| February 7, 2006 (Series
last updated May 09, 2008) In
Part 1, we discussed some basic equipment to help you build your
wireless network. Part 2 discussed some of the terminology. Now here's a quick overview of
a handy device to help you give your network more storage capacity:
The device in question, the NLSU2, is made by Linksys. This
little device (less than 6 ounces and only about 5 inches tall) connects
directly to your router via Ethernet cable so you can access it from any
computer connected to your network.
You can connect up to two USB 1.1 or 2.0 compliant flash drives or
disk drives directly to the NSLU2 (also known as a Network
Attached Storage
device). The NAS runs on the LINUX operating system, but should
interface just fine with your computer's Windows XP operating system.
The NAS includes utilities for disk backup and for setting group and
user security. You can even configure your network to allow direct
access from the Internet.
In my case, I opted to convert a Western Digital 300GB internal hard
drive into an external hard drive. Doing so gave me more storage
for less money than a pre-configured external hard drive.
Pre-configured external hard drives are normally intended to be
connected directly to the host computer and include backup utilities and
other software I didn't want to pay for since the NSLU2 has its own
utilities. There were hard drives that were pre-configured
for multi-user network access, but these were pricey for the amount of
storage they provided. In the end, my decision was based on my
needs and my budget.
It really wasn't that hard to convert the drive -- I simply bought an
external hard drive case from the same electronics store I bought the
hard drive, plugged in the cables, slid the drive into the case, and
Voila! -- I had an external USB 2.0 compliant hard drive.
Initial installation of the hard drive and the NAS wasn't too bad
either, although you need to follow the documentation so you set
everything up in the proper order. Once you do, the NSLU2 software
takes over and sets itself up. After setup, I mapped a drive on my
computer to the NAS and had 300GB of brand new storage. Before you
get too excited, however, there are some issues to consider or confront.
- The NSLU2 operates on the LINUX operating system. You can
use a disk drive formatted for Windows NTFS, but doing so prevents
you from using the NAS utilities -- so NAS-managed security,
NAS-managed backups, etc. are out. On the other hand, if you
use the NAS utilities, the NSLU2 will reformat the hard drive to its
specifications, so be sure you back up your data if you're going to
use an old hard drive you already have on hand. Letting the
NAS reformat the hard drive also means you won't be able to simply
plug the drive into your computer and use it as you would if you
kept it formatted for Windows NTFS.
- Setting up the NAS and configuring the router for Internet access
to the NSLU2 may not be as simple as implied. I made numerous
calls to Linksys tech support before we got it going. Even
then, I only got http access; ftp access seemed to require even more
effort -- and I frankly ran out of available time. I haven't
given up on the idea, but I did discover that remote http access to
sensitive data was NOT advisable, since you don't seem to be
able to secure this access (someone could monitor your
keystrokes). Besides, http access is read-only, and I was
hoping to have the ability to remotely transfer files to the
NAS. That's where ftp access comes in, but as I said -- it
will have to wait for another day. Also be aware that every
time you open a door in your network to the outside, you increase
the possibility of an intruder gaining unauthorized access -- so you
may not want to enable remote access to your network anyway.
- Login prompts for http Internet access allow you to view the
same screens as those viewed by the NAS administrator. This
seems a bit dangerous to me.
- You can set DHCP to manually assign an ip address to the NAS
(making it static) and you can use Port-Forwarding to protect that
address. Using the ip address for the router, you can gain
Internet access to the NAS. I was able to set a webpage link
to access my router and NAS via http, but then I ran into an
unexpected problem. A router reboot caused by a power failure
changed the router ip address on my dynamic broadband connection
(yes, I'm using an UPS battery, but the power failure outlasted the
UPS). This meant I could no longer access the router to get to
the NAS until I determined the new router ip address. The
power failure also resulted in shutting down the NSLU2, which
apparently required a manual reboot process. It seems even
knowing the router ip address is not enough in this situation -- you
must first manually power up the NAS.
- The NAS requires the administrator to login numerous times
depending on the function selected, even though you have to be
logged in to get to the screen that selects that function in the
first place. This can get a little aggravating after awhile.
- The backup utility requires a second external drive and basically
wipes out all data on the secondary drive as it backs up the primary
external hard drive. I have also read discussion board
comments indicating that you may be limited to backing up a maximum
250GB hard drive, but I haven't researched this lately and Linksys
continues to make improvements.
- Mapping to the NAS and setting up network drive security may
require a bit of reading to understand the process if you've never
worked with network drives before. Administrative experience
with networks using Novell, Windows NT, Windows 2000 Server, etc. is
not required -- but it helps.
- You appear to have to login to the NAS each time you reboot your
computer in order to access the external hard drive. Even
using the same id as your computer login and saving the password
when you map the drive doesn't seem to help, although I may not have
explored all alternatives.
Despite the short-comings, I like the additional capability I
gained. With just a little effort and a relatively small amount of
cash, I now have the ability to backup up all the computers on my
network. Since I have four Ethernet ports on my router, and since
each NSLU2 can support up to two external disk drives, I should never
run out of storage!
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