Would like to find router to attach External Hard disk to that consistently works?

Take a look at the Linksys NSLU2, this will allow you to connect (2) usb drives to an ethernet network. Sounds like what your looking for, it's NOT wireless....

Thanks so much. Had some pretty bad reviews on Newegg. I do not think there is a good solution out there unless you set up your own File and Print Sever with an old PC or something. Even the Buffalo Linkstation has issues. Issues like not compatible with Vista, freezes up, loses data, cannot access, uses its own formatting system etc...

Will keep looking though..

Thanks Patty

The one I have is older and yes it uses it's own format, so you can't use the usb drives on a pc if you wanted too. The newer ones have changed the way they format so you can use them with pc's if you want to. I also have Vista and it can see my (2) drives OK. The other nice thing is, if you want to, you can access your drives (if you needed a file or doc) over the internet, if you set it up.... I haven't had any trouble with the NSLU2 unit, one of my 500mg drive went south, but that was a drive problem...

I have two first generation 250GB Maxtor One touch drives connected to my Linksys NLSU2. No problems.

The latest firmware will let you use one of the 2nd port with NTFS or FAT32, but I think the 1st port must use a disk formatted with EXT3 format - which is Linux, not anything proprietary to Linksys.

It's nice because it has a web server so you can forward port 8080 to it and get to it from the outside world, as well as a built in FTP server as well - that once you forward the port - is accessible from the outside world.

It has some nice features around backups ....

Thanks I wonder if it can support no drive on the first port and a 500GB NTFS drive on the 2nd port??

I read there is alternate firmware for the NSLU2 but did not read any details.

I realize the NSLU2 is no longer made. Thanks Patty

Found this: Seems perhaps unreliable in certain circumstances, so perhaps I will just wait it out until I have a much stronger need for this or perhaps succumb to EXT written files.

Thanks Patty

Two answers, stuff that I have/use, one is a ximeta netdisk

the 2nd is a buffalo linkstation

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Peter Pan, Thanks. Ximeta looks brilliant if it works. Also NTFS format, buy with Hard Disk or just an enclosure. Will look at reviews on this. Reasonably priced as well and working on a media server Q3 2008.

I asked them a question about Vista.

Not sure how they accomplish NTFS and other vendors seem to have problems with it.

Will check out the reviews.

Thanks!

Patty

Just an aside (and sort of a personal reveiw), I have and use it (both ethernet plugged into my router so it's on my wireless network, and direct as a USB drive - USB is much faster for full backups- full backup all my systems once a month, small stuff daily via wireless), but as NAS attached to the router, works fine with macs, pda's, xp and vista (and with my Tivo's to save TV shows)... I have the big boy (500 MB, costs a bit more than you specified), but I see no reason why the cheaper/smaller ones wouldn't work the same way)..... However, I have only been using it for 4 years, so don't know what will happen in another 10, guess I better buy a boat in case I need an anchor.... I give it two thumbs up though, and it certainly works now... :)

As for which version, check out the netdisk products.....

(not sure if you need cookies for that link to work)

NetDisk Portable

External network storage for home and office Fast Ethernet and USB 2.0 interface RAID 0,1, and JBOD Ideal for backup and media storage Compact size for portability

80GB, 160GB, 250GB, 300GB, 400GB, 500GB

if you get one already together (rather than just an enclosure) you can have it out of the box, and working in about 15 seconds (you can also buy em online and have em shipped)

Wrong. Only the wireless stuff is currently not being sold in the US. Buffalo's other products are still on the shelf and quite good.

I have some issues with the older Buffalo Linkstations (forgot exact model number). The Windoze security was clumsy, useless, and buggy. Access to the internal web server was excruciatingly slow and not reliable. Timeouts were common, even when there was no activity. All the tiny fans started making noises after about a year and were fixed temporarily with some oil. Disassembly was a mess.

Still, every one of these that I sold in the last few years have continued to work without additional problems or failures.

There are some nice reviews and comparative performance tests on NAS at:

Same way as the other NAS solutions. Linux with NTFS support. See:

for details. Linux boots to a small EFS partition for the operating system and storage management. The rest of the disk is for storage and is partitioned for NTFS.

Be careful as to how many of the features of NTFS your selected NAS storage box supports. For example, the original Buffalo Linkstation ran NTFS, but without any of the security features. The external USB drives could read NTFS, but could not format NTFS. The later Linkstation Pro was much faster, but didn't support NTFS. Make a checklist of requirements.

Good to know, have an older linkstsation, and is working fine, must have been when my wap/router took a dump and I couldn't find small rolls of toilet paper or buffalo wap's, I just assumed it was also stuff other than what I was looking for too.....