Home NAS recommendations

March 2, 2006 4:21 PM

NAS Filter: I'm looking to buy a network storage device to replace the ancient IBM Aptiva running Fedora with Samba/NFS that I've been using for the last six years. I want something that I can attach to my home network and put a 120 - 200 G harddrive into and mount remotely from both Linux and Windows boxen.

I'm looking at the Argosy HD363N as a candidate. The price is good but it only seems to support SAMBA and ftp. I was hoping for NFS and SFTP access too. Also, this unit formats the drive as FAT32 which is a pretty crappy filesystem, I'd rather it used EXT3 or Reiser which are alot more robust. Can anyone recomend a good solution in the <$100 (without the drive itself) price range?

posted by octothorpe to computers & internet (13 comments total)

While I haven't used one, I've heard good things about the Linksys NSLU2. It runs Linux and has an active hacking community.
posted by zsazsa at 4:31 PM on March 2, 2006

Not sure if it's available where you are, but the Netgear SC101 might be a good low-cost solution for you. Note: I haven't used it, but am considering it for a project here at work.
posted by coriolisdave at 4:56 PM on March 2, 2006

Regular PC + Clark Connect.
posted by holloway at 5:31 PM on March 2, 2006

As far as I was able to tell, the Netgear SC101 requires windows drivers on each PC requiring access, and doesn't support Linux.

I have the ADSTech NAS device with a 300 gig seagate in it. It's good as long as security's not important to you - there are backdoor passwords and other nastiness with it, but as far as performance goes, it's good.
posted by aberrant at 6:05 PM on March 2, 2006

Also, the NSLU2 requires USB drives. I assumed you wanted a NAS box with an IDE interface....
posted by aberrant at 6:06 PM on March 2, 2006

(sorry for the multiple posts): mine cost $89, uses EXT3, runs embedded Linux (again, beware the backdoor passwords), uses a web interface for configuration, has a built-in bittorrent server(!), does FTP and SAMBA/CIFS, not sure about NFS as I don't use it.
posted by aberrant at 6:08 PM on March 2, 2006

I have an NSLU2 as well. And think the thing is great. You can hack the thing to death if you are unix friendly. I use mine for multi-domain web / FTP server / email server / NFS / SSH /SFTP and my home music server. Here (for example, self link) is SimplePHPBlog running on my home unit. The thing is fanless and takes something like 9 watts of power.

If you hack it, you can install the NFS server/ SSH/SFTP.

Of course you can also just use it as a Samba server, which is what it is designed for.
posted by phatboy at 6:41 PM on March 2, 2006

If looking at something like the NSLU2 you may also consider the WRTSL54GS. It is a faster (the processor) WRT54G, and has a USB port and can run OpenWRT (the linux for Broadcom chips).

It's only been out for a month but there is "community" interest.
posted by Napierzaza at 7:16 PM on March 2, 2006

By far and away the best "pure NAS" solutions I have ever used come from Infrant. I have a couple of X6s and love them. The new box looks even sweeter.
posted by The Bellman at 7:46 PM on March 2, 2006

I'm sorry, I missed the sub-$100 part. Ignore the above unless your needs change.
posted by The Bellman at 7:47 PM on March 2, 2006

Does anyone else think that the Netgear SC101 looks like it should have a bagel popping out of it?
posted by hwestiii at 9:39 PM on March 2, 2006

Seconding the NSLU2; I've had mine for over a year and it's been solid. I overclocked it - by cutting a single resistor - and it now runs at twice the speed. Great stuff.
posted by blag at 2:27 AM on March 3, 2006

The option that's not the NSLU2, but almost is is a Buffalo LinkStation. They have a similar community, but it is smaller and hampered by the fact that Buffalo has changed the CPU in the Linkstation once.

The advantage of the LinkStation is that the server is also an enclosure. But, buying an enclosure and hard drive separately is almost certainly cheaper.

Buffalo also makes a similar device called the Kurobox that's made for hacking. Oddly enough, that made the community for it smaller (probably because it's more expensive).

I have used neither the NSLU2 or the LinkStation. I'm currently debating which to get and I'm leaning towards the NLSU2, since it has a bigger community and I can choose a very good hard drive for it (not getting a Deathstar again!).
posted by easyasy3k at 10:49 AM on March 3, 2006