- Mar 7, 2000
- 1,100
- 97
- 91
Greetings, all. I was browsing around geeks.com and found the SMC SMCWAPS-G Wireless Network Storage Adapter for $30 plus shipping. I've owned one of these for about a year and think that it is a pretty neat little device.
You can configure the SMCWAPS-G as a wireless access point and use it to add wireless connectivity to a wired-only network.
You can configure the SMCWAPS-G as a wireless bridge and use it to convert a wired-only network device to wireless.
Additionally, you can install a 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive inside the SMCWAPS-G and use it as a wired/wireless nework storage device. Supported file systems are FAT-16, FAT-32, and linux ext2 (no NTFS support). It also has two USB 2.0 ports, and you can connect external USB hard drives, flash drives, etc., and share them on your network. The SMCWAPS-G can function as network storage while in either access point or wireless bridge mode. You can even configure the wireless on the SMCWAPS-G, hide it somewhere, and use it as wireless network storage.
I've passed quite a bit of data through my SMCWAPS-G configured as a wireless bridge, and it seems to be very stable. I have a hard drive installed, but haven't used it enough to comment on data throughput or integrity.
There's firmware mods available that give this device extra/better (?) functionality. See this site .
EDITed to add: One thing I dislike about this device is that the USB ports are very close together and it is difficult (even impossible) to plug in two USB devices at the same time. Also, I notice that the device geeks.com is selling includes a European power adapter with a Euro-to-US adapter. my SMCWAPS-G was packaged with a standard US power adapter, but I bought it at buy.com and not at geeks.com
You can configure the SMCWAPS-G as a wireless access point and use it to add wireless connectivity to a wired-only network.
You can configure the SMCWAPS-G as a wireless bridge and use it to convert a wired-only network device to wireless.
Additionally, you can install a 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive inside the SMCWAPS-G and use it as a wired/wireless nework storage device. Supported file systems are FAT-16, FAT-32, and linux ext2 (no NTFS support). It also has two USB 2.0 ports, and you can connect external USB hard drives, flash drives, etc., and share them on your network. The SMCWAPS-G can function as network storage while in either access point or wireless bridge mode. You can even configure the wireless on the SMCWAPS-G, hide it somewhere, and use it as wireless network storage.
I've passed quite a bit of data through my SMCWAPS-G configured as a wireless bridge, and it seems to be very stable. I have a hard drive installed, but haven't used it enough to comment on data throughput or integrity.
There's firmware mods available that give this device extra/better (?) functionality. See this site .
EDITed to add: One thing I dislike about this device is that the USB ports are very close together and it is difficult (even impossible) to plug in two USB devices at the same time. Also, I notice that the device geeks.com is selling includes a European power adapter with a Euro-to-US adapter. my SMCWAPS-G was packaged with a standard US power adapter, but I bought it at buy.com and not at geeks.com