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    USB Network storage extender

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by hoofhearted, May 20, 2008.

  1. hoofhearted

    hoofhearted Notebook Evangelist

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    Does anyone make a USB storage extender? A USB device with wireless or network capabilitys, but only for tricking out NAS shares into looking like it is directories within the USB stick drive.

    I have a Philips DVD Player which has a USB port on it. If I plug a jump drive with mpg or avi files on it, I can watch them on my player. Many other devices are putting USB ports on them too. Video game consoles, portable media players, even cellphones.

    It would be great if I could extend this functionality to my network. Meaning that the USB drive would have some small amount of storage on it, say 1GB or so. There would be directories in it that act something like NFS mount points. This USB device should have either an RJ45 or 802.11n on it. There would have to be some sort of configuration which would contain the mountpoints and what network resource they mount to. Configuration would be done either by a webpage served on whatever IP address it DHCPs or by an INI file in the root of it own 1GB or so storage.
     
    hoofhearted, May 20, 2008
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  2. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    If you can map a drive to a network share a std NAS would work, with a lot more storage space.

    I would think any external USB drive would work if it was formated in a file system that the DVD supports.
     
    blue68f100, May 20, 2008
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  3. hoofhearted

    hoofhearted Notebook Evangelist

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    I don't want to have to move my NAS into the living room with the TV, then back to my computer. I want something small like a USB wireless adapter.
     
    hoofhearted, May 20, 2008
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  4. kegobeer

    kegobeer 1 hr late but moving fast

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    I haven't read any articles about flash drives with wireless capabilities. IMHO, such a device would have limited use by the public, since wifi NAS devices (or NAS devices connected via ethernet cable to a wifi router) can store huge amounts of data and stream that to media extenders, computers, etc. There is also the impossible task to get devices created that have the ability to act as a computer, read data from the USB wifi/flash drive, and then access wifi content.

    Maybe one day, such a device will be created. However, right now you are limited to buying a media extender or an HTPC, attaching it to your home theater system, and streaming multimedia from a NAS or other media server.
     
    kegobeer, May 22, 2008
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  5. sbabolat

    sbabolat Notebook Geek

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    Old post, I know.

    But what kind of media extender and what kind of NAS do you recommended.

    The nas will be attached to the router, but i am looking for 2 or 3 media extender so i can access everything from one single place.

    Any suggestion in terms of product/prices ?

    (around 100 to 250 for the media extender - a mvix box type or a dlink dns 520 type ?; for the nas i am looking at the d link dns323 - ?)

    S.
     
    sbabolat, Jul 30, 2008
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