Does anyone have any recommendations for which USB hub I can connect to a network? My idea is principally to simplify data backup from several network computers (…and obviously the hub may also have other USB devices attached).
My principal requirement is that USB storage devices on the network (memory stick and/or external hard drive) should be accessed from machines running OpenSuse (11.3) and one running Win2k (unfortunately, I will not be able to abandon Win2k for a while yet). The Hub should have around 5 ports (no hard requirement, but 3 or more would be OK).
I saw one from Belkin, but neither Win2k nor Linux was supported. I guess I might have got Linux to go, but the Win2k support is also a must (:shame:)
> Does anyone have any recommendations for which USB hub I can connect to
> a network? My idea is principally to simplify data backup from several
> network computers (…and obviously the hub may also have other USB
> devices attached).
You could do something like this with a Linux-based router like the D-
Link DIR-825 I’m running openWRT on - but why not just put the storage
device on one of the Linux systems and use SAMBA to share it?
On Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:54:21 +0000, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:06:02 +0000, hnimmo wrote:
>
>> Yes, I thought about that. I wanted to avoid always having to ensure
>> that a linux system was up and running to be able to use the hub.
>
> Fair point. I’d go the router route then, myself, or with a generic NAS
> device.
Something else to keep in mind - just sharing via USB means that you will
likely run into filesystem contention issues - one system allocating
space while another allocates space = plan for corruption. Having an OS
in there rather than just doing raw USB-over-IP means that the OS is
arbitrating access and providing a single point of access.
Multiple devices accessing the same filesystem independently without
awareness of each other is a potential recipe for massive corruption.
Yes, of course, I guess there should be some kind of (server) intelligence in the device. That was in part the intention of my original question: ‘which hardware choices?’
> Yes, of course, I guess there should be some kind of (server)
> intelligence in the device. That was in part the intention of my
> original question: ‘which hardware choices?’
That’s why I’d look at either a Linux-based router or an actual NAS
storage device rather than just a networked USB hub. Chances are good
that the latter isn’t going to handle multiple device accesses well
(though if it did device locking, that would be OK but sub-optimal I
would think).