LaCie Ethernet Disk

[cwright]

I'm looking to replace a SNAP! Server in our journalism lab at school. We had a SNAP! Model 2000 that had 2 mirrored 40GB drives, and one of the drives failed. It is out of warranty, and Quantum cannont replace only the drive (and warned that if we try it ourselves it could cause problems–is this true or do they just want me to buy a new unit?).

Anyway, they quoted the cheapest replacement server is their 320gb model which is $1299–way too expensive. So, I've been looking for other options.

So far, the best thing I can find is this LaCie Ethernet Disk:
http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?affid=305&item=839993
It's much cheaper and seems like it would do what we need. It has a 160 GB drive, which is more than what we need, but it appears to not have the ability to set up a RAID mirror since there is only a single drive and no room for a second. I'm not sure if this is a big deal or not.

If purchased, this ethernet disk would be for a high school's journalism lab, connected to about 18 iMacs through a new LinkSys Switch.

Can anyone let me know if this particular drive would work well as a replacement server/NAS for us? or if there is a better/cheaper solution?

Thanks!

[wordmunger]

I'm not at all an expert on this, but I'd be concerned about running a windows server in an all mac environment -- mainly due to virus concerns. Another approach would be to buy a Wal-mart lindows computer (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2592740&cat=96356&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A96356#long_descr) and adding your own hard drives. You could install any Linux distro you wanted, and you'd have less worries about viruses, etc.

[cwright]

I've never heard of a Lindows system, or how to set one up as a server for a Mac Lab, but I'll look into it.

On LaCie's website, they say that the Ethernet Disk works on the Mac OS as well. Besides, I thought all network equipment (switchs/hubs/servers) were all cross platform? :confused:

Are you sure that the LaCie server wouldnt work well? If not, could you explain in more detail how to set up a Lindows box as a server?

Thanks

[blodwyn]

If you've never heard of Lindows (now called Linspire) then I'd say it would be beyond an email reply to tell you how to install and configure a Linux server. It's not that difficult, but there is a learning curve to go through and supporting it might be tricky if you're a Linux newbie.

Just a thought - have you thought of installing an external drive on one of the iMacs and sharing it with the others? This is probably the cheapest solution, but would need the iMac to be powered up, and I'm not sure if the speed would be good enough. May work for you though.

[cwright]

actually I currently have the internal drives of our two newest iMacs (17" flat panel) set up to be shared on the network (one for newspaper, one for yearbook) as a temporary solution until we get a new server. It works out OK, but is not as fast or convenient as an ethernet disk to be shared through the switch.

The newspaper adviser wants to be able to control the server functions through a web browser (like the SNAP! server did) and be able to set up seperate logins for yearbook and newspaper kids to keep the files for both publications seperate. Is there a way to setup a shared external drive to work like this? :confused:

Thanks