Get a WGU624 access point and install Linux on it. Plug a NAS into it.
Get a WGU624 access point and install Linux on it. Plug a NAS into it.
Code://try //{ if (a) do { f( b); } while(1); else do { f(!b); } while(1); //}
The disadvantage of netbooks and other "fixed proportions" systems is that you can't just keep stuffing drives into them and external drives are rather slowish... In the end you don't save much, power wise, and end up with a laggy solution that needs 23 power switches to start up or shut down.Originally Posted by Epy
The old PC solution is far more capable and a lot cleaner to set up... Just be sure it has SATA capability since IDE drives cap off at 500gb.
So your argument is more along the lines of laptop vs. desktop then... I can understand that. It just didn't sound like he had a whole lot planned for the netbook so it probably doesn't matter.
Well, it's that power thing... if you take a netbook and exchange the internal drive for 500gb or so, then add a 1.5 tb external drive, it will work but it's going to be laggy because of the intherrent slowness of the external drive.
Where you get into problems is when you start building "haybails"...
Netbook, usb hub, 4 external drives, ... 6 power connections and your power saving is right out the window.
As a friend or mine once commented about my system... "So you've taken to farming wall warts..." referring to all the little power adapters I had plugged in.
Don't forget the cost for a proper operating system to do routing and stuff. It might cost, it might be free; I don't know what versions of Windows and Linux that can do that.
I remember using a netbook for a server once. It was slow as hell, didn't support 64-bit and noisy as hell. No fun.
So I got a real laptop (t'was cheap) to do the work instead. Granted, it isn't used as a router (due to lack of multiple ethernet ports and since I don't need an extra router), but it does serve a few other functions, including storage and VPN.
The 100Mbit lan would present a greater bottleneck than disk speed ...(I never got the 4.x Gbit speed as advertised )
If the hard disks can be made to sleep when not in use, the power saving is still there.
And it should be possible to set up a SMPS as an alternative for all the wall warts.
Which netbook ? ...The one I have (a few years old though..)...is almost as fast as my old pc.
For the noise and heat....I could remove the cover..and install a good fan and hard disk...removing the quite cramped built in ones.
Slow or not, you'll never beat the power consumption of a netbook.
True... but what you save with the netbook goes away with all the addons...
A PC in stanby uses less power than all those other devices on a netbook in standby.
The thing is external drives do not park like internals do... they spin constantly even whent the PC is off.
A PC with 4 drives internal will shut all 4 drives off when it goes standby... and it will park the ones it's not using after a user-defined time, so it can be very efficient. You can also put in a 4 port NIC card and a WiFi card... there's enough CPU horsepower there to do routing too... Which I don't think you'll do successfuly with a netbook.
You need special cables... and most people don't get beyond half that speed.
What are they called ?
...I tried a few types....including making a crossed cable w/ the wire and 2 jacks.
You are never going to get 4 gbit in a home lan without some special equipment.
1 gbit speed is possible, but only if you have the equipment to back it up (router, cables, network cards). Also consider that hard drives become bottlenecks at this speed.
Asus EEE PC 1000HE, I believe. Don't ask why I ever bought that piece of crap.Which netbook ? ...The one I have (a few years old though..)...is almost as fast as my old pc.
For the noise and heat....I could remove the cover..and install a good fan and hard disk...removing the quite cramped built in ones.
Oh yeah, and it doesn't even support gigabit speeds! So pathetic.
Most Linux distributions can do that with iptables. I'm sure there are free GUI front-ends, too (though it's really just 2-3 commands). I believe most modern Windows versions (notable exception is Win XP Home) also have primitive support, called internet connection sharing.Don't forget the cost for a proper operating system to do routing and stuff. It might cost, it might be free; I don't know what versions of Windows and Linux that can do that.
I would definitely go gigabit, since the performance increase is quite noticeable (I have seen 50+MB/s from my file server, up from ~8MB/s on 10/100), and it's only a few bucks more here and there (gigabit network cards are cheap, gigabit switches are cheap, and Cat 6 cables aren't much/any more expensive either). A USB gigabit network card will be limited by the USB bus though. USB's theoretical limit of 64MB/s will definitely come in. Should still be much faster than 10/100 however.
I'm just building a NAS myself, too. Decided to go with a fanless Atom board (Intel D525MW), and run RAID-1 off my existing harddrives. Going to run FreeNAS on it (but of course you can't do that if you also want it to do routing).
Standard lan cables are "category 5" or cat 5.
Gigabit lan needs Cat 6
Category 6 cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From what I remember, it just needs Cat 5e, though Cat 6 would be better.
Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Cat5e will work... but you only get about 200mbps out of it. Cat6 will get you up to about 700mbps under 50 feet.
Given the very small price difference, it's worth the extra couple of bucks.
