Installing a Network HDD

[dcbaseball1011]

Hello, I am looking into installing a Networked HDD at an office. I have a Linksys wired router providing for 3 PC's and a printer. I use Verizon Online DSL with 1 IP address. How would I go about installing a network drive so all computers could save to it for backup purposes? What additional hardware or networking devices might I need? And where would I need to install the HDD, directly at the router using a hub? I appreciate your time.

[DonBB]

I'm not sure I understand, do you want to put the HDD in one of the machines? If you don't have a server you could do that and then share that drive, but that computer would always have to be turned on.

[Snurfen]

Heres a good little tutorial (http://www.dothill.com/tutorial/) about SANs.
Go through it and then decide if you want to go down that route, or spend about 200 bucks on a western digital usb external drive. You could do as DonBB says and hang it off one pc, if the files are to be shared constantly, or take it around each machine as and when needed.

[dcbaseball1011]

So there is no way to just buy an external HDD and connect it to my router directly? It looks like it doesn't work that way. What would you suggest as the best solution. Would it just be easier to hang an external off a PC and just share it? I'm just using it for backup purposes. I just want all 3 PC's to be able to backup everything to this one HDD.

[DonBB]

If that's all you're using it for then yes, I think that would be the best solution. Either connect to one and share, or connect to all three and do three separate backups. To me, it would be easier to connect to one, share, and run backups on all three computers.

[Snurfen]

Sorry, I misinterpreted your original post - what you need for this sort of setup is a NAS (network attached storage). Easy to use and does exactly what you ask in your last post. I'll edit in some examples when I find some for sale! Google-time for me!

*EDIT* DonBB, my apologies, i crashed over your post there (I'm typing slow tonight - dramatic thunderstorm going on).
Here's a good article on NAS with some comparative tests (http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023970,10004049,00.htm) - sugest you google for some in your part of the world.

[dcbaseball1011]

Awesome, thanks a lot guys. Now if I go NAS, is that a router connection or a PC connection? From what I googled it looked like a router connection.

[Snurfen]

thats a router connection - indepenant of any of the pcs :thumbsup:

[dcbaseball1011]

thats a router connection - indepenant of any of the pcs :thumbsup:

Ok great. Last question for ya, my router ports are full....what do I need to do to add another device?

[DonBB]

Just buy a small 4 port switch and use a patch cable to connect the switch to the router. Then, connect whatever you need to the switch.