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I got three of these to satisfy my NAS/fileserver needs (each around 70-80 USD from ebay).
Got two of these (110 USD each) and accompanying shells to go with them (~25 USD each).
Upgraded the firmware in the NSLU2 to run a custom linux (SlugOS4.8beta). Spend time on installing programs. Spend even more time on configuring programs.
voila, 500GB fileservers that draws less than 5 Watt!
Pro:
- runs linux: very flexible
- very low power draw
Con:
- 266Mhz ARM CPU, 32MB RAM: limited resources for services. Max throughput to read/write files from my MS Vista PC was limited at 48Mbps.
- runs linux: things almost never works as it should without needing to troubleshoot a lot. As I'm not a programmer, it means that some stuff doesn't work as it should and never will till someone else fixes it.
- SlugOS is a small distro: As the distribution is a bit obscure, the amount of packages available is limited (to around 5000-6000). Appearantly compiling yourself is an option (but a very slow one) on the NSLU2 itself.
Current software installed and configured on the NLSU2:
samba server (for Windows filesharing needs)
ssh server (when needing to manage the thing)
OpenVPN server (so I can get to my fileserver from anywhere with a net connection)
TwonkyMedia server (uPNP server for share my entire music, videos and picture collection to all uPNP compatible devices on the network/VPN; which is primarily WMP11, WMP12 and a Philips NP1100).
dm-crypt (encrypts personal documents share with AES ESSIV cipher, which hopefully means that in case the NSLU2 + USB HDD is stolen, the thieves will not have access to my personal documents; network throughput from/to USB HDD is reduced to about 1MBps from ~5MBps with encryption enabled)
Software to be installed:
I tried to install Twonkymedia, but it's not compatible with SlugOS5.3beta
this is one of those things where linux is a major, major pain to use. Downgrading to SlugOS 4.8 beta fixed this.
- printserver
- some sort of synchronization util to sync the contents between multiple NSLU2 boxes over the net during the night (as an off-site backup)
- torrent client that will automatically download any torrent dropped into a specific network share
Got two of these (110 USD each) and accompanying shells to go with them (~25 USD each).
Upgraded the firmware in the NSLU2 to run a custom linux (SlugOS4.8beta). Spend time on installing programs. Spend even more time on configuring programs.
voila, 500GB fileservers that draws less than 5 Watt!
Pro:
- runs linux: very flexible
- very low power draw
Con:
- 266Mhz ARM CPU, 32MB RAM: limited resources for services. Max throughput to read/write files from my MS Vista PC was limited at 48Mbps.
- runs linux: things almost never works as it should without needing to troubleshoot a lot. As I'm not a programmer, it means that some stuff doesn't work as it should and never will till someone else fixes it.
- SlugOS is a small distro: As the distribution is a bit obscure, the amount of packages available is limited (to around 5000-6000). Appearantly compiling yourself is an option (but a very slow one) on the NSLU2 itself.
Current software installed and configured on the NLSU2:
samba server (for Windows filesharing needs)
ssh server (when needing to manage the thing)
OpenVPN server (so I can get to my fileserver from anywhere with a net connection)
TwonkyMedia server (uPNP server for share my entire music, videos and picture collection to all uPNP compatible devices on the network/VPN; which is primarily WMP11, WMP12 and a Philips NP1100).
dm-crypt (encrypts personal documents share with AES ESSIV cipher, which hopefully means that in case the NSLU2 + USB HDD is stolen, the thieves will not have access to my personal documents; network throughput from/to USB HDD is reduced to about 1MBps from ~5MBps with encryption enabled)
Software to be installed:
I tried to install Twonkymedia, but it's not compatible with SlugOS5.3beta
this is one of those things where linux is a major, major pain to use. Downgrading to SlugOS 4.8 beta fixed this.- printserver
- some sort of synchronization util to sync the contents between multiple NSLU2 boxes over the net during the night (as an off-site backup)
- torrent client that will automatically download any torrent dropped into a specific network share
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