Use a Linksys NSLU2 NAS appliance on 10.3

Aug 18, '04 09:31:00AM

Contributed by: victory

Today I got one of the new $99 NAS appliances by Linksys and can confirm that it works just fine with 10.3. Like the the BuffaloTech LinkStation, the NSLU2 is basically an embedded fileserver: It's a small box that you attach one or two external USB harddrives (or a USB flashdrive) to. Once properly connected and configured, the storage space on the drives is made available over your network. It provides a cheap way to add storage capacity to a small network in a hurry.

For those of you who are wondering 'why use a NAS gadget in the first place?,' look at it this way: For $99, you get a web-configurable embedded SMB server that comes in a case the size of an old 8-track tape. If one were to build a Free/Open-BSD box as a standalone SMB server, not only would it cost more and take up more space/electricity, but it would take several hours to assemble, install, configure and test everything. I had the NSLU2 working within 30 minutes of unwrapping the box. Here's a nice (non-Mac-specific) review of the NSLU2.

First, here are some of the not-so-good things I found with the NSLU2:

While there seems to be a lot going against this device, here are some of the advantages, and the reasons I feel it is a worthy product overall:

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