I would like to know if anyone has heard of / seen an external hard
drive case that uses Ethernet (rather than USB) to connect to the
laptop? I have one that uses USB 1.1 but it is rather slow.... better
start your transfers when you go to bed, if they are any respectable
size, that is.

LittleMac wrote:
Sounds like what you are looking for is "Network Attached Storage". For
what I've seen, it always seems expensive to me. You can almost buy a cheap
computer to use as a hard drive carrier for the price.

TV Slug wrote:
Thanks for the input. Yike$$!

"LittleMac" <me@privacy.net> wrote in news:c20jpd$1nornj$1@ID-
207237.news.uni-berlin.de:

They exist but they're expensive. Look for Network Attached Storage.
Most of these devices start at about $1,000 USD and go up to around $20,000
or more for multi TB devices. Some company by the name of Guslink seems to
have come out with a relatively affordable NAS device; $250USD for 80GB but
I don't know enough about it to make any intelligent comment one way or the
other.

Chances are your best bet will be to buy a larger hard drive for your
laptop or to get a PCMCIA host adapter for USB 2 or 1394 and use an
ordinary USB 2 or 1394 enclosure. If you go the 1394 route, be sure to pay
attention to what IDE-1394 bridge chipset the drive enclosure uses as most
of the IDE-1394 bridges on the market right now are utter crap.

--
Coridon Henshaw - http://www3.telus.net/csbh - "I have sadly come to the
conclusion that the Bush administration will go to any lengths to deny
reality." -- Charley Reese

yes, compusa has one on sale this week.

"LittleMac" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:c20jpd$1nornj$1@ID-207237.news.uni-berlin.de...

"Dennis Savatski" <sava777@comcast.net> wrote in news:v1T0c.14909
$ko6.207636@attbi_s02:

Here's the short blurb from Outpost

Ximeta 120GB NDU10-120 Netdisk Portable Ethernet/USB2.0 Hard Drive
External Ethernet/USB Portable Hard Drives:
For your PC
Outpost #: 3767426

* Capacity: 120GB
* 7200RPM
* Fast Ethernet & USB2.0 Interface
* Sharing Through Network
* Plug and Play
* 1 Year Limited Manufacturer Warranty

lee <lleeast@netscape.com> wrote in message news:<Xns94A0ED274DF7Cleeastadelphianet@216.65.98. 77>...
You may want to consider an external SATA drive via CardBus/PCMCIA
adapter or...
FireWire 800 via a similar adapter. These two would be the fastest and
have the most capacity today... There's a cool comparison chart at
http://www.cheap-laptop-and-used-lap...rd-drives.html
....

lee <lleeast@netscape.com> wrote in news:Xns94A0ED274DF7Cleeastadelphianet@
216.65.98.77:

FYI: this thing is not a true NAS. While it's good enough for what the
original poster wanted (an Ethernet-connected HD for a single system),
Ximeta's disk unit requires driver software on the host, doesn't do login-
based authentication and currently doesn't allow multiple hosts to have
simultainous write access. It's a niche product that has its uses but the
moral here is not to assume that every disk unit with an ethernet port has
equal capabilities.

--
Coridon Henshaw - http://www3.telus.net/csbh - "I have sadly come to the
conclusion that the Bush administration will go to any lengths to deny
reality." -- Charley Reese

Coridon Henshaw <(chenshaw<RE<MOVE>@(T<H+ESE)sympatico.ca)> wrote in
news:Xns94A2CBBE7DEcsbhcsee@198.161.157.145:

I only mentioned it because it fit the OP's request for info. It's not too
much more expensive than Firewire/USB only External HD's.

I haven't got one, but have been thinking about it. My daughter and I are
on a 2 computer, two room home network, with laptops, and this looks like
one way to do backups for our computers, since it's size (120GB) is
greater than the sum of our two Toshibas' HDs. I wouldn't hang something
like that on a 'real' network. For our little setup it's a much better
deal than a true NAS system, which would be severe overkill.