|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Construction details
The NSL comes in a silver and charcoal plastic package that's about the size of a portable standard-sized cassette tape player. Although it has rubber feet on one side, you'll probably want to use the included base and stand it up so that you can better see the status lights. The lights include Ready/Status and Ethernet, Disk 1 and Disk 2 link / activity.
Updated 7/9/2004 The NSL contains a complete embedded computer (Figure 1) based on the Intel IXP420 Network Processor and backed by 8MB of flash and 32MB of RAM. It even has a real-time clock chip and on-board buzzer / beeper!
The single 10/100 Ethernet port is supplied via a Realtek RTL8201 Single-Port 10/100M Fast Ethernet PHYceiver and the dual USB 2.0 ports come courtesy of an NEC D720101 USB 2.0 host controller. The IXP420 comes in 266, 400 and 533 MHz flavors, but I couldn't tell which one is used. An item that the NSL doesn't have is a fan, so it's wonderfully silent in operation.
Figure 1: The NSLU2's board
Linksys' spec says that the NSL supports SMB (Server Message Block) / CIFS (Common Internet File System) over TCP/IP, which most modern operating systems support. Since the NSL is Open Source based, it essentially is a SAMBA server in a cute little box, with a friendlier user interface than you get with most SAMBA implementations. Note that the NSL uses the Ext3 file system, so you can't swap a USB drive between a Windows PC and the NSL without reformatting it - and losing the stored data.
Fans of hacking Linksys' Open Source based WRT54G router [reviewed here] will be happy to know that the company has presented you with another opportunity in the NSL. If you browse the included CD, you'll find a folder that contains original source for the SnapGear Embedded Linux that runs the NSL, plus source files for the various modified Linux modules used in the product.
Related Items:
Slideshow - Buffalo LinkStation LiveSlideshow - Synology DS207
Slideshow: Clickfree Transformer
Slideshow: Linksys NAS200
Buffalo Technology Gigabit LinkStation
User reviews
Average user rating from: 1 user(s)
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Good product, under-rated
|
First let me say that the NSLU2, or SLUG as some call it, is very reliable and quite handy for sharing files, music, photos, movies, etc. in your home network, even in your small-office network. I have had one running virtually hitch-free for three years now. The ONLY times it has failed me, or at least made me THINK it failed me, were before I got a battery backup. It seems lighting storms and their associated effects on the already-over-extended power grid can make small computers do silly things, like forget your network settings or whatnot. As dirty as the electric service can be sometimes, we should all be using a battery backup (aka UPS) anyways, so that shouldn't be an issue with your SLUG. I absolutely love mine, and I love that it's a go-between or adapter, rather than a stand-alone network-storage-in-a-box solution. You take that external hard drive you already have, or that new one you bought and haven't put to use yet, and plug it in to the SLUG for reliable, easily-accessed network storage. And for any of you who understand linux/unix, you can hack this thing with all kinds of cool modifications. But, if you're a MS-dependent/PC like me, you just use the OEM firmware that's already in it and it's a perfect little home media server/file dump/movie gallery/jukebox storage... you get the drift. The only problem I'm running into lately is that my storage needs are growing, but that doesn't mean I need a new network storage device, I just need to up-size the usb drives I'm using with my SLUG. It will still handle my needs for years to come, and use far less power than those stand-alone NAS boxes with full-size hard drives built in (that aren't so easy to 'swap out'), cooling fans, etc etc. This baby just works, and doesn't make any noise. As a matter of fact, the biggest problem I have is letting go of my five-year old, chunky, hot, noisy external hard drive. Me and my SLUG would both be happier if I just hooked up a USB hard drive enclosure that ran off the power in the SLUG's USB ports. One less cord, less electric waste. |
|
