In an effort to clear up my study, I'm thinking of getting shot of my rarely-used PC -I've got a work laptop for heavy stuff, and an old Compaq laptop we use for surfing -and putting in a network attached disk box to hold my data (mainly music and photos). I'd also like to replace my aging (and ailing) Epson 950 printer with something newer and more reliable. It would be useful if the NAS box had a built in print server, too, then I could plug teh whole lot into my home network.

Anyone got any experience with NAS/print server boxes? And what about printers? Probably want an Epson, since I've got lots of Epson paper, and roll feed would be nice.

Anyone?

Ta, Phil

IMHO get a printer with the print server built it as they just work better. You can get a nice later printer (colour) with networking for £150 these days.

NAS boxes do a search on here but most of the cheaper ones have gotcha's

In regards to NAS... these are a pretty good price at the mo... you can reserve online at the online price and pick up in store.

Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB at PC World - Buy cheap Network External Hard Drives - Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB External Network Hard Drive

Gonna get something like this myself at some point.

In regards to NAS... these are a pretty good price at the mo... you can reserve online at the online price and pick up in store.

Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB at PC World - Buy cheap Network External Hard Drives - Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB External Network Hard Drive

Gonna get something like this myself at some point.

If you search for the other thraad you will find the issues with that device and others, including custom file systems and requiring drivers for it which means if they stop making the driver for your new OS that is it gone or if the box dies, you've lost your data unless you have good backups (which you should have).

Thats a bit annoying... why do they have to do it so that you have to run the drivers/software on the computer and not just having it show up as a network share.

That would rule out being able to access the drive from something like an Xbox etc.

Of course there is the better option if using one of my old laptop's connected to my ext drive but then i have to have laptop running all the time.

Thats a bit annoying... why do they have to do it so that you have to run the drivers/software on the computer and not just having it show up as a network share.

That would rule out being able to access the drive from something like an Xbox etc.

Of course there is the better option if using one of my old laptop's connected to my ext drive but then i have to have laptop running all the time.

Not all of them are like that, but pretty much all of them bar the expensive ones have a quirk that means they are not really great as you can't recover or cant change discs or can't this that or the other.

Edited 17 July, 200817 yr by cheezemonkhai
Three minor typos

I have a world book one TB and don't need drivers or software. I have a linux, windows and solaris box all mounting various different shares from it.

I have a world book one TB and don't need drivers or software. I have a linux, windows and solaris box all mounting various different shares from it.

As above not all of them need drivers, but some do. The WD worldbook has it's problems that mean it isn't ideal. For example you can't user replace discs without losing the warrenty on the version i was experimenting with.

I spent a lot of time looking into this for various reasons and pretty much everything apart from the terra station has at least one ,IMHO, killer issue and even that isn't perfect. I think ZyXel now have one out too that might be worth a look

In regards to NAS... these are a pretty good price at the mo... you can reserve online at the online price and pick up in store.

Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB at PC World - Buy cheap Network External Hard Drives - Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB External Network Hard Drive

Gonna get something like this myself at some point.

I'd avoid this like the plague if I were you - I bought one a few weeks ago and took it back the very next morning. File transfers were blisteringly slow and it kept dropping off the network. It could have just been the unit I got but I was very unimpressed. I bought a usb drive in the end and a second hand compaq small form factor unit to use as a VPN, file & print server.

I've had no probs with mine, updated the firmware to the latest edition as soon as I got it home (as I do with most things I buy) and it's fine.