Ethernet network hard drive?

[nathan_silly]

I would like to add a box under my DSL router with a couple of hard drives. The HD box would have a ethernet port and that'll plug into the router. The hard drive array can then be accessed from any computer on my LAN- either for MP3, video sharing, temporary storage etc.

Is there such a product? And is it expensive?

Thanks

[JohnG]

There are quite a few products available and they are usually expensive. Lacie have just brought out some interesting products that do exactly this with the added faciltiy of USB & Firewire expandability
Lacie ethernet disk (http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10073)
It is expensive though and it's worth looking at other manufacturers too. I think if you search for SAN storage that should point you in the right direction

[nathan_silly]

Ta for that. Although it looks like it's basically a PC? (Intel CPU with Windows XP)

I could just build a PC with several hard discs (Pentium P200, PCI controller, eight 200GB 5200 RPM hd's)

Ideally I would just like flash ROM OS on the PCB board type of thing- auto on and off.. and not a PC.

[JohnG]

I think they are all like that they all seem to have aprocessor and inbuild O/S. It would be far cheaper to build one yourself - you could use a low spec mobo and cpu and put on Linux and have 4 disks. You would then have yourself a cheap fileserver.
I would also like to do what you want to do and am hoping at some stage they will produce an external hard disk (like the current firewire/USB ones) that will just plug into the router.

[nathan_silly]

How well does wake on LAN work? I've never needed it nor fiddled around.

So if I build a PC with several HD's (called bob) hidden away somewhere- when I access bob from my other PC's- bob will switch on for a set time (say 2 hours), then shut off... is this possible?

[JohnG]

I've never tried it either - I would be interested to hear if anyone has this kind of thing working. I'll do a bit of asking around to see if anyone else can help with this.

[Bursar]

Quantum did a range of products called Snap Servers. Not sure if they still make them or not.

It's basically a hard disk with a network port on it. There's a basic OS that you can access to set things such as permissions and IP address. After that you just leave it alone and it should just work.

[joel112]

basically you want some form of NAS system (network attatched storage) easyest way is to just buld up a low spec pc pII 300, or even a cheap duron/athlon system and get a couple of pci ide controllers and use that, i have a similar setup, but it doubles as my web/sql/ftp/shout cast server, may be a little over the top for what you want but heregoes

dual amd athlon 2800+
1gb ecc pc2100
6x maxtor 160gb drives
2x adaptec pci ide cards
scsi card
sony dds3 tape drive

running freeBSD

as i say a little over the top for your needs, but its to show its easy to do,

i have built quite a few NAS boxes at work, and the main problem i have found is psu problems, so make sure you get a decent quality one.

also scsi is a big advantage, especally for speed, but the downside is the limited sizes, and expense of them, but they are hot swappable... which is a bonus...

quantum are now maxtor, and as far as i know they discontineued the snap servers

colbolt (sun) made a NAS server based on a qube...

it will be best for you to build one yourself, depending on how much money you can throw at it, mebber a nemiah cored via c3 box like on www.mini-itx.com may be better, and custom build your own box...

[gab2001uk]

Snap Servers are available from http://www.globaldirect.co.uk but the cheapest is £419 + VAT, so I would agree building your own is cheaper. File Servers in general have firmware in them which allows you to use a browser to set them up from any OS, similar to routers, cable modems and other network equipment.

[50/50]

I have been thinking of doing the same thing with my home network (3 pcs around the house)

I will be hopeing to use :

Huge Sever case with Loads of fans (£100)
500watt+ powersupply(£100)
Athlon XP 1700+ (£30)
256mb DDR ram(bout £20)
Nvdia chipset Mobo (v.stable) with onboard graphics sound etc.. (£100)
64bit PCI Gigabit Ethernet Server Card [very important! 1gbits/sec !](£50)
Raid Controller with 6 IDE channels(£150) upto 12HD's Or 6 RAID 1 Mirroring (fast!)
x6 Seagate 120gb Hard drives [700GB] (£500)
already have win2003 server
Total = ~£1000 (not bad for a 700GB server)

OR - If i win the lottory - sorry lotto
x12 300gb Hard drive :) (available at from september) (bout £450 each)
(3.6TB total!!)
add about 5 grand....

edit - simalar snap server cost £4k

[50/50]

oh yeah, btw, about the WOL (wake-up on lan) matter I have been using for ages and its kidda hard to setup but once you get it working its great!

I can access my turned off pc at home remotely, say from work. It will start up the machine, and then I will be able to access my files when my ftp server start running. Its great (providing that your pc is connected to the internet). It will also work for home networking. But Im not sure about turning its self off, it shouldnt be a problem, but Ive not tried it before.

[dnrc]

Netgear used to do some budget NAS boxes, you may be able to get one second hand.

Also, a quick Ebay search brought this up.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2739709772&category=16162

The WOL method should work pretty well though. The PC will boot OK with a wake up call. You can get programs which can shut a pc down, so you would need to find a timed one and stick a link in your startup folder.

[Branxx]

Maxtor and D-Link also have NAS in their product portfolio.

[nathan_silly]

Thanks for all the info.. looks like the cheapest method is just using a old PC.. I've got a Pentium 200MMX with 80MB RAM. That'll do.

It'll be quite good if slow but huge hard discs are out.. I don't need fast speed. Network is only 10mps so having a 7200 rpm hd is OTT. Be alright if 600GB but 4000 RPM HD's are out.

[LeadMagnet]

you are looking for a NAS device, which is nothing more than low power PC with a harddrive, and an operating system (linux / Windows / Unix) and it is sharing out it's diskspace.

I had old IBM PL300 pc running windows doing the same thing, what was nice is it was fanless (except the one in PS) and since it was IBM is was reliable.

If you want an actual NAS device the Toshiba Magna is a cost effective modle ( availablle on Ebay for <$200)