Can I use a Gigabit Ethernet connection for ext. storage?

[JesseW6889]

I'm looking for external storage for my iMac. I did some researching and apparantly gigabit ethernet is a lot faster than even firewire 800. It's a 2011 iMac, and I realize Thunderbolt will be faster, but for now...

Is this something that actually works and is faster? What do I need, just any NAS, or what?

 

[FearGhost]

I use a Synology DS710+ NAS for external storage (etc) and get data rates of 80-100Mbps in both read and write. The transfer speeds are dependant on the NAS though as cheaper ones can be quite a bit slower. Make sure you check the specs.... You may need a gigabit switch as well depending on how many devices you have attached to your 'wired' network.