What (in Noddy terms) is NAS?

John

See here

I've just bought the ReadyNAS 2 tb version with the facility to add another 2 tb. very impressed so far.

Gary

NAS = Network Attached Storage, usually a single box on a LAN (local area network)

SAN = Storage Area Network, a collection of storage devices on a very high speed network with a gateway into a LAN.

NAS is appropriate for home use.

Jono

Basically, a NAS is a hard drive that can be accessed via a network by more than one user/computer.

Non-NAS hard drives will only be "seen" by the computer it is directly installed on.

For example, on a friends network I am unable to "see" any files on his external drive. He must move any needed files to his desktop in order for me to access them.

If his external drive was a NAS i would be able to access all of the content.

Now that's a useful bit of kit! Can it be used exclusively wirelessly?

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
For example, on a friends network I am unable to "see" any files on his external drive. He must move any needed files to his desktop in order for me to access them.

Theres no reason why you cannot see files on his external drive - its only a matter of sharing permissions.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
If his external drive was a NAS i would be able to access all of the content.

Only if permissions allowed it.

a much better answer is this:

a normal drive (whether internal or externally connected via USB cable or Firewire or whatever) can only be seen by others on the network when its host computer is running

a NAS drive connects directly to the network by itself, and has the sharing and network connecting functionality of a host computer built into it. So it does not require any host computer to be running to allow for sharing on the network.

nicely described, Jon.

Thanks for all the information.

Looks like a good way of getting a few more years out of my current PC, especially with music and photos taking up more and more space.


SJB