Linksys NSLU2
About the NSLU2
The Linksys NSLU2 is a lovely little NAS storage server with 2 USB ports and an Ethernet LAN port. You can attach two USB hard drives to it and connect it to your network, and use it as a file server.
Or you can download alternative firmware, run a customised version of Linux on it, and use it as a mail server, a torrent server, a print server, a web server, and more.
It supports NTFS, USB hubs, and flash drives. It’s silent, draws no more than 10W of power, runs at 266MHz, and is the size of two Weetabix.
And it’s known as a Slug.
Full details, including the data sheet, user guide and firmware, can be found over at the Linksys website, and some information is available at Wikipedia.
The NSLU2 is now discontinued, but don’t let that put you off – this will only really affect you if you need to return your Slug for replacement under warranty. Flashing your firmware voids the warranty (as does making hardware modifications, which a lot of users seem to do), so its discontinuation seems hardly relevant.
Opinion seems to be divided on this issue, with a few differing viewpoints given on Paul Hutchinson’s blog. Regardless, I predict the NSLU2 will maintain a cult following of users and developers for quite some time.
I have a 250GB USB hard drive on which I ‘back up’ different types of media that I regularly use with my PC; MP3s, images of magazine cover disks, images of game disks, images of all the software I’ve ever bought. And, of course, all the license keys and serial numbers. That way, I can archive (throw away) the CDs and their cases, and use virtual drive software to mount the images. I don’t have to keep dozens of otherwise useless software boxes lying around, I don’t have to keep changing CDs to play games, and everything is there at my fingertips.
Last night I discovered Windows XP will happily install onto a USB hard drive.
Without warning.
Well, I claim “without warning”, but I think I really mean “the warning was there, but I knew what I was doing so I ignored it”. Yes, that’s what I mean.
After having finally transferred all my stuff to my new PC, it was time to rebuild my old one and give it to Charlie, as promised. But a series of events conspired against me–including my failure to disconnect the external drive–and the Windows XP installer didn’t recognise the RAID array; so it decided to install on said USB device instead.
The drive was nearly full, and I lost it all.
I suppose it buys me some time before I have to decide what to do when the drive runs out of space.
