Storage Over LAN

Hello all,

I hope this is the best newsgroup to post my question, if not please
excuse me and tell me where should I ask.

I have a LAN at home,which is mostly linux based, but there are also
some OS X and Windows computers.

Right now I'm interested in a "storage over network" solution, so that
everybody could store their stuff, backup and share. I'm not sure about
what should be the best option... And would like to listen to some
opnions.

First I thought in buying a USB 400Gb external HD (I saw one from Western
Digital that had an acceptable price) connect it to one the linux servers
and export it over NFS and SMB, so everyone could access it.

But then I start seeing some NAS solutions that weren't that expensive
also (some products from Iomega) but the reviews that I read weren't that
good.
The good thing in these devices was that I could connect extra disks
via USB or even a printer and making it a network printer (which would
also come in handy).

What I would like to have a way to share in the network a mass storage
device that would allow people to share and backup, some privacy settings
would also be nice (but is not a must have) that would work without
any problems with linux, os X and windows.

So, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Paulo Abrantes

# select * from www_places;
+---------------+----------------------------------------+
| Description | URL |
+---------------+----------------------------------------+
| Blog | http://pabrantes.net |
| Photo Gallery | http://pabrantes.deviantart.com |
+---------------+----------------------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Paulo Abrantes wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> I hope this is the best newsgroup to post my question, if not please
> excuse me and tell me where should I ask.
>
> I have a LAN at home,which is mostly linux based, but there are also
> some OS X and Windows computers.
>
> Right now I'm interested in a "storage over network" solution, so that
> everybody could store their stuff, backup and share. I'm not sure about
> what should be the best option... And would like to listen to some
> opnions.
>
> First I thought in buying a USB 400Gb external HD (I saw one from Western
> Digital that had an acceptable price) connect it to one the linux servers
> and export it over NFS and SMB, so everyone could access it.
>
> But then I start seeing some NAS solutions that weren't that expensive
> also (some products from Iomega) but the reviews that I read weren't that
> good.
> The good thing in these devices was that I could connect extra disks
> via USB or even a printer and making it a network printer (which would
> also come in handy).
>
> What I would like to have a way to share in the network a mass storage
> device that would allow people to share and backup, some privacy settings
> would also be nice (but is not a must have) that would work without
> any problems with linux, os X and windows.
>
> So, any suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paulo Abrantes
>
> # select * from www_places;
> +---------------+----------------------------------------+
> | Description | URL |
> +---------------+----------------------------------------+
> | Blog | http://pabrantes.net |
> | Photo Gallery | http://pabrantes.deviantart.com |
> +---------------+----------------------------------------+
> 2 rows in set (0.01 sec)


If you are feeling adventurous, the Linksys NSLU-2 has been hacked to run
Linux on the machine. You could essentially do both I believe. Get the
NAS and export the stores. I have seen some other NAS that will do NFS and
SMB as well (no names).

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6152296875.html