Backup is boring, let’s admit it, but a shiny chunk of Network Attached Storage can lend a little of its new-toy glee to the procedure. My time with LaCie’s Ethernet Disk mini might not exactly be the stuff of fairy-tales – boy meets NAS, boy falls in love with NAS, boy takes NAS home – but despite mixed first-impressions you’ll be pleased to hear there’s a happy ending.
External storage, particularly with network connectivity, is getting cheaper and cheaper, and manufacturers are obviously looking around for value-added features that make their own products stand out in the crowd. Planex caught some headlines last year with a 500GB NAS that not only supported a variety of media streaming and remote access standards but also had in-built BitTorrent support.
Well, obviously 500GB wasn't enough for some people's voracious downloading, and so Planex is bringing out a 750GB version. TCP/IP, HTTP, SMB, FTP, DHCP, UPnP and NTP protocols are all supported, and there are two USB 2.0 ports for plugging in supplementary external hard-drives or hosting USB printers. Gigabit ethernet makes transfers nice and snappy, and there's an easy-to-use built-in webserver to host your own site.
No word on price or availability yet.
Planex [via Akihabara News]
I'm a firm believer in Sunday being the day for reading the paper and a couple of tech reviews, so here's one for you. Network Attached Storage (NAS) might not be as sexy as the latest iPod or as fun as a remote control helicopter, but if it means your data is saved when your favourite laptop bites the dust then it's perhaps more important than both of those put together. Plus with the increasing variety in media streaming devices it's always good to have a central store of music so that you don't have to leave your energy-guzzling PC on (I'm assuming it's not just the UK that's facing rampant energy price hikes?)
Pocket-lint have taken a looksie at Buffalo's LinkStation Pro NAS, a combination of the company's basic LinkStation gigabit ethernet hardware and top-of-the-line TeraStation Pro NAS software, that hooks up to your router and shares its joyous memory with all. Priced from £130 ($255) for a 250GB SATA version and with storage options up to 750GB, there are also two USB ports for external hard drives (although sadly not printers) and a neatly built-in power supply. Worth a look if you were considering a new hard drive this Christmas.
Buffalo LinkStation Pro Network Shared Storage Device Review [Pocket-lint]
New from Princeton is a compact NAS called the PNS01S, that sports a sleek aluminum casing and measures just 2.36- x 8.27- x 7.17-inches and weighs about 2.6 lbs. It comes in 400GB and 500GB capacities with a fanless design, a SATA drive with 16MB cache, eSATA, USB 2.0, and ethernet ports on the back. Compatible with both Macs and PCs and includes NetBak Replicator software for simplying scheduled backups. Will be available later this month. No word yet on pricing.
Princeton unveils PNS01S NAS in compact, aluminum enclosure [Via: Engadget]
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