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Post by mrmin123 on Jul 25, 2007 12:26:33 GMT 7
I am interested in purchasing a N5200 with the intent to use it as a file server at home, but had some questions regarding its functionality.
Can the N5200 act as a normal hard disk when plugged into the computer? I would much rather avoid having a network drive or a removable drive when I hook the N5200 up with my computer.
Also, can I plug the N5200 via ethernet cable directly into my computer's second ethernet port and have it act as a normal hard disk?
What about if I hook the N5200BR variant to my router, then use its switch capability to provide net access to multiple computers? Would all computers off the switch/router be able to use the N5200 as a 'physical' drive?
Also, I am somewhat confused about the N5200 vs N5200PRO variants. Is the CPU upgrade worth it? Beyond that and the doubled RAM there doesn't seem to be many changes, and while the RAM upgrade I can see being useful, I could match that upgrade with a spare stick I have lying around at home. I think the most 'intensive' functions I would be doing on the N5200 are mass-renames and/or MP3 tagging. I might also mount ISOs and play videos off of it, but I'm not sure if a faster CPU would have help performance significantly.
Any answers to these questions would be much appreciated. Thank you.
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Post by sh0dan on Jul 25, 2007 13:54:09 GMT 7
There is a "USB Target mode", but I don't think it will be faster than a gigabit connection. USB is 480Mbit (and usually below), whereas your gigabit will be... well... 1000Mbit (and usually below).
You can use it as a network share drive, or buy the new N5200 Pro and use iSCSI, which will make it a regular harddrive in Windows.
Why not simply use regular SMB network drive. Works very good and fast. You can assign drive letters to network shares, you know.
A regular N5200(BR) is probably more than enough for you, though you don't get iSCSI, unless you are willing to go into some unsupported beta firmwares.
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Post by mrmin123 on Jul 26, 2007 4:18:40 GMT 7
The main reason I wanted to be able to mount it on my computer as an actual harddrive was because I like the control the windows file share functionality works.
While I would like my own computer to have full access to all the files and folders on the Thecus, I would like to limit access on different PCs on the network. Is this possible?
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Post by spikey on Aug 4, 2007 3:09:07 GMT 7
i am looking at getting one as well but i dont know which one to get, i will be useing it as a media store. which one would work for that the best been looking at the N5200 but PRO has more stuff you can do with it but i dont know if i need it for a media store
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Post by peterfu on Aug 9, 2007 2:06:02 GMT 7
mrmin123: of course You can control samba access to the different folders via ACL: My setup gives me full rights to all shares, whereas other users have no access to some shares, or only read access or full access. This can be done with user based ACL's. spikey: If you need it only for media store, then the N5200 should be enough. I use mine mainly for media storage and have the players (video, music, pictures) which access the files via twonkymedia or via samba. br Peter
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Post by spikey on Aug 11, 2007 3:04:21 GMT 7
thxs for the replay, will the N5200 take up to 5TB
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