Lan Drive Suggestions

[boxturt]

Greetings!

 

Short description:

 

Computers: 4 units : 2 wired desktops, 2 wireless laptops

 

Peripherals: 1 printer, 1 scanner, 1 external hard drive

 

I bet you can see where this is going...

 

I would like to be able to access any of the peripherals at any time from any computer without having to mess with wires or having to use one of the desktop machines as a connecting point (current scenario).

 

I have a cable modem and wireless router.

 

Is a lan drive what I need? Or is something else required?

 

I started looking and found this :

h**p://pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=1132&parCat=&Scatn=20&Catn=6

 

I would love to hear from anyone who has experience or opinions on this.

 

Thanks folks!

 

PS (edit) Thoughts on security would be appreciated as well.

Edited May 28, 2006 by boxturt

[flashram]

You need a wireless network print server for the printers I think you can get something that does drives and printers these days. You connect them to that server (a bit like a modem/router) and everyone access through wireless connection, or in the case of the network cable connections through the wireless router. I can't think of what the actual device is called at present.

 

A bit of work to setup and get running without any security problems with the wireless side of things, and everything is subject to how well the wireless signal is sent and received as well.

 

I don't believe you will be able to get the scanner going that way though, that needs to be hardwired to the computer as far as I am aware.

Edited May 28, 2006 by flashram

[TweezerMan]

Windows XP does not support sharing a scanner over a network. You'll only be able to use the scanner with the computer that the scanner is physically connected to.

[stevevan]

I know there are several makes/models of wireless print servers (mostly USB models). As far as a scanner goes, I've never really tried it.

 

For security, you'd want to encrypt and limit access to your network. On mine I've got mine set to WEP, 128-bit with a passphrase that is hard to guess. I'm sure it's not the most rock solid in the world, but it's effective.

 

As a side note, I believe I caught an individual sitting near my house accessing wireless networks in the neighborhood (one of my neighbors has one he just set up). I walked up to a car that had an individual just sitting in it hunched over. I saw a laptop and when he saw me approaching he started the car and left. Haven't seen him again, but I did have a talk with my neighbor over his systems security! Just goes to show you that you never know who's out there wanting to access your system!

[TCH-Tim]

Something like a 250GB Buffalo Linkstation will set you back about $200. It's got 250GB of network attached storage and has 2 USB ports so you can connect more USB hard drives for added capacity, or add a USB printer to make it a network printer. The caveat with the printer of course is that if it's a multifunction machine you will lose some functionality.

 

If you already own a USB hard drive you could get the Linksys NSLU2, which will turn up to two USB hard drives into network attached storage, for about $80.

 

For a print server there is no shortage of options either wired or wireless. Just make sure you read the compatibility list.

 

As far as the scanner goes, I've never seen one networked before.

[boxturt]

Thanks all.

 

I won't worry about the scanner. It's my least used piece.

 

The Linksys NSLU2 seemed like a possible solution but it has a couple drawbacks. No printer support (almost ok) and user must reformat ext. hard drive for use with the unit. Not ok.

 

The Buffalo Linkstation looks real good but again it seems the user must reformat ext. hard drive.

 

Maybe I can borrow a HD.

 

Hmm...what ever shall I do?

 

I shall keep on hunting!

[Madmanmcp]

Why do you need these as "external"...if I may ask

 

Sharing drives is a simple task and if you need it easily accessable you can "map" the drives to a specific drive letter and it will be easy to access on all the computers on the network.

 

The printer is also a simple task of just installing as a "Networked printer" and its easily found in the Printer list of the Print Dialog box.

 

The Scanner as previously mention is not possible.

[chatbug]

It is actually possible to use scanner over a wireless network... at least with HP PhotoSmart 3310. But I think it's due to HP's proprietary software?! Haven't tried it personally, but they claim to be able to do it.

Edited May 28, 2006 by chatbug

[TweezerMan]

It is actually possible to use scanner over a wireless network... at least with HP PhotoSmart 3310. But I think it's due to HP's proprietary software?! Haven't tried it personally, but they claim to be able to do it.

I looked at the HP PhotoSmart 3310 at HP's web site. It's a combination printer / scanner / copier / fax machine. I have a different model of an HP all-in-one printer here at home, and the only function that can be shared across a network is the printer. Based on what I saw at the HP site, the 3310 doesn't look any different.

[Madmanmcp]

I also have an HP All-In-One and I can share the Printer and the Fax, nothing else as far as I can see. What makes the scanner difficult is that you need to be at the device to feed in documents.

[boxturt]

Why do you need these as "external"...

 

Because they already are? wrong answer! no soup for you!

 

It's true though,, the devices already exist and are plugged into my "main" desktop. I can only access files on those drives if that particular pc is powered on and I need to get away from that if it's possible.

 

With summer approaching and temperatures increasing that machine throws off quite a bit of heat and the fans get noisier as it gets hotter. No air conditioninghere either.

 

It would just be nice to be free of the noise, the heat and the wires.

 

I can unplug the ext. HD and put it into the laptop but that still leaves me tied down to my desk and wreaks havoc on the drive letter assignments on both machines.

 

Not like my life depends on it or anything, I just thought it would simplify things a bit.

 

yea, riiiiiiight

[chatbug]

I have just completed a scan using HP PhotoSmart 3310 over wireless connection. Of course, you have to be there to put on whatever you want to scan, but the scanning can be done over the wireless network.

[boxturt]

First off I want to apologize if my previous post seemed a bit um, 'edgy'. I certainly didn't mean for it to sound that way.

 

I tempted to try scanning via the network just for fun but I won't worry about it. I don't scan that often but it would be handy for those times I do.

 

I am now leaning towards getting the Buffalo LinkSatation (buy.com / $169.00 free s/h) but I do wonder about 2 things.

 

Some reviews claimed it's not as fast as it should be but under normal use shouldn't matter. Now I'm not sure what that means unless it ties in to point #2.

 

Some reviews claim it won't play music files over the network without skipping and stalling. With me being a music teacher that won't do. So I tried an experiment but I don't know if it proves anything.

 

My sound files are on an ext USB HD connected directly to the desktop pc, let's call it E. I took my laptop (wireless) and opened several sound files on E and they played from my laptop just fine. Is this the same thing? It's still playing over the network via the router right?

[Madmanmcp]

It's still playing over the network via the router right?

 

If the files are on the USB drive that is connected to the desktop, and you hear the sounds on the laptop speakers or headphones plugged into the laptop...then yes.

[Madmanmcp]

Some reviews claimed it's not as fast as it should be but under normal use shouldn't matter. Now I'm not sure what that means unless it ties in to point #2.

 

I took a look at a couple of reviews...they say its for "backups" and "file storage", storing pictures and printing. If those are "normal" I believe your need to play music files would not fit the "normal" discription. If it will work for you is another question...it might. Reading the sound files and transfering them across the network involve several speedbumps and I'm not sure they will be acceptable.

 

The first bump would be the drive itself, will it read the file fast enough to maintain sound quality. The second speed bump is the drives Ethernet connections speed. From reading the review it mentions that the unit needs to be connected to a hub or router with an ethernet cable...what is the speed and will this affect the sound quality. The third speed bump is your router and its speed, the forth, fifth, etc. bumps will be the network path taken to the final destination of the sound.

[abinidi]

My parents have the following printer in their home office (link to HP's website): http://tinyurl.com/ozmjr

 

We have this printer only connected to the network. (It connects directly via ethernet cable to the house router.) To set it up on any computer on the network, you connect via the printer's IP address.

 

When you install the HP software on any network computer, you have full access to all the printer's capabilities, including scanning.

 

It seems that while Windows XP doesn't support it from the OS, HP has created software that allows you to do it anyway.

 

Works like a charm. My parents love it.

 

One of the great things is that even though you have to be at the device to feed the items to be scanned, you can determine on the device itself where the items will scan to. So you can stand at the scanner and scan any number of items, and then just go to the computer or network drive you scanned to to pick up the .jpg images. Or you can have them sent to any e-mail address. And if you are doing a series of pages, you can have them load in the page loader. Each page is sent as a separate image.

 

It's really sweet.

[Madmanmcp]

For $900 it better cook my breakfast with that picture

[boxturt]

Thanks all, I think I will go ahead and try it anyway. I'll still be way ahead of the game by having a centralized location for files (I can always move music files as needed) as well as a print server.

 

Now I just have to "remind" my better half that she said it was ok to purchase this......

[boxturt]

Just an update (sorry, I forgot) :

 

I got the Buffalo Linkstation. 250gb storage and print server. Final cost = $149.00 (I found a coupon and free shipping) Easy to set up. Streams music files without any problem even wirelessly up to as as my signal will take me. In fact we had it streaming 4 songs at once to 4 different and seperately located machines.

 

Drawbacks:

 

_ one usb port is in the front which is not only unsightly it's rather in the way.

_ it does not restart after power failure nor does it remember what time it is if set for sleep mode.

_ print server seems to only allow for one copy at a time.

_ technical support is worthless, no email or phone response, two things that are supposed to be included

 

Minor for me, pretty much does what I need and I'm not going to roar too loudly because of the price.