Hi,

It might be a dumb question, but what the heck...

I am thinking of buying one of those network storage drives.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128483
To get it work I just need to plug it in to my router, right?
There's no software involved, is it? My concern is linux compatibility.
I am not likely to have any unexpected problems cause it has nothing to do
with the OS I'm running.

Can you confirm it, please?

Furthermore, how could I make it available to the outside world (outside my LAN)?

thanks

I am not sure which of the simply store bought network drives will work under Linux. I think I have seen post here on them as to some that do and don't. Might use the search tool on that.

Now all they do is plug into router lan side. I think you will want to define a static lan IP for it so linux can find it everytime it is booted.

To make it available to the outside wan internet I would setup ssh on a linux machine and then mount the drive onto it. Then you can browse or copy files as needed as if directly connected to machine. Then on the router you would portforward port 22 wan to lan IP of linux machine port 22. Here again use a static lan ip for the linux machine so the router knows where it is at all times. If devices get their IP from router then depending on the order they would get a different IP. Also the linux machine if a firewall is up then port 22 needs to be opened as well through it.

Brian

Thanks
Oops, I knew I should ask this question

I read the customers' reviews on that website and one of them says:

Works under Linux as a samba share.

I don't know whether to trust it or not now.

I thought I'd have to give it a static IP, but how? Through my linux box?
Then mounting it on my linux system would be easy.
However, the description of this particular drive says:

It can even be configured to be accessed via the Internet, so your data is available for you from anywhere in the world, without your PC needed to be switched on!


How can it be? With my PC switched off!?

I assume then that there must be some software to configure it

It has open ports and to what is open I don't know. But all one does is setup port forwarding the port from wan side to the device network drive IP and port. As for samba share then basic windows workgroup setup. For static IP it is unknown. I would say the software being windows based has some config tools to do so or the network drive may run its own web based access server to configure from.

How about posting the network drive info in question. Brand, Model, Website link

Brian

thanks for your reply

I was thinking about this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128483

but then I found that one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136050

which has a faster NIC and actually the word 'linux' is mentioned in system requirements.
The downside obviously is the price.

googling both of them hasn't brought anything interesting yet.

It does boot off the drive from a 128mb partition booting a Linux based OS.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9676199755.html

Going the manufactors website for this one it mentions transfer as smb so should not be properitory as some of those store bought nas drives are. it mentions an http web interface so should easily configure from a simply web browser. Have not read the readme or docs or checked the software docs but looks like it should work pretty well. http://buffalotech.com/products/netw...nkstation-pro/

Brian

thanks, I'll go for it.

Eventually I decided to buy a normal hd and a separate 'network case' for it (comes out cheaper). I was surprised to find a converter from IDE to SATA inside the case, so both types of drives are supported. Additionally, it has a usb port and so it can be treated as a normal usb external drive. The network management is also very simple. The control panel is web-based where You can create samba shares as well as ftp accounts and anonymous ftp folders. It's also possible to access the files from any web browser. The only downside is that I can't seem to play videos/music directly from it. First I need to transfer it to my local hd.

I've got a question regarding network drives. How can I access it from the outside of my LAN. I've got my IP address (which changes once every 6 months or so, so that's ok). Than this network drive being plugged in to my router has its own IP 192.168.1.102. What I mean is that when I'm at a friend's house or work, I'd like to use any ftp client or web browser to access my files. Is it possible?
thanks