Tom's Networking reviews the Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Link

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-155-ProdID-NSLU2-1.php' target='_blank'>http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-155-ProdID-NSLU2-1.php</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>One of the challenges that computer manufacturers face is managing their hard drive inventory—a problem that is shared by makers of networked storage devices. Although drive prices are insanely low on a cost-per-gigabyte basis, they still can be the major factor in a NAS product's retail price. And who wants to be left holding inventory when the next drive capacity bump-up hits? Some networking product companies have approached this problem by making routers with built-in NAS features that require BYO storage. It was only a matter of time before someone broke the BYODisk NAS function out into its own box. That time has now come with Linksys' NSLU2 Network Storage Link. I'm happy to report that it works well and even addresses my number one request to NAS device makers—backup!</i>"<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/2939_large.jpg" /><br /><br />We looked at this release about a <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5713">month ago</a> and I for one have been waiting for a review to see how well this solution works. Tom's Networking calls the drive the cheapest, easiest way to get NAS up and running. For as much effort as I have spent on my Linux storage solution at home, this could have saved me so much time, not to mention won't take up tons of space.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm really tempted to get one of these, but I still need an FTP server, and thus a computer. It would be nice if that wasn't the case though...

[Crocuta]

I am so tempted to grab one of these to use with my Maxtor external drive, but I don't think this will work for me without also buying another external drive. I use the external drive now to carry large amounts of information between different computers sometimes and I can't do that if it's reformatted with a file system that Windows doesn't recognize. I understand that they don't want to pay royalties to MS for NTFS (assuming MS will even license it), but that's a deal breaker for me for now. It's otherwise perfect for my needs at home.

[JTWise]

I am a Linux Newbie, so please be gentle.

So basically this is a SAMBA server, right.? It uses EXT3 file format, so if I took my drives of of this due to some hardware failure I could just plug them in to a linux box and they would work?

If so, I might give this a shot. I was thinking of trying to build a SAMBA server for the house to serve my media, this would save the trouble. If you can take these external drives and recover the data via Linux, it makes it much more attractive than a proprietary file system scheme.

Plus, since it is open source SAMBA, seems like these units will be hacked to make them even more useful.

So, can anyone recommend a good, quiet External USB2 HD Enclosure?

[Jason Dunn]

I understand that they don't want to pay royalties to MS for NTFS (assuming MS will even license it), but that's a deal breaker for me for now. It's otherwise perfect for my needs at home.

8O Ok, this is just my opinion, but this "alternate file system" is complete crap. I remember going through some serious pain in the Windows 98SE to Windows 2000 phase of my computing existence with having some drives in NFTS format and not being able to read it with Windows 98. Never again! I'll look elsewhere for a product - I doubt that the licensing for NTFS would have cost more than a buck or two per product, if that. This seems needlessly troublesome - I don't have access to a Linux box, so if anything went wrong, I'd be in a world of data hurt. No thanks!

[JTWise]

On general principle, I have to agree with Jason. While this is not a deal-killer for me, I can definately understand the issue you guys have with non-native Windows mounting of the HD. My main box is and XP box too. But after a bit of digging (God Bless Google - hey, where is that emoticon), it looks like there may be an open source program to allow access to Ext3 shares on a Windows machine

Discussed here:
http://www.asiatica.org/~ludo/archive/2003/12/Misc%20Stuff_ext2.html
and here:
http://roudybob.net/archive/2004/07/04/799.aspx

Program homepage here:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

So, anyone have this product and willing to try taking their reformated drive and trying on a Xp box? I would be very curious if it would work. Hopefully Linksys is not using a proprietary version of Ext3. Also, not sure if XP would properly identify the external HD.

[JTWise]

Ok - still haven't decided if I am going to go with this product or build my own Shuttle file-server. However, I thought I would bump this topic based upon some hacking that Tom's has done on this box. All in all, a nice bit of work and a good start.

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article85-page1.php

Seems like this thing might be hackable into a nice little unit with the possibility of a print-server, FTP box, etc. Hopefully Tom's or someone else will get this thing hacked up to a nice little box.

Oh, and BTW, they confirmed that this uses standard EXT3 file-system. The programs I mentioned in the post above should work to allow use of the drive on an XP box. Not a perfect solution, but better than a proprietary closed-system format.