On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Bob Blick wrote: > How fast/how big files are you dealing with? Will you be working from > the shared drive, or with local copies? > > I ask because if you don't need super performance, any cheap NAS or > media router like a Western Digital MyBook World or a Linksys NSLU2 with > a USB drive attached work pretty well. They aren't fast enough for what > I needed because in my case everything, mail folders, you name it, was > on a shared drive. Even though the MyBook World had gigabit ethernet, it > didn't have the processing horsepower to move data faster than > 65Mbits/sec under optimum conditions and typically 1/5 of that. > > But for most uses either of the devices I mentioned will work fine. > Though they use Windows file sharing your Mac OSX machines will have no > problem with that. And either device has plenty of options when it comes > to permissions and file ownership. Not stamping the last user's name on > a file, I'm afraid. But you can have groups. And the NSLU2 supports NTFS > drives. > > There are other cheap NAS devices out there, too, as you have seen with > those media sharing routers. Performance is basically what you pay for. > I have used both the NSLU2 and the MyBook World and they are both decent > devices. Make sure you also have a backup solution, though. Someone > knocks an external drive over while it's running, quite often it's > good-bye. Drives tend to run hot in those external cases, too. Well, I've narrowed it down so far to a Buffalo external NAS drive or an Asus WL-500gP v2. The Buffalo is nice since it's self contained and I won't have to do much work. I don't know what sort of client it works with...I'm currently doing research online though. The downside is that this model doesn't have an external USB port so the storage size is fixed and finite. The Asus is nice in that it has two USB ports and I can run DD-WRT on it. There is even a tutorial to get Samba on it as well. The downside is that there will be a bunch of work for me and I have read reports that this router isn't the most powerful. This may be a problem at the beginning when everyone needs to upload their files at the same time as the router CPU will be a bottleneck. Anyway, I'm going to try a different store tomorrow to see if there are any other options. Thanks! Josh -- A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist