[geeks] Interesting "minimal" PC - network appliance box?

[Dan Duncan]

Along these lines, I finally broke down and bought a NAS solution to
try out.  I bounced back and forth a number of times on this thinking
that a server gave me better access to recover the drive if the
hardware failed vs if I used a canned solution I'd be less prone to
goof with it.

So of course I bought a canned solution and then goofed with it.

I went with the Western Digital Mybook "World Edition" which is a NAS
(10/100/1000bT) instead of using USB/eSATA/firewire like
other Mybook versions. Unsurprisingly, it runs linux and sshd is
easily enabled via a modified url to simulate a firmware update.  Once
sshd is enabled, it's easy to install a package manager (ipkg, using
the repositories for gumstix) and enable NFS (already
installed) as well as a number of other features.

The best part was the price:  $80 for a 500GB unit. (refurb)  The
drive can be replaced/rebuilt if it fails or removed to grab the files
(all partitions are ext3-formatted) if the hardware fails.  (any of
which void your warranty, of course)

I read a number of online reviews first, and the cons seemed to center
around slow performance at gig-E speeds (not a factor for me) and the
software used (for a fee) to make your files available from the
internet (thus the "World edition" designation) which again is not a
factor for me.

It also has a USB host port which can be used for additional storage
or to serve out a printer if you hack it.  I haven't experimented with
using a USB hub. (and probably won't)

It will do a variety of streaming media servers, rsync, rsnapshot, and
various other junk.

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/hacks-and-howto


-- 
Dan Duncan