External USB HD and network storage adapter?

[aweller]

Dear all,

I currently run SlimServer 6.5.1 on both a Ubuntu Edgy and Windows XP machine (dual-boot, depending on which one is booted). I store all my SS accessible music files on an external USB HD. This has two partitions for both music and 'other stuff'.

Instead of just sharing this HD from the machine it is plugged in to, I would like to pull it into my wireless network with a network storage adapter (either wired/wireless).

Typical products I have been looking at are:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=352
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...=2241146152B03

Are these SS compatible? Are these Linux compatible? Do you suggest any other network storage adapter? What problems (if any) would I encounter?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Andy

[mherger]

Hi Andy

> Instead of just sharing this HD from the machine it is plugged in to, I
> would like to pull it into my wireless network with a network storage
> adapter (either wired/wireless).
>
> Typical products I have been looking at are:
> http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=352
> http://www.linksys.com/servlet/

The latter IMHO isn't a storage adapter but simply a USB/LAN adapter for
your computer. Linksys does have the NSLU, though:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...=7105086964B08

> Are these SS compatible? Are these Linux compatible? Do you suggest any
> other network storage adapter? What problems (if any) would I
> encounter?

While you'll be able to use them to connect your Linux box to (they even
run Linux on these boxes), don't plan to run SlimServer on them. They're
just not powerful enough. Please search the forum for "nslu2" or "nas" for
some idea about what's possible and what's not.

--

Michael

-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.herger.net/SlimCD - your SlimServer on a CD
http://www.herger.net/slim - AlbumReview, Biography, MusicInfoSCR

[bukharin]

Make sure that the NAS is compatible with the filesystem you're using on your USB HD. (most can only use FAT)

Pretty much all the consumer NAS boxes use SMB (ie the standard Windows networking protocol) to communicate with clients, so any linux machine will be able to access the files using samba. You can also generally control the device via http (this is definitely true for the d-link device), so there's no need for Windows at all.

[Mark Lanctot]

Instead of just sharing this HD from the machine it is plugged in to, I would like to pull it into my wireless network with a network storage adapter (either wired/wireless).

Try to avoid wireless in this application. That would create a 2-hop wireless path from the music storage to the Squeezebox.

This may work in some setups, but it may not work in others. It's best to avoid it if you can.

[aweller]

Thanks for your feedback.

The 2 partitions on my external HD are currently formatted to ext3. I had several problems with FAT32 and would like to avoid it.

In essence, I would like to keep SS running on the same machine, but point my 'music file source' to this drive that will (hopefully) be connected through a network storage adapter.

It seems that the ext3 part may cause problems - I will need to check.

Thanks, Andy

[Mark Lanctot]

It seems that the ext3 part may cause problems - I will need to check.

Depends what the NAS expects to see. If it was a PC, I believe there are drivers that will enable a Windows machine to read/write ext3. If it was a Linux PC, obviously, there are no problems.

Although many of the NAS boxes run Linux, I don't know what formatting they use. It may vary from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer, and the companies may not be forthcoming on what they use because it's not something a consumer generally needs to know.