I posted a question earlier about a specific NAS, but maybe that's the wrong way to go to get my answer. Can someone recommend in general an NAS that has the following features, and is $400 or less?

1)Lets you configure it via web interface, like a router.

2) Plugs into ethernet for it's network connection, at least 100Mbps speed.
3) You can walk into a store around Seattle, WA to buy it, rather than order from Internet.
4) It supports at least the following protocols for storing files:
* SMB
* FTP

5) It is common enough to find, meaning that you can buy it today, but you're likely to find it in awhile too, meaning it's not yet at the end of it's phase for carrying near me.

6) It's fast to access files, and would take less than a day to transfer files mostly. Plus it's capable of recieving most types of images the SysRes CD has to give in a small amount of time, basically, also less than one day.

7) It supports users and groups, in the same amounts and characters as Linux allows.

8) It supports filesystem permissions.

9) It supports share permissions.

10) It takes less power and space than a computer.

11) It has replacable hard drives so I can change the capacity.

12) Prefferably, it comes with a hard drive, but if not, I guess it's OK.

13) You don't have to reflash it to get it to work. The default firmware works fine.

14) It's easy to set up, simply meaning that I'm looking for more of a router style NAS, rather than a replacement router flashed with OpenWRT. No things that require building server like structures from scratch, I'm looking for an easy way for this feature of my network, if one exsists.

I'll take a stab at this.

I believe FreeNAS has most if not all of the features you are looking for, You can certainly buy/upgrade a box with enough storage for your needs for under $400. Off the top of my head, you could afford a 1TB HD and a bare-bones PC for that amount. I've set up a FreeNAS box on my home network and setup took all of 15 minutes.

EDIT: The web interface is really nice. Take a look at a screen:
http://www.freenas.org/images/screenshot/main.png

well i got the slug nlsu2 and installed debain on it and it works very well

The free NAS sounds neat to experiment with, which I certainly can. However, it runs on a computer. I'm looking for something that's hardware based, so it would take less space and power. If I'm going to want to choose a whole computer, than I may as well continue trying to include it in the server I'm attempting to build, and do it that way. However, it seems a little complex for me at this point. It's better to not include funtionallity like this in a server for now.

What about the nlsu2? Is this a mistype meaning th nslu2? It's by Linksys, right? If so, I've tried to look it up so far. I know you plug into it external hard drives. You say you installed Debain on it? Did this require flashing it? If so, how hard is it to brick it. That's my fear with flashing things right now. I'm just not good at flashing things unless it goes perfectly every time right now. I'm not good at the troubleshooting thus far.

However, if it's very uncommon to brick, like about the same chance of just upgrading the firmware, even when you don't always know how it's supposed to be done, meaning that you could upgrade it in any possible way, and not only a specific way, then I might be able to do it.

So, with the nslu2, once installed, how easy is it to set up? Is it like setting up a whole Linux server, or is it simply set up with a web interface using this kind of Debain?

Lastly, and probably easiest though, is where were you able to get it? Do you have to order it by Internet? Or could you walk into a store and buy it?

Well, there is no shortage of low power PCs. E.g. Fit-PC http://fit-pc.com which runs ubuntu and draws 3-5w depending on load. You probably can't buy that locally but there'll probably be something similar.

Regards, Tischbein

p.s. I'm generally interested in low power PCs so please let me know about any you find!

Thanks. I've never seen one of these before. I'll check into it! Maybe it'd make a pretty good NAS and/or server. Now, I'm not exactly and electrician, though I do know some about power, so is this what most typical wireless routers take?

My wireless base station says 3.5v, 2A on it, so at any rate the peak is 7w, which is more than the FIT. My ADSL router is 16V 1A so again the peak is higher. I reckon a lot of the power is wasted in the teency transformers those things come with. Put your hand on one and chances are it's warm, which indicates wasted power.

Regards, Eisbein

P.s. I don't have a FIT - haven't had one since .. never mind - so I can't vouch for its goodness. The processor is a 500Hz Geode which out to have no trouble serving files at speed on a home network. What sort of processor does the competition have?

I forgot to mark this solved, appearently. I solved this ages ago. I went to the Buffalo Linkstation Live, which has now been replaced with - I believe a Pro? - Terastation.