Macs as external drives?

[tray]

Fellow Mac users,

I have an Intel iMac (late 2006 edition) 2.16C2D that comes with the standard 250GB HDD.

Because I am using an iMac, the non user-upgradability forces one to resort to external drive solutions. In the past, when my storage requirements were lower, 1 or 2 enclosures each housing a single drive would suffice. However, I realized that as my storage needs grew, I could not continually add more drives via enclosures each housing an individual drive.

I wondered, what if I got an old Mac tower with Gigabit ethernet. I checked that PowerMac G4s released since July 2000 come with Gigabit Ethernet! I would slot in the HDDs then connect it to my Mac via an ethernet cable. Correct me if I am wrong, but the transfer speeds would even be faster than FW800!

However, this is different from a ‘pure’ external storage solution, I think.

Currently, I am able to mount external drives connected from my Mac (formatted in HFS+) from other Macs via administrator privileges in the household wireless network with AFP.

Can I still mount the drives from the old Mac tower connected to my iMac from another Mac in the household?

I think they can’t because the Mac in the household and my iMac are connected via the wireless network but the iMac and the old Mac tower are connected via their own small LAN?

Thanks!

 

[tray]

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[livingfortoday]

I actually currently have a G4 Sawtooth which I've filled with hard drives and is hooked up to my wireless router. I can access it from any computer in my house (well, very small apartment), and use it as a file server that way. My router's pretty useless, so it's no good for wirelessly streaming video, but it's great for audio, and when another computer is hooked up to it with a cable, it's great at video too.