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griff99
Premium Member
join:2002-12-29
Merrimack, NH

griff99 to gt7420

Premium Member

to gt7420

Re: Network Storage Link

Sounds like an LBA48 issue. Basically the NSLU2 isn't seeing the full capacity of the drive. Without LBA48 you can't get beyond 127GB. I don't know if it is the Belkin enclosure or the NSLU2 itself but that is most likely the cause of your problems I don't know the solution however I am sorry to say.
gt7420
join:2002-11-13
Neptune, NJ

gt7420

Member

Thanks for the quick reply.

Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Drive Enclosure Kit

Part # F5U209

»catalog.belkin.com/IWCat ··· d=125643

Since a pre-formatted 250GB drive seemed to work fine in the Belkin enclosure, and Belkin claims it works with drives up to 250GB, I didn't thank that was the problem, although I now stand corrected:

»www.extremetech.com/prin ··· 6,00.asp

Does anyone have any suggestions for a USB 2.0 LBA48 compliant drive enclosure? I'm just glad I couldn't find this model at CompUSA this past week. I'd be stuck with two of them.
gt7420

gt7420

Member

Actually, a dual drive enclosure with individual USB ports would be perfect for connecting to the NSLU2. Anyone ever see any of these? I was able to find some with individual Firewire ports, but not USB.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

I broke down and ordered this the other day.

»www.cooldrives.com/2bayf ··· sb2.html

I have not received it yet. A little expensive for what I wanted it for, but it has fans to cool the drives and that is a BIG PLUS. I searched everywhere and this was the only external dual enclosure with fans that I could find.

I had problems with my format when I did it also. I spent a little time with Tech Support and figured out the issue. They had me hook straight into the device and not use a router and everything worked from there.
gt7420
join:2002-11-13
Neptune, NJ

gt7420

Member

I like the enclosure, but I don't think the NSLU2 is going to see both drives. It would take an enclosure with individual ports for each drive, which kind of defeats the purpose of a dual drive USB enclosure. Let me know how it is when you get it.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

It has individual ports for each drive.

prestonlewis
Premium Member
join:2003-04-13
Sacramento, CA

prestonlewis to Necrosis11

Premium Member

to Necrosis11
said by Necrosis11:
If this thing was Firewire id get it, but sinse it isnt forget it.

I dont know ANYONE who uses external HDD's via USB.

Since USB2 is faster than Firewire, that doesn't make any sense. I use 2 external USB2 hard drives since my Dell Dimension has a slot for just a single hard drive and the CD-Rom slot won't accept a DVD/CD-Burner combo unit. So I have an external DVD/CD Burner using a USB2 connection, and two hard drives for storing all kinds of stuff.
gt7420
join:2002-11-13
Neptune, NJ

1 edit

gt7420 to SquareSlinky

Member

to SquareSlinky
The description (of the USB external enclosure) says it has one USB port and two Firewire ports.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

Thank you for pointing that out. I have cancelled my order for the case, as I only wanted it for 2 USB ports. I definitely missed that fact.

FrankyZ
@unknown

FrankyZ to SquareSlinky

Anon

to SquareSlinky
Does this thing have a built in FTP server as well as an HTTP server?
dsl_sutra
join:2003-12-25
united state

dsl_sutra to SquareSlinky

Member

to SquareSlinky
This thing is SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I am about to return the the Linksys Network storage link. It did not recognise a WD 250FB USB2 drive, even after reformatting. I called Linksys, had a nice talk with a guy in India, and was told it was only tested with Maxtor drives. I then tested with a Maxtor onetouch USB 2 drive, and it took 7 minutes to transfer a 5 MB file!
Our OS is XP pro and it is connected to a 24 port switch.
There was little traffic on the network during the test.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

I just did a 25mb file over mine, it took 5 seconds. I have a 7200RPM 160gb drive 8mb cache. The drives might play a big part with these things.
gt7420
join:2002-11-13
Neptune, NJ

gt7420 to SquareSlinky

Member

to SquareSlinky
Squareslinky - if you happen to find a two drive USB enclosure with individual USB ports, please let me know.

Thanks.
makarov380
join:2004-03-29

makarov380 to andresalazar

Member

to andresalazar
I had the same problem initially. I am using an Argosy usb/firewire enclosure. I have ordered a usb/ide cable set so I can make my own enclosure; hopefully they play nice. I rebooted the Linksys and went back in and it formatted fine after that. I reformatted a couple of time just to make sure it was a fluke. One week in and it is doing OK now.
makarov380

makarov380 to dsl_sutra

Member

to dsl_sutra
Hey dsl_sutra, I had the same problem, too (see page 1). Turns out the Linksys does not like my cnet switch. Once I plugged it into my Linksys 8 port, life was good. I have backed up my system (70gb image) in a couple of hours. That is the same as local storage. I bet you are having "switch hating" problems. It might be fun to track this. I have a Nortel Rack mount switch that I want to test, since it will be my official house switch.
howrman
join:2000-07-08
Philadelphia, PA

howrman to serv

Member

to serv
said by serv:
Have any of you guys been able to access the NSLU2 fileserver from the internet?

Mine is working over the Internet. Just configure your router to forward port 80 to the IP address of your NSLU2.
howrman

howrman to Rick Salinas

Member

to Rick Salinas
said by Rick Salinas:

And yes it does require a full Format thus basically taking your external drive out of service

The documentation certainly states that you need for reformat the USB hard drive attached to the NSLU2. However, when I had some trouble getting one of my computers to see the drive behind the NSLU2, Linksys technical support advised me not to use the NSLU2's formatting tool and to instead format the drive through Windows. This makes no sense to me, but Linksys insisted that a drive formatted in this way could be used with the NSLU2. Since I was eventually able to get the computer to see the drive as formatted with the NSLU2, I have not yet tried this fix.
makarov380
join:2004-03-29

makarov380 to SquareSlinky

Member

to SquareSlinky
I found a dual drive enclosure w/2 ports. You are looking for a Cremax Stardom SoHoTank. They are a little pricey, but they have individual ports and cool LCD drive displays. I found them for low $200's fully decked.
dsl_sutra
join:2003-12-25
united state

dsl_sutra to makarov380

Member

to makarov380
Yeah, I read the previous post. I have to keep the 24 port swich, so returned the network storage link. The linksys support really sucked. They gave me level 2 support, and the guy knew NOTHING! He asked why I was using the storage link, and suggested that I hook the USB drive directly to the switch! This was the first release of the product, and I believe that it is not enterprise grade equipment. Great idea, but at least for me not worth the headaches. They also told me the WD 250 didn't work because the drive was too big!

The 24 port switch is high end, I'll post the model tomorrow.
said by makarov380:
Hey dsl_sutra, I had the same problem, too (see page 1). Turns out the Linksys does not like my cnet switch. Once I plugged it into my Linksys 8 port, life was good. I have backed up my system (70gb image) in a couple of hours. That is the same as local storage. I bet you are having "switch hating" problems. It might be fun to track this. I have a Nortel Rack mount switch that I want to test, since it will be my official house switch.


SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

They had me hook my computer directly to the device and it fixed my problem right away.

Where did you buy this dual bay enclosure?
makarov380
join:2004-03-29

makarov380

Member

I didn't do a lot of price shopping, but scsi4me.com has one for $215 decked out. It includes the sohotank U7-2-B2 enclosure and 2 drive cages. I have not bought one; little rich for me, although it is very cool looking. I am going to try the DIY enclosure to see how small I can get it.
dsl_sutra
join:2003-12-25
united state

dsl_sutra to SquareSlinky

Member

to SquareSlinky
Update to previous post:

The network storage link did not work with 24 port 3com dual speed 500.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

I have a Plumax external enclosure right now. It is small and works well. My concern is that the device is not cooling the drive enough because it is tight around the drive. I bought a Kingwin DIY case the other day because it has 3 fans and a little room for airflow and is still pretty small. I will let you know how it works out.

The SOHO Tank is a little to steep for me also.

KWM
@citicorp.com

KWM

Anon

I have not had any success formatting my Iomega 120 GB USB/Firewire drive through the NSLU2 setup or web browser utilities. I always get "Format Failed".

I called India (Linksys Tech support) and they COULD NOT TELL ME what file system it uses. After 20 minutes on hold, "Jim" said he "thinks it is Linux based" but could not tell me if it was EXT2 or 3. I used Partition Magic to format the drive as EXT3 and it still was not recognized by the NSLU2 and using the format utility again failed.

Anyone have any ideas? Linksys Tech Support is no help.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

You have to plug your computer straight into the device. You configure your machine as if it was using that device to connect. Then you can format the device.

Call back and get to a level 2 support person. They will walk you through it. It took about 5 minutes. I had to do the same thing, and it worked fine after that.
KWM4
join:2004-07-01

KWM4

Member

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

CBR600RR
@ntl.com

CBR600RR to SquareSlinky

Anon

to SquareSlinky
Any one know /or/ checked if it will work with a USB EXT CDrom unit. Or is it only Hard drives.
Would be nice to have one HDD & one CDrom drive pluged in.

If anyone managed to hack into your network they could not delete/write/ or mess anything up on a CDrom drive !!!

Cant find any one in the UK selling this (Sob Sob)....
makarov380
join:2004-03-29

makarov380

Member

I would guess that a cdrom would not be allowed because if the Linksys is running Linux, you would need a way to modify the fstab file to mount a cdrom file system. I would guess that the fstab is locked; that is why you have to format everything with the device.

SquareSlinky
Premium Member
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL

SquareSlinky

Premium Member

I picked up a Kingwin EXSHUTTLE 2000 for my drive. It only holds 1 hard drive, but it is a lot cheaper ($60) than any dual bay that was found. And it keeps the drive very cool, because it is aluminum, has extra room in it, and has 3 fans. I transferred a 26mb file in 5 seconds with it.

I am going to buy another for my second drive this week.

I also read that it is possible to use this for file sharing over the net with port forwarding. I have not tried it yet.

The NSLU2 is working for exactly what I wanted it for.

stupidrsx
@bna.bellsouth.ne

stupidrsx to SquareSlinky

Anon

to SquareSlinky
I have the nslu2.
Its plenty fast. I believe it to be faster than my hd. If you have having speed problems dont blame the nslu2.
First, make sure it is negotiating 100 full if its on a fast ethernet switch. If its on a hub make sure it is negotiating 100 half or 10 half if your hub is plain jane ethernet. Most of the serious speed issues i see are caused by duplex mismatch. This is when the device such as the nslu2 and your " switch " dont negotiate the same media settings. I use a cisco switch and therefore i am able to check this by logging into the switch. If you dont negotiate the same settings then you will get abou 7-10K throughput. I have seen this happen a lot with both consumer level and pro level gear. The difference is the pro level gear ( cisco etc ) has the ability for a knowledgable person to log in and check the settings.
The linksys does use tcp/ip, it uses samba or something similar as you have to have windows file sharing. IMHO this is way better than most personal or soho nas devices as you dont have to load a driver for your OS. As long as you have client for ms windows installed you are golden.