Is it possible to connect a USB Hard Drive to a network? my router does not have a usb port but is there a way where i connect Usb to Ethernet?

Only through another computer. If you want to connect a drive to the network, then you'd need NAS.

Some products for you to look at:

Linksys NSLU2

Linksys EFG250

Or buy another housing with Ethernet too, could be the same price or cheaper .

Best option for a network drive is defo NAS.

You can share an existing USB drive if you just share it out on the computer its connected to. Although, that PC has to be on for others to access it.

does anyone know how these NAS devices like the linksys EFG250 are built? u guys think its possible to build one? any links or anything at all is much appreciated.

You can also use an elder machine with something like:

naslite:

http://www.serverelements.com/

or freenas:

http://www.freenas.org/

Since the bottleneck is usually the network transfer rate, any PC with, say a Pentium and 64 Mb of memory will do.

jaclaz

jaclaz: yea that helps.. but i was actually talking abt the unit itself... compacting all the hardware devices into a smaller chassis... like a commercially available NAS unit, the hardware components of an external hdd chassis with ethernet support

Edited November 11, 200619 yr by naji

I don't think that it would be economically "sound" to build one, unless you use some parts that you already have lying unused in a corner.

This can be a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

it links to this page:

https://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/twik...AttachedStorage

where a comparison of several device is done, with links to manufacturers and some speed tests.

Here is a list of manufacturers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_Manufact..._of_NAS_Devices

jaclaz