external hard drive on the ethernet port (Western Digital))

[AeroBar]

Hi,

I'm about to buy a 1 TB external hard drive that I want connected to my Mac at all times and not have to unplug to connect my camera, iPod, camcorder, etc. to the USB or firewire ports, so I thought about getting the Western Digital My Book World Edition 1TB Home Network Storage which connects to the ethernet port (which I never use anyway.)

According to the blurb on Amazon,

• Automatically back up all the PCs on your network to one central location
• Centralize your photos, movies, and music for everyone on the network to access
• Seamlessly backup and store data from both Windows and Mac computers with best-in-class data transfer speeds
• Stream movies and music to your TV
• Get files from home while at the office or traveling

The only one that intersets me is the third in the list "back-up and store data".

My questions are

- would it be a good hard drive to store video files from a camcorder that I will be editing with iMovie or Final Cut? or would using a hard drive with USB or firewire be better suited to that?
- does it have some kind of password access because it's is a "network storage device" and can that be disabled? (can't find any info for that on line)
- can I disable its "network" function and make it unavailable for access over the internet?

regards

 

[GoCubsGo]

I do stream a fair amount using a NAS drive but I can't imagine that being something I could edit movies and such on. It's hard to say. I would ensure you're wired all the way, computer and everything if you're going to use a NAS drive for that purpose.

You can set the password to none if you so choose. Mine is just there and stored in the Keychain. I access the drive from every computer I have in the house that is on my network. I've yet to set it up so I could have access anywhere (logging into it from another location outside my home network).

 

[Gav2k]

A USB 2.0 allows 400mbs. Fire wire 400 is 400 and
800 is 800.

FireWire is faster than USB due to the physical differences in the way USB and FireWire work.

 

[AeroBar]

I do stream a fair amount using a NAS drive but I can't imagine that being something I could edit movies and such on. It's hard to say. I would ensure you're wired all the way, computer and everything if you're going to use a NAS drive for that purpose.

You can set the password to none if you so choose. Mine is just there and stored in the Keychain. I access the drive from every computer I have in the house that is on my network. I've yet to set it up so I could have access anywhere (logging into it from another location outside my home network).

I'd be plugging it into the ethernet port on the MAC.

What do you mean by "wired all the way"??

 

[AeroBar]

A USB 2.0 allows 400mbs. Fire wire 400 is 400 and
800 is 800.

FireWire is faster than USB due to the physical differences in the way USB and FireWire work.

but would you say that a firewire connection is better to edit video through than an ethernet port.

 

[Gav2k]

Sorry that should have been 480 for the usb2

yes FireWire is better mate. Even FireWire 400 will outpace usb2.

 

[mtc595]

I'd be plugging it into the ethernet port on the MAC.

What do you mean by "wired all the way"??

When you say you are plugging it into the Ethernet port of your Mac, do you mean directly. This will only work if you use a cross over cable and manually configure the IP settings for both the Mac and the hard drive.

A standard Ethernet cable will not work unless you have a router or hub between your Mac and the hard drive.

For video editing, I would definitely go with Firewire 400 min, but 800 would be better. Ethernet has more overhead in the data transfer, so even Gigabit Ethernet may be slower than Firewire 800 for video streaming / editing.

 

[feelthefire]

The western digital world edition does NOT connect to YOUR computer via ethernet. It has an ethernet IN jack that allows you to connect it to your NETWORK so that you can access it from multiple computers. It doesn't do any sort of ad hoc direct network connection.

 

[AeroBar]

The western digital world edition does NOT connect to YOUR computer via ethernet. It has an ethernet IN jack that allows you to connect it to your NETWORK so that you can access it from multiple computers. It doesn't do any sort of ad hoc direct network connection.

Thanks - I saw a review of it earlier that said it could which is why I considered buyings.

Cheers everyone.

 

[paddyhazard]

Just wondering aerobar did you get this in the end as i'm looking at the 2TB one on amazon for the exact same reasons but now i know it can't be connected directly to the ethernet port if i ever wanted to use it as a very quick drive like to do an initial time machine back up or move my whole media collection onto i'm thinking about getting the studio eddition and maybe an eirport extreme to connect it to the router via usb.

Which one do you think will be the better choice as the 2Tb studio with firewire and usb is about £200 on amazon uk and the wrld with ethernet is £200 as well but i won't need to get a new router with usb input though.