sata or IDE gigabit NAS enclosure $25 at geeks.com DEAL DEAD, discussion only

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SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Looks like mine was delivered a day earlier than anticipated. I'll take a peek at it when I get home tonight.

Mine is indeed the SATA version.

Apparently it also IS a media server of some sort. It supports and has settings for "UPnP AV Server", and also has an iTunes server.

More to come as soon as I find a hard drive for it.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
Can you test it on a 360?

I would, but I don't have a drive in it. I do have it powered on though playing with the web interface, and have my USB hard drive hooked up to it. Pretty slick so far.
 

maximusfarticus

Senior member
Jul 7, 2004
303
0
0
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.

The NAS won't let me install the extensions - presumably because I don't have a drive in it, hence UPnPAV isn't installed, meaning I can't test this until I get a drive in it.
 

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,822
5,990
146
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.

The NAS won't let me install the extensions - presumably because I don't have a drive in it, hence UPnPAV isn't installed, meaning I can't test this until I get a drive in it.

This thing looks like it could be hacked like this.
That would indeed be cool. A pint-sized server:)
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: skyking
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.

The NAS won't let me install the extensions - presumably because I don't have a drive in it, hence UPnPAV isn't installed, meaning I can't test this until I get a drive in it.

This thing looks like it could be hacked like this.
That would indeed be cool. A pint-sized server:)

Honestly, it is a pint-sized server already with the existing firmware. I'm fairly certain as soon as I put a drive in it I'll be able to load the extensions and it'll be good to go. Out of the box it support HTTP/FTP/Torrent/Samba/iTunes/UPnPAV and a few others. The web interface is actually pretty easy to use. Not sure what else you could want.

The only drawback I see currently, I was hoping for a hidden or non-filled SATA header to use with a second drive.

And lastly - it's smaller than I had expected. :)
 

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,822
5,990
146
If you hack it it can boot from an attached drive rather than the small flash. That means you can install any app that will run on the available processor and memory. Even the memory amount maybe hackable to an extent.
I am familiar with debian so I'd probably use that. I could then install programs using apt.
The SLU2's in that link have been used for mythtv, a DVR program.
You could make an MD raid array on a couple of matched disks in USB 2.0 enclosures for example.

If I get one I will have it all torn apart in no time.
<crosses fingers>
 

lokiju

Lifer
May 29, 2003
18,526
5
0
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: skyking
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.

The NAS won't let me install the extensions - presumably because I don't have a drive in it, hence UPnPAV isn't installed, meaning I can't test this until I get a drive in it.

This thing looks like it could be hacked like this.
That would indeed be cool. A pint-sized server:)

Honestly, it is a pint-sized server already with the existing firmware. I'm fairly certain as soon as I put a drive in it I'll be able to load the extensions and it'll be good to go. Out of the box it support HTTP/FTP/Torrent/Samba/iTunes/UPnPAV and a few others. The web interface is actually pretty easy to use. Not sure what else you could want.

The only drawback I see currently, I was hoping for a hidden or non-filled SATA header to use with a second drive.

And lastly - it's smaller than I had expected. :)

Nice, I didn't realize it supported all that.

Mine says it's out for delivery right now! :)
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: lokiju
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: skyking
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: maximusfarticus
You don't need a drive. Just go to your video or audio player, where you can select from usb, a PC, etc. If you have the NXE dashboard, go to my Xbox-> audio or video-> the drive or any PC that can share on the network will appear.

The NAS won't let me install the extensions - presumably because I don't have a drive in it, hence UPnPAV isn't installed, meaning I can't test this until I get a drive in it.

This thing looks like it could be hacked like this.
That would indeed be cool. A pint-sized server:)

Honestly, it is a pint-sized server already with the existing firmware. I'm fairly certain as soon as I put a drive in it I'll be able to load the extensions and it'll be good to go. Out of the box it support HTTP/FTP/Torrent/Samba/iTunes/UPnPAV and a few others. The web interface is actually pretty easy to use. Not sure what else you could want.

The only drawback I see currently, I was hoping for a hidden or non-filled SATA header to use with a second drive.

And lastly - it's smaller than I had expected. :)

Nice, I didn't realize it supported all that.

Mine says it's out for delivery right now! :)

By the way, it has absolutely no issues mounting NTFS drives, but does so in read-only (no ability to allow writes). My USB drive is a 60gb IDE drive formatted in NTFS... plugged it into the USB port, immediately recognized and shared. I tested copying from it, was getting 6.5MB/sec (~57Mbps) over 100Mbps LAN (though my WRT300N router). Pretty much identical to what I get if I plug the drive directly into my PC.

This thing has decent NAS potential with a USB hub and/or multi-drive enclosure. Still waiting to find a good deal on a SATA drive to see what kind of throughput the NAS itself gets.
 

EXreaction

Junior Member
Jan 13, 2006
17
0
0
What a PITA to setup (this is with the SATA version, which may be different than the IDE).

It was set to a static IP of 192.168.1.1 as the default IP address (which of course is used by my router).
PNMD would not work under Vista (although it really isn't needed).

To get it working I had to connect it directly to my PC, then go to 192.168.1.1 and set it to use DHCP, then connected everything back to the network, restart the NAS and everything worked.

Looks good so far though. Currently formatting my drive to ex3.


EDIT: After playing with it a little I have concluded that this thing is awesome. A steal for $30.

It does have a built in torrent app (quite nice), samba, web server (have yet to test it out). This is going to be fun. :D
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: EXreaction
What a PITA to setup (this is with the SATA version, which may be different than the IDE).

It was set to a static IP of 192.168.1.1 as the default IP address (which of course is used by my router).
PNMD would not work under Vista (although it really isn't needed).

To get it working I had to connect it directly to my PC, then go to 192.168.1.1 and set it to use DHCP, then connected everything back to the network, restart the NAS and everything worked.

Looks good so far though. Currently formatting my drive to ex3.


EDIT: After playing with it a little I have concluded that this thing is awesome. A steal for $30.

It does have a built in torrent app (quite nice), samba, web server (have yet to test it out). This is going to be fun. :D

Haha... yeah, I read the manual a bit first and thought to myself "This app isn't going to work on Win7...". I took a stab that it might be set up on DHCP, but it never showed up on the DHCP client list on my router. Next choice was static IP, and the manual shows it using at 10.x.x.x address, but another shot shows it using 192.168.1.1, so rather than playing cable jockey, I just changed the IP address on my PC (was going to just change the subnet mask, but figured the NAS's mask would be 255.255.255.0 so that wouldn't help). Ping 192.168.1.1, there we go!

It's really NOT that difficult to set up. Took me about 15 minutes total sans HDD.

BTW: Using DHCP for a NAS probably isn't the greatest idea. Any IP reassignments and if you're using name resolution your NAS gets lost.
 

EXreaction

Junior Member
Jan 13, 2006
17
0
0
If you leave the NAS on 24/7 or have a high enough setting for the IP lease time set on the router it's not a problem. :)

It isn't difficult if you know what you are doing...but I don't think anyone without a bit of networking knowledge would be able to do it with the setup I have (with the IP address conflict as my router was 192.168.1.1). It should have been set to DHCP to start with, with the option to change it later.
 

lokiju

Lifer
May 29, 2003
18,526
5
0
Originally posted by: EXreaction
If you leave the NAS on 24/7 or have a high enough setting for the IP lease time set on the router it's not a problem. :)

It isn't difficult if you know what you are doing...but I don't think anyone without a bit of networking knowledge would be able to do it with the setup I have (with the IP address conflict as my router was 192.168.1.1). It should have been set to DHCP to start with, with the option to change it later.

What a horrible setup.

I didn't know wtf was happening at first.

 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: Schmide
Setup was sucky. Having a static default is dumb.

Having a DHCP default is dumber. Honestly - the average user isn't going to know what IP address the thing gets with DHCP.

Getting around 9MB/sec on 100Mbps LAN. Not too shabby.

Only problem I'm having is trying to load the firmware extensions and/or update the firmware. I think their scripts are broken.
 

EXreaction

Junior Member
Jan 13, 2006
17
0
0
That doesn't make any sense. If it was DHCP you would at least be able to connect to it without having to setup a single P2P network to configure it. It would work without modifications and you could set it up as you want right away.
 

Old Hippie

Diamond Member
Oct 8, 2005
6,361
1
0
Originally posted by: EXreaction
That doesn't make any sense. If it was DHCP you would at least be able to connect to it without having to setup a single P2P network to configure it. It would work without modifications and you could set it up as you want right away.

Yep, and thanks for the heads-up! :thumbsup:
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: EXreaction
That doesn't make any sense. If it was DHCP you would at least be able to connect to it without having to setup a single P2P network to configure it. It would work without modifications and you could set it up as you want right away.

Like I said - if it were DHCP it would automatically be assigned a random IP, leaving a typical end-user even more clueless as what to do. How many SOHO users do you know that would be even able to log into their router to pull a DHCP client list, let alone know what DHCP even is?

Besides, they're expecting you to use their PNMD tool, which does all that for you (I assume over UPnP).
 

lokiju

Lifer
May 29, 2003
18,526
5
0
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: EXreaction
That doesn't make any sense. If it was DHCP you would at least be able to connect to it without having to setup a single P2P network to configure it. It would work without modifications and you could set it up as you want right away.

Like I said - if it were DHCP it would automatically be assigned a random IP, leaving a typical end-user even more clueless as what to do. How many SOHO users do you know that would be even able to log into their router to pull a DHCP client list, let alone know what DHCP even is?

Besides, they're expecting you to use their PNMD tool, which does all that for you (I assume over UPnP).

I does have a network name though.

I-Drive, they could just hit it with that.

If they used the software that came with it, it would also be able to find it on the network, then you could set it to use a static from that software.