Network Non-Network USB Devices - DPChallenge Forums

12/26/2007 01:04:34 PM · #1

Greetings Good People!

I heard a while back that there were these gadgets that you could buy to make a non-network printer a network print either thru a modem or a router.

I got a 1TB drive for a gift and was super excited until I realised that is prolly wasnt gonna be network ready like the one I have at the office. I still love my gift but wish I didnt have to have to connected directly onto my laptop.

Can I buy something that will allow me to connect it to my wireless router so I can access it remotely?

Thanks in advance!
Peace
Rooster

Rando D300

12/26/2007 01:19:37 PM · #2

//www.networkmagic.com
This might help and it is free for 7 days

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

12/26/2007 01:21:28 PM · #3

Originally posted by Rando D300:

//www.networkmagic.com
This might help and it is free for 7 days

Not sure that's what she wants. You're looking for something to make your external drive into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive right? I know there's something out there than can do it, I'm looking for a link right now.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

12/26/2007 01:22:30 PM · #4

Here is one. I have a similiar cheap-o dlink adaptor for my printer. Has worked ok for a few years. Your mileage may vary.

12/26/2007 01:26:25 PM · #5

Originally posted by routerguy666:

Here is one. I have a similiar cheap-o dlink adaptor for my printer. Has worked ok for a few years. Your mileage may vary.

Dude! You RAWK! Thanks much! Gonna check it out now!

12/26/2007 01:26:51 PM · #6

Here's another and this one will share more than just the hard drive.

12/26/2007 01:52:22 PM · #7

Originally posted by routerguy666:

Here is one. I have a similiar cheap-o dlink adaptor for my printer. Has worked ok for a few years. Your mileage may vary.

Hey, before I drop beans on this, what do you use this for? Do you connect an external drive as well or is it printer specific? Hard to tell from the write up in the link. Seems like the right thing but I cant find anything else like it from other manufacturers.

Thanks again!

12/26/2007 01:53:02 PM · #8

Originally posted by SamDoe1:

Here's another and this one will share more than just the hard drive.

Thanks!

12/26/2007 01:58:29 PM · #9

Any thoughts on this one?

Linky!

12/26/2007 02:10:09 PM · #10

Shoot! I just read a review that says the dlink NAS is a bit slow and does not run off of NTFS. Gotta reformat to FAT32 which is not compatible with Vista or my photo manager app.

Boohoo!

Anything else out there a bit more new and compatible with Vista?

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

12/26/2007 02:20:17 PM · #11

Vista should read & write fat32 no problem

Fat32 Microsoft

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 14:20:57.

RainMotorsports

Nikon D60

12/26/2007 02:23:32 PM · #12

thegrandwazoo is right he had the same though i did.

Besides most of the USB drives i have that are under 8 GB are FAT32 formatted. Should be able to also write older fat partitions no reason why not.

Dont forget when being cheap you can add the printer to a networked desktop and share the printer.

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 14:26:09.

12/26/2007 02:27:48 PM · #13

Originally posted by Rooster:

Any thoughts on this one?

Linky!

That one should work and will support NTFS. I'm not sure if there's a firmware upgrade required or something, but all the research I've done says it can be done. You do give up the ability to have individual user accounts and quotas on the hard drive, but if you're after one big file storage place, it'll do just fine. It will also allow you to swap the drive from the network to the computer as you want. If you want the user accounts and all, you won't be able to do this without formatting the drive each time.

Edit to add: Most, if not all, NAS drives are going to be slow as they are 100% limited by network speed which, usually, is going to be about 100mbps, less if you have an older wireless setup. Since USB 2.0, theoretically, has a rating of 480mbps, the speed of the drive will be about a quarter of the USB 2.0 speed if it was directly connected to your computer.

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 14:38:49.

12/26/2007 02:36:55 PM · #14

Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:

Vista should read & write fat32 no problem

Fat32 Microsoft

I'm using ADSee and it doesnt want to play with FAT32 drives

12/26/2007 02:37:55 PM · #15

Originally posted by SamDoe1:

Originally posted by Rooster:
Any thoughts on this one?

Linky!

That one should work and will support NTFS. I'm not sure if there's a firmware upgrade required or something, but all the research I've done says it can be done. You do give up the ability to have individual user accounts and quotas on the hard drive, but if you're after one big file storage place, it'll do just fine. It will also allow you to swap the drive from the network to the computer as you want. If you want the user accounts and all, you won't be able to do this without formatting the drive each time.

Actually it doesnt. I just called linksys and it does not have NTFS drive available and wont any time soon.

12/26/2007 02:40:25 PM · #16

Originally posted by Rooster:

Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:
Vista should read & write fat32 no problem

Fat32 Microsoft

I'm using ADSee and it doesnt want to play with FAT32 drives

Unless you are going to run the software on the drive I see no issue using fat32 if that was the case all of the legacy systems and network drives would be toast and that is just not the case. Reading and writing files to the drive should happen without issue.

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 14:40:38.

12/26/2007 02:40:39 PM · #17

Originally posted by Rooster:

Actually it doesnt. I just called linksys and it does not have NTFS drive available and wont any time soon.

I found this snip here.

Originally posted by :

The NSLU2 will support NTFS partitions, but as smeghedd indicates you will not be able to use the NSLU2's share/user/group functionality. This is probably not a problem for the home user who wants just one big share and doesn't want to divide it up to individual users with individual quotas. You can then unplug your NTFS formatted USB harddrive from the NSLU2 and plug it straight into windows.

If however you want to make use of the extra permissions and quota functionality, you need to let the NSLU2 format your disk. It puts an ext3 filesystem on it, however as I indicate eariler, it also creates a smaller partition where it stores configuration files. Therefore if you took a ext3 formatted drive with data on it (for example, use linux to format it) and connected it to your NSLU2, it would indicate it is not formatted.

However once it has been formatted by the NSLU2, there is nothing stopping you from disconnecting the drive from the NSLU2 and mounting on your linux box to directly access the files should an unforeseen catastrophe ever happen to your NSLU2. If you are not linux inclined, you can use ext2fsd on a Windows PC to mount the drive. In fact, I have my ext3 drive mounted in windows as I write this.

Therefore as the NSLU2 does not use an proprietary filesystem - it uses the open source ext3 filesystem found on most linux boxes and with drivers available for windows, you can rest assured, should something happen to your NSLU2 or if you want to directly connect your USB HDD to your PC, you can.

12/26/2007 02:46:18 PM · #18

Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:

Originally posted by Rooster:

Originally posted by thegrandwazoo:
Vista should read & write fat32 no problem

Fat32 Microsoft

I'm using ADSee and it doesnt want to play with FAT32 drives

Unless you are going to run the software on the drive I see no issue using fat32 if that was the case all of the legacy systems and network drives would be toast and that is just not the case. Reading and writing files to the drive should happen without issue.

Okay, this is interesting. My drive was originally FAT32 and I transferred all my pix over to it. When I tried to index those fotos, ADSee told me to format that bastard.

12/26/2007 02:47:21 PM · #19

Originally posted by SamDoe1:

[quote=Rooster]Actually it doesnt. I just called linksys and it does not have NTFS drive available and wont any time soon.

I found this snip here.
I just found this on the same thread.

"Note that the NSL uses the Ext3 file system, so you can't swap a USB drive between a Windows PC and the NSL without reformatting itâ��and losing the stored data."

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 14:49:49.

12/26/2007 02:53:22 PM · #20

Originally posted by Rooster:

Originally posted by SamDoe1:
[quote=Rooster]Actually it doesnt. I just called linksys and it does not have NTFS drive available and wont any time soon.

I found this snip here.
I just found this on the same thread.

"Note that the NSL uses the Ext3 file system, so you can't swap a USB drive between a Windows PC and the NSL without reformatting itâ��and losing the stored data."

Yes but if you upgrade the firmware, it works with NTFS. Whoever wrote that probably didn't upgrade firmware:

V2.3R63 (7/06/2005)
1. FAT32/NTFS support on Port 2 and FAT32/EXT3 support on port 1

Edit to add: Link to Linksys's release notes for the NAS. What a slow website though...you'd think that a networking company would have the best ones!

Message edited by author 2007-12-26 15:06:45.

12/26/2007 03:11:37 PM · #21

Originally posted by Rooster:

Okay, this is interesting. My drive was originally FAT32 and I transferred all my pix over to it. When I tried to index those fotos, ADSee told me to format that bastard.

Weird!

12/26/2007 03:15:20 PM · #22

What version of AcDsee are you using?

12/26/2007 03:29:24 PM · #23

I have been reading through the user forums at ACDsee and man that software has a lot of bugs. Seems your issue is not new. I would submit a trouble ticket to ACDSee and see if they have found a solution.

Link to the discussion

//forums.acdsystems.com/index.php?showtopic=6023

12/26/2007 03:35:06 PM · #24

cool. thanks for the link. I havent had any problems with it just yet, thank God.

I am using Pro 2.