys could point out where I can find such products. I think ethernet and file sharing capability (such as BT) is what my mate is looking for in these products.

Thanks
 
Was this it?

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/420/asus_wl-hdd_2
About 2 years ago, wireless, supports FTP, etc.

I researched this last year and it's ugly.
-Multiple vendors, they all seem to use Linux based control software so the HD's need to be formatted other than FAT/NTFS.
-Some formats were actually proprietary (unreadable by any other hardware).
-All I saw had complaints about ease of use.
-There was an after market in shareware firmware upgrades for many of the devices.

Not the clean "home use" product lines you'd expect. It appears the wireless router guys scabbed a HD onto a product or the HD guys scabbed a wireless access point onto their product. Nobody did a clean, ground up approach except for the enterprise guys who charge $500-1000 plus for terabyte type storage centers.
 
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I recently got a Synology DS-106e which I have been very pleased with. It doesnt have built in wireless though. Got it from scan.co.uk
 
I don't think anything available, short of a barebones PC will support P2P/BT. I was pleasantly surpried it would support FTP.

On the other hand there is a Linksys product, NSLU or something like that, that has pretty sad firmware off the shelf but the hackers have been at it big time and there might be an aftermarket firmware with BT built in. Google some of the support sites on it.
 
I don't think anything available, short of a barebones PC will support P2P/BT. I was pleasantly surpried it would support FTP.

On the other hand there is a Linksys product, NSLU or something like that, that has pretty sad firmware off the shelf but the hackers have been at it big time and there might be an aftermarket firmware with BT built in. Google some of the support sites on it.

cool... will do.

thanx
 
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=1&pid=24

only single drive but supports downloading from Bittorrent. Also the synology I mentioned I bought recently can be modded by the NSLU stuff as well, so you could ipkg a bittorrent client on to it. It has a Windows only Download Redirector which might do BT but I don't know.
 
http://www.thecus.com/products_over.php?cid=1&pid=24

only single drive but supports downloading from Bittorrent. Also the synology I mentioned I bought recently can be modded by the NSLU stuff as well, so you could ipkg a bittorrent client on to it. It has a Windows only Download Redirector which might do BT but I don't know.

nice find.... thanx

Oh, I did come across that Synology one. It is just an enclosure, right?
 
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nice find.... thanx

Oh, I did come across that Synology one. It is just an enclosure, right?

Yep, just an enclosure. The DS-106e is SATA and the 106j is IDE. I'd recommend going with the SATA one if you can.
 

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