Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Server
( -Type A USB, RJ-45 Network

Filled the desire to run a simple file server for storing photo's. I had an issue with configuring it where it would not pick up the DHCP address, finally configured my subnet to 255.255.0.0 since both my laptop and the default IP for the NLSU2 were 192.168 and found it with the included utility on the default 192.168.1.47 IP. Quick to configure, came with the latest firmware already on it. Saw both my USB har drives including the 2.5" drive that gets power from the USB port. One is 80GB, the other is 160GB. Read up as there is a size limit on the drives it supports. If you want to geek out on this device there are *lots* of Linux dirobutions for this device along with lots of hardware mods. You can make it a full blown Linux box, including using a palm pilot as a console (?!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2 http://www.nslu2-linux.org/
 
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Good product and easy to set up, however once a drive is connected and formatted in the NSLU2 format it cannot be read by a Windows OS anymore when plugged it to a laptop for instance.
 
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Works well and easy to set up. However, I can only connect one of my two external drives to it, because they are both formatted as NTFS. Only one NTFS drive can be connected.
 
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This was a simple solution. Good value
 
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With the latest firmware 2.3 Release 63, it does work with FAT32/NTFS Windows USB Drive. I connect mine with WD 500G MyBook with no problem. However, it seems some access control features will not work with FAT32/NTFS. It will work if you use the Linux format, formatted by this unit. The built-in backup is very slow, it is better to just schedule a job to copy over to the network drive. Overall, this is a very cost effective hardware to convert your USB drive as a network drive. The unit is very small also, (smaller than my WD MyBook 500G USB drive).
 
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Can't beat this for the price. It's easy to setup and much smaller than I expected. I can move my NTFS drive from NAS to PC with the firmware I received. No complaints from me.
 
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It is a cheap solution for network-attached-storage. I bought it primarily to backup data from my other PCs without requiring any software. The networking was easy to configure and it works great, with the following caveats: 1) Although it does allow you to attach NTFS or FAT formatted disks, don't bother since it cripples most of the functionality. For the backup features to work, you have to let it format the disk itself (linux format). 2) The backup works, once you figure out exactly how it wants the fields entered (slashes, etc) - and it doesn't give you any help. You have to look at the example in the online documentation. It also only allows you to specify five backup sources, so plan ahead or you will be stuck. 3) If you install two USB disks then it can automatically backup from one to the other (poor-mans raid). Useful if you are using this as your primary shared data repository. 4) If you want to access thumb drives through the unit, then you have to install the provided software on your PC first. I wouldn't bother unless you have some pressing need to share flash drives on the network.
 
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Easy to setup and ok for small files, but drops network connections for large files or large directories of many files after transferring between 200 Mbyte and 8 Gbyte. Also, even though it has ''data backup'' to backup from a network share to another network share, it has no restore capability. The backed up files can only be accessed through thier HTML interface because only the ''admin'' or ''root'' have access. Add all this to non-Windows format and you end up with lost data.
 
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Does the job but was a sad disappointment to what I expected. Nice that it has two USB ports but what good are they if you cannot exchange the disks to be used with Windows (or Mac). The device must format the drive to its own private deal and that format is not interchangeable with other system other than its own. Setting shares and folders has to be done via the browser interface so you need to make sure you don’t misplace those credentials if you ever want to add or remove shared resources on its drives.
 
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I like this little slug. It's not real fast but it's very flexible and inexpensive. One of the best things about it is that if you need more capacity you just replace the drive, not the whole unit. I use it to store my MP3 collection so I don't have to have my computer on for my stereo MP3 player to have access to my library. I also use it to automatically back-up my data files from my computer. One more item, there are websites dedicated to hacking this little box. It run's Linux so there is a wealth of software out there that could potentially run on it (such as a iTunes media server).
 
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I've used my NSLU2 with one external 160GB drive for about 1 year now. No problems. Have it on my home network - so shared by total of 3 computers. Yes, its Linux under the covers. I'm no Linux guru and I've had no issues with it. I don't care that I can't directly connect it to a single PC, that wasn't my purpose. Great for sharing data storage among the other home users. As it supports 2 drives, I'm thinking about adding another, larger drive now.
 
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Ok, so it took a while. Users that complained about the product need to download the newest firmware.....And be happy.
 
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This device is usable by Mac & PC's & Linux boxes... It uses Linux inside the device - that's why the USB drive can not be disconnected and plugged directly into a windows box - the drives are formatted with the Linux ext3 filesystem. Which, by the way, doesn't fragment enough to warrant action. In other words, defragging the drive isn't ever needed! As far as seeing it via Windows, search the web for "Linux ext3 windows" - there are a ton of utilities out there to handle your needs. This is a very stable and expandable unit at an excellent price.
 
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Works fine. I believe that there is a firmware upgrade that will allow the attached HD to be in NTFS, FAT32, or EXT3 format.
 
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This device is great as a NAS but it can have even more functionality. I am running mine as a webserver and music server in addition to being a NAS.
 
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Sure, if you expect an $80 network attached storage (NAS) to compare to a $2,000+ enterprise solution, you might be disappointed. But, if you want a compact, hassle-free, energy efficient solution this is it. Yes, the box formats hard disks in a Unix format (but there is software available to mount in Windows, if you must). And, you should read the directions before setting up a file server. Clearly, some of the reviewers here know squat about setting up shares & access privileges across a network. Done right, the box is Windows & Mac compatible; works with hard disks of any size or solid-state flash drives; and is easily hacked (search the web - it's a Linux box). You can add multimedia, web server, iTunes server, mail server, weather info, X-10 automation, and lots more capabilities. A pocket-sized server with giant capabilities.
 
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Serves all my needs just fine. For people complaining about incompatibility with Windows just buy Ext2FS Anywhere 3.0 software and you will be able to access your drive connected directly to your windows PC.
 
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The product did work as marketed, however it did not meet the needs of a corporate enterprise. The NSL did not have the ability to connect to a domain (WinNT or Active Directory), thus security was unmanagable. The product was also slow compared to other similar solutions. Utilizing the suggested Maxtor OneTouch drive, I could only write at 1.5 MB/s and read at 2.9 MB/s. This is 40% slower than the Buffalo LinkStation.
 
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In addition to the problems already noted in other reviews herein (incompatibility with FAT32 and NTFS, lack of swappability, inability to defrag attached external drive(s), poor performance when accessed by more than one or two computers at a time, poor documentation, etc.), consider this: There is no way to backup your networked computers' entire hard disks with the NSLU2. The NSLU2's embedded backup utility can only access the "shared" folders on your networked computers. Although this seems self-evident, Linksys's advertising suggests otherwise. Further, by coupling this product with Maxtor's OneTouch (backup) external drives (with Linksys giving you a rebate if you buy both products), Linksys implies that backing up your computer's hard drive will be a simple, one touch, process. In fact, it's not even possible. The NSLU2 is good for very limited uses only (networked file swapping and the like). It is not a true backup device!
 
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Dependable unit, but: 1) Can be very difficult to set up. See review by 'pseudo geek'. 2) As others mentioned, no defrag at this time. No announced plans to fix this in a firmware upgrade. 3) Setting up backups impossible, unless you go to Linksys website knowledgebase and read what they forgot to tell you in the manual: you must enter a forward slash before the folder names (for both source and destination). 4) Unbelievably, the unit only allows you to enter 5 distinct backup jobs. They are easy to set up (once you know the trick of point 3)), but you can only enter 5 tasks (which can be scheduled daily or weekly).
 
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Some of the other reviewers of this product seem to be disappointed that they can't use their USB drive both on their network and connected to their PC locally. Seems like they didn't think this through! The NSLU2 does partition and format the drive in a linux format. This is surely intentional. If they wanted to maintain both network and local connection capability for the USB drives, they'd have to use FAT32. Otherwise Windows 98 and ME systems could not access the drive locally. That however, would impose FAT32's file size and directory limits on your network storage. Also, with FAT32 the entire drive would be read/write accessible to all users. The Linux based system that Linksys, uses allows you to set up folder permissions such as limiting folder access by user and much more. The linux format is not a problem, it is a plus!
 
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This is a very affordable home NAS unit which allows you to have up to 2 external USB 2.0 drives (or 1 external drive + 1 flash drive) attached and shared across your network. Set up is very easy, but be warned that it formats the drives in EXT3 (linux), so you will be unable to just unplug the drive and plug it directly into a windows computer. There are communities out on the net which are actively working on fixing this via hacked firmware, but its not recommended for the novice computer user. Overall, I recommend this for those people who have a blank external drive (or don't mind reformatting their existing one). I've been looking for this type of device (and value) for quite some time.
 
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I purchased two of these. One for the office and another for my home. Both have two external drives connected to them. The setup was relatively painless. Start system and let it reformat the drive. Yes it formats the drive as a Unix drive. The system has an embedded Unix(Linux) OS. You need to logon via the web browser or the setup wizard to assign an IP address. You can assign either a satic or dynamic IP based on your LAN setup. After this you can logon to the NSL and format the second drive and configure it as either a second drive or as a mirror to the first. If you mirror the first only one drive will show up in the network neighborhood. I've setup the first drive to automatically backup criticle data on both LAN. The backup instructions can be found in the Knowledge Base at www.linksys.com. It took a couple of tries to correctly setup the rules. Make sure you use the forward slash (/) when inputing your path statements. The second drive I setup to mirror the first drive. This way I have redundant system that automatically backs up and mirror data on a daily bases. I can also use the DISK1 as an external hard drive. You can map a network drive letter to this. You can also setup the system to work as a webserver so that you can access files from the net. I have not had a chance to do this yet but I'm looking forward to. Overall this is an excellent cheap backup and storage system. It does lack somewhat on documentation and configuration. Hopefully Linksys will add functionality to future firmware upgrades such as backup logging. As for speed the system is ok. I have Snap servers (basically the same thing in one unit) that are much faster. I would not recommend for doing full backups on client systems.
 
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The USB2 disk attached to this Link device is formatted as a Unix disk. If you have a PC, you cannot defrag the disk and is practically useless.
 
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This product is easy to use and very easy to set up. From opening the box to completion of adding the drive and the rights to access was less than 10 minutes. If you are adding the maxtor drive or any other external drive, you wil not find a cheaper and easier way to go. The enclosed network cable comes with a magnet clamp that stopped all ESD from happening. Note that the product is for USB 2.0 drives.
 
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Being in the tech field for over 20 years, I can trulely say do not waste your time on this product. Fresh out of the box, I was able to see and configure the NSLU2 one time but I kept getting write errors when trying to save the configuration file (all I did was add my router IP #). After one hour of resetting the device and running the setup manager, I called India for tech support. There I was asked for the model number numerous times as they could not understand NSLU2 and did not know how to spell the name "Bill". Plus, the drive is not supported under Windows and all of your folder shares and permissions must be created through the web browser interface which I could never get to. The device runs on top of Unix and uses its own file system in which you can not unplug the USB drive and connect it to another Windows based machine. If you are looking for a true external file sharing device to connect to your network, my opinion is spend the money and buy something better.
 
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I ordered so I could access a USB 2.0 disk I already had from any machine on my home network without having to have another machine turned on. I was surprised by how small the unit actually is; I have it tucked away in a little corner near my monitor so I can see the status lights. The quick set-up fold out is pretty clear. I had everything hooked up and was ready to power on in 5 minutes. I also went to the linksys support site and got the newest firmware before turning the unit on. It powered up and the lights flashed like they were supposed to - so far so good. I knew I could reach the interface via web browser but decided to try the setup software for grins. Imagine my surprise when the unit could not be located. A couple of minutes of reading revealed the NSLU2 comes from the factory with a static IP of 192.168.1.77. That's great if you have a linksys LAN (or any other with a 192.168.1.X IP range). I don't so I simply had to change an IP address on the PC (I chose 192.168.1.78) and I could log in. After changing the NSLU2's IP to something that would work with my LAN the setup software easily found the unit. Only had it a day, but other than the one small snafu (that a novice would be very frustrated by) I'm loving it and the flexibility using it brings.
 
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Be careful! From the Quick Installation Guide: "IMPORTANT:The Network Storage Link's format is NOT compatible with Windows. You cannot swap USB hard disk drives between Windows systems and Network Storage Links."
 
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This roll your own storage NAS is a good value for the light user. Setup wasn’t too difficult. Paper docs provided don’t show how to use get into the administration section of the web interface or how to set the advanced features. Backup My PC has trouble writing directly to the drive, it says the backup files are corrupt. Another negative that isn’t explained up front is the hard drive you use needs to be reformatted in the Linksys format (probably Linux) and will no longer be compatible with Windows. Also it appears a maximum of two computers can access a single drive at once. Even then the file transfers weren’t balanced, and if you’re transferring large files you may had those transfers time out and save only a partial file. FYI, I’m using a 7200 RPM, 8MB catch external drive and still having troubles. I recommend this device for single or dual user environments where you would store small files (ex. pictures, music). The larger the files being transferred the worse for the device. I hadn’t found a way to defrag the drive yet, although the device has built in scan disk, backup (drive to drive or some computer to the drive), shutdown/restart that can be scheduled. Lastly, for the price this isn’t too bad if you want files to be accessible for multiple computers on your home network.
 
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CONCLUSION: Good idea with poor USB HD execution. Only would recommend if you're using exclusively to network enable a USB flash device. Did not work well with Maxtor USB HD. 3.5 hours invested and glitchy as can be. Returned the product. I'd wait for the next major firmware upgrade. THE GOOD: USB flash is a breeze to configure on wired/wireless LAN. Format 250 gig HD in 10 minutes. THE BAD: Maxtor 250 gig USB HD very glitchy with the unit. Manuals are inadequate to say the least. Online Live help is a dud. WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU: USB HD has to be formatted by the unit and then will not work directly with a PC. Backup feature does not mean it backs up your PC. If you have 2 USB HDs attached one will back itself up to the other (mirroring). As of end of July 04 ZERO info on the Linksys Knowledge base. Could not even understand how they do groups, users, sharing let alone get it to work. Internet access is nothing like FTP. Really will only work w/fixed ip or very tricky port forwarding. If you switch from default 192.168.1.77 to DHCP then you'll need to find out the assigned IP and use that one to access the Web Admin features.
 
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Awesome idea for network storage! Linksys got the idea right, but botched the execution! Setup is a no-brainer, but there is one major hitch. That 80, 120 or 200Gig external drive you have loaded with backups, MP3s, etc has to be completely re-formatted to connect to this device. Even if you off-load your data, re-format and copy your data back, you still have a problem. You can no longer plug your external HD directly into a windows system...it won't be recognized! According to Linksys, that's the way the product was intended to be. So if you have an empty HD to connect AND you don't intend to ever take the drive directly to a windows system after loading it, this is a great product to buy today. Otherwise, you'll just get hyped up about the product, get it home, be disappointed and return it.
 
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