Usb Nas Question

Hey friends
I'm planning to buy belkin n+ adsl modem router with usb storage link. I've got a small SOHO kinda setup. I want to connect a usb hdd may b around 350 gb to the belkin n+ to work as a nas. I want to keep my billing software & other related documents on it, which i can access to do the billing or other things either from my ethernet connected desktop or wifi laptop. Please suggest will i b able to get good enough speed to do the billing from usb hdd connected on belkin n+. The billing s/w i'm using is dos based.
Your expert comments are requested.
Regards

 

Depends on what hardware is in that Belkin. My Linksys WRT350N v1, 300Mhz Broadcom CPU, 32MB RAM, running SAMBA2, only writes at ~2-3MBps onto a USB HDD.
I wouldn't expect the Belkin to do that much better.

 

For a dos based piece of software, I'd expect that bandwidth to be more than sufficient.

 

Thanks for the reply, but i'm still confused about the speed. Will it save/ retrive data in real time or will there be a big time lag. Or do i need to buy something like linksys nmh 300 (nas), i'm not really interested in spending money on a full fledged nas like this, but if usb hdd wont serve my purpose than i would have to do this. I dont have a hdd right now, in that case i won't buy a usb hdd & will buy a sata one..plz suggest..

 

Just going by the numbers, if the files are small (<5MB) it should be close to instantaneous. You want to read up some reviews on that Belkin unit, though, and see how it performs in the field.

 

Without any solid measurements of your software, I would say it wil save and retrieve data in real time. If I can stream music files (playing music is very sensitive to timing) over a wireless connection, then you should be able to fire up spreadsheets with no problems.

 

Can u tell me, how/ what measurement steps i can take before making any investment in belkin n+ or a nas. How can i make sure that my software will run good enough on usb of belkin n+. Also in India we dont have any return policies, if u have bought something it belongs to u for ever, replacement/ getting service is itself not easy.

 

Well, without a return policy, I would go all out. I would use a program like HDtune to measure exactly how much bandwidth your program needs.


Plug that USB external drive to your computer and fire up HDtune.

Switch to the Disk Monitor tab. Select your external disk up top and click start on the right.

Run your program as usual. Open up your files, add in some numbers, print out some jobs. The best observations are real life scenarios.

The HDtune only shows the last 5 minutes or so of disk activity. Basically, you are looking for your max disk activity. How high does your graph go and for how long? As long as it isn't over 10 MB/sec consistently, your software will run like normal.

 

I've downloaded free hdtune 2.55 from its web site but there is no disk monitor tab in this. So, how do I measure??
Edit: I've not connected any usb drive right now, therefore i suppose its not showing any more drive. My s/w is on my desktop & i'm on my laptop. So, can i check the activity while using s/w on lan over my laptop??

 

edit: Okay, it's an NAS. Then my input isn't a solution to the weakest link: router throughput speed.

Estimated download speed 1.8 MB/s

 

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http://leoxsys.com/leo-150n-bt.php
http://whitesindia.com/shoppe/compu...routers/leo-150n-bt-wireless-n-storage-router

 

Nobody?? No replies??