Cisco-Linksys Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives NSLU2 by Linksys
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List Price: Buy Used: from $63.89 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Cisco-Linksys Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives NSLU2
Digital camera Review: Almost what the doctor ordered
Summary: 4 Stars
The good side? It worked fine with my Macs and fairly old Belkin wireless router. The bad side? I wasn't expecting blazing fast transfer speeds over ethernet (much less wireless), so that wasn't an issue. That it doesn't say on the box: "WARNING: YOU HAVE TO REFORMAT YOUR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FIRST!" is an issue, though I managed to find enough temporary storage to get away with the format without losing anything crucial.
It's also unfortunate that it doesn't come with instructions for installing it on anything but Windows. A quick web search will address that quickly enough.
Given that it reformats the hard drive to EXT3 format, I suspect it's running embedded Linux under the hood, which is cool but neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
Digital camera Review: Amazing little thing
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this to hack the Linux image to run a low powered 24/7 weather station. It took a lot of time and effort, but the one thing that always worked was the NSLU2. There is lots of info out there on how to make this do all sorts of things it was never designed to do and do it well. A hacker's dream!Digital camera Review: An Up to Date review - Old reviews no longer relevant
Summary: 5 Stars
BACKGROUND
While the unit is great, the documentation is not. To be fair to yourself and the unit, you should do a search on the words nslu2 slug and unslung. There is a WEALTH of info online (This is the most important thing I can tell you.)
Currently there are two known versions of this product. The original, and the ones produced after about May 2006. The old version had the CPU reduced to half the normal speed, the new one runs it at full speed. (the old one can be modified though)
The unit you buy may have sat on the shelf for a year or two, so plan on having to Flash the firmware.
COMMON MYTHS
- You have to reformat the drive. (you do not)
- You cannot use FAT32 or NTFS
- You must have a drive connected to flash the unit (It is actually better not to)
- The NSLU2 is slow. (it is acually your network, a 10/100 network maxes out well below 100Mb a second, so a USB 2.0 device connected directly to your PC will be way faster.)
- It is complex to use. It can be as simple or complex as you want, really!
USES
This Unit can be a simple network storage device, or a bigger workhorse than most peoples PC. Functions people often use them for... Print Servers, Web servers, ITUNES servers, Mail Servers, Home PBX's(astrix) and the list goes on and on!
MY SUMMARY
Great for Everyone except those not willing to do ANY reading about the device. This unit is cheap for what it does.
The first thing I would do is upgrade the firmware.
Using it as a Storage device is low work and a no-brainer.
The possibilities are endless for the more curious or the hacker.
Digital camera Review: Awesome NAS DLNA server for my PS3
Summary: 4 Stars
Wow!!!! I just setup this little guy as a DLNA server for my PS3 and it streams music, video, and pictures. It can also stream nearly anything I can attach to it. I'm using Mediatomb with this little device and it ROCKS!!!!!. It's a lot of work as in research....but it's soooo worth it. With my awesome stand-alone drives hooked up and more to hook up...I'm saving quite a bit of money here. I highly recommend the NSLU2. Very smooth even with HD files at 1920x1080.Digital camera Review: BEWARE of "features"
Summary: 3 Stars
I was looking (and still am) for a simple way to connect an external USB hard drive to my network at home.
I wanted to:
1) be able to connect it to a NAS controller-like device and be able to backup files from any wireless device on the home network.
Also (and this is the reason for my dissapointment)
2) I wanted to be able to take my external hard drive with me whenever necessary.
Well... the Linksys NSLU2 does 1, but will not allow 2 because it has to format the external drive to a format that is incompatible with Windows. Here is the quote from the online setup user guide: "Note: Hard Disk Drives used on the Network Storage Link are NOT compatible with any version of Windows. You cannot swap USB HDDs between Windows and the Network Storage Link."
Would have been nice if this "feature" was better explained upfront, rather than me spending the $50 on the NSLU2 and "chaining" my external/potrable drive to it.
Dissapointed. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.