EtherFast 10/100 Instant GigaDrive (20GB) w/ Print Server [Mo.# EFG20]
Retail Price:
$1,100.00
Online Price:
~$578 [Buy.com]
- Final Thoughts -
The Linksys Instant GigaDrive is the most outstanding SOHO [Small Office/Home Office] product I've seen lately. The price/feature combination is beyond comparison. You can manage this Network Drive with NT Server like features, and it can also serve as a dedicated print server or DHCP server. It will even send you e-mail's to let you know how it's doing!
- Suggestions For Linksys -
Only TCP/IP protocol is supported. NetBUI support would provide much better performance from the unit
Considering this is designed to be a shared drive and the unit is basically a 'mini' computer, there are many features that could be added. (Such as) Many businesses share dynamic documents internally, such as phone number lists and reports. This unit could maintain an e-mail list associated to the users and groups that have access to it. It could easily be made to send out e-mail notifications if a document or file has been modified. This would be a very useful feature.
I'd really like to see a more detailed manual and help file.
There's a lithium battery inside the unit to maitain it's BIOS settings and (more importantly) time stamp. Eventually someone may need to replace one of these and there's no included information about how to open the drive or replace the battery. (They last about 5 years though - I know)
-Good vs. Bad-
The Good:
The Bad:
Price
Very easy to setup and maintain
Very good performance
Built in Print Server
Built in DHCP Server
Easy to use GUI configuration menus
NT Server like administration for Users, Groups and Quotas
Status e-mail can be sent out from the unit
Capacity Status LEDs
UNIX machines can communicate with the GigaDrive via Samba
RedHat Linux OS is very stable and can run for months (or years) without needing a reboot
Almost no noise. It's extremely quite
Can be accessed from the Internet
Configuration/Management utilities and case design are made to make it easy to deal with multiple Instant GigaDrives.
No options of any kind for controlling the status e-mail feature
No option to send a test e-mail to make sure the e-mail feature is working properly after setup
At this time GigaDrive only understands TCP/IP
As far as I know a Novel system can not use the drive
About the Authors: McDougall: Yada Yada Yada - I like long walks in the park and evenings alone by the fire with my computer :) I just started working on a review of a UMAX Router (that's next). It's very similar to the Linksys Router but has a nifty little feature that allows Internet DNS 'forwarding' to a system inside your LAN. You could run "Bubba.com" from an internal system on your LAN without it being connected to a public IP. I'll have that up on Speedguide within two weeks of the completion of this review. Thanks for visiting Speedguide!
