Pros and cons of an external harddisk with ethernet connection?

[hansrijf]

Can anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of external harddisks with an ethernet connection? Can I connect such a disk to a router (linksys wrtg54gs v1 (preferred))? Or must they need to be connected to a pc?

 

[ABEC [LU]]

I have two Lacie 250GB Ethernet drives. I just got them actually. And from a personal perspective they are great becasue I can access them with my wireless notebook.

Now, seeing as I just got them. It seems as though i can only plug one into my router at a time becasue they have the same Mac Addresses they only show up as one unit. If anyone knows how to create a new Mac address or do something different so I can have both on at the same time please let me know. Please message me as well as positing it online so i can see it as i may not always view the thread.

 

[kcnychief]

Can anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of external harddisks with an ethernet connection? Can I connect such a disk to a router (linksys wrtg54gs v1 (preferred))? Or must they need to be connected to a pc?

I think they are a great investment. They can be plugged into a router by themselves, which only requires your connection is up and running. The main difference if plugged into a PC and shared as a resource, is that the machine has to always be on for other machines to access it.

 

[Admiral Michael]

NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a great solution if you want to run a central location for file storage and don't want to run a whole computer to do it.

However Im not sure if all require this but my friend had one and it required software to connect to the device. It allows two setups, read only and read/write.

As to the same MAC address, no two network devices have the same MAC address, this is a unique value that is assigned.

 

[mlakrid]

I have two Lacie 250GB Ethernet drives. I just got them actually. And from a personal perspective they are great becasue I can access them with my wireless notebook.

Now, seeing as I just got them. It seems as though i can only plug one into my router at a time becasue they have the same Mac Addresses they only show up as one unit. If anyone knows how to create a new Mac address or do something different so I can have both on at the same time please let me know. Please message me as well as positing it online so i can see it as i may not always view the thread.

I would double-check the MAC addresses...NO two devices should EVER have the same MAC address this is a LAW in place and setup by the FCC.

For the very same reason it is also unlawful to change a MAC address...

I would be willing to bet they are one digit off...

write back and let us know

As to the same MAC address, no two network devices have the same MAC address, this is a unique value that is assigned.

CHEATER!!!

I was posting this before you... ARGH~~!

I was the only one reading this thread hijacker...















j/k you beat me to it fair and square.. :dead:

 

[Admiral Michael]

LOL ^^

KC posted before me. I was writing a reply then my grandparents left so I left my computer for 10 minutes, came back to finish writing and when I posted it I noticed he replied.

EDIT: Another Pro for a NAS is that its a storage device thats not connected to a computer and makes a great backup location. So if your computer dies then your backup is safe as it isn't attached to the computer.

 

[hansrijf]

Thanks 4 the replies so far. Will take a look in town tomorrow how much they actually cost...

Just bought a 160GB USB2.0 ext disk a few weeks ago but that one only works when the pc is running. Can I use this disk in an external network setup btw?

What did you guys pay for your networkdisk?

 

[kcnychief]

Something you may want to consider is some type of shell that has network capability, and you can then put your own hard disks in there.

This is by all means not your only alternative, but I set one of these up last week for someone :

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/NetworkStorage/SC101.aspx

Works well, quite cost effective.

 

[Perris Calderon]

anyone ever think I could figure out how to bring up the pagefile on this thread?

anyway, if there is a copy of what you are accessing on your network, a copy won't have to be written to the disc on your computer

it's a long story but there is less that gets written to the pagefile

just saying

 

[kcnychief]

Very good point Perris.

Doesn't the page file also not get written to if you open the file remotely, and save it back to the original destination (remote hard drive)?

 

[Perris Calderon]

Very good point Perris.

Doesn't the page file also not get written to if you open the file remotely, and save it back to the original destination (remote hard drive)?

it's ot, but I did start it didn't I

the pagefile only gets activity if there is no copy for the data in ram..if what's in ram came from any permanent source and has not been modified, none of that ram gets written to the pagefile

if the data came from the local network and you get disconected from that network that would get written to the pagefile

the pagefile is for data that has no other image anywhere it can get

if there is an image somewhere the computer thinks is your working network the pagefile gets nothing from that data

the pagefile is only for new information that has nowhere else to back the data if it needs to get released from memory

anyway, pagefile discussion is off topic and I opologize to the o.p.

any other questions just give me a pm

 

[ming]

I think the one and only con for ethernet types are the data transfer rates compared to USB2.0 and Firewire. I don't know if there are any Gigabit connections for HDs, but 100mbps is much slower compared to the 400mpbs of Firewire and 480mbps of USB2.0.

 

[hansrijf]

I am considering buying the Linksys NLSU2. The only thing that holds me back is the fact that the USB drives have to be formatted in the LINUX EXT3 format. And this type is not recognizable by Windows. That means that when I take the usb disk and want to hook it up on a pc this (windows) pc cannot read the data on the disk.

But on some other forum I read that the latest firmware of this Linksys NLSU2 made it possible to format the disks in FAT32 or NTFS as well but I read nothing about this on the Linksys website or in the NLSU2 manual.

Anyone with experience with this who can shed some light in my darkness? If this is true (FAT32/NTFS) then I will definitely buy the LINKSYS but if not, well ... I have to look further.

 

[LeeJend]

The original units were Linux based ext3 file system which Linksys lied and said were a proprietary disk operating system.

These units have been extensively hacked to install non-linksys approved operating systems allowing wide expansion and flexibility. Doing this voids the warantee and any support from linksys.

tomshardware has some articles about possible hacks or google Linksys NSLU2 hacks.

 

[hansrijf]

So LeeJend,

as I understand correctly: with the non Linksys firmware this units lets your format disks in NTFS filesystem?