SimpleShare 500GB NAS works great so far with eCS

I just bought a SimpleShare 500GB Network Access Storage device from 
buy.com when it was on sale for $139.95 with free shipping.  I was a 
bit hesitant as to whether it will work with eComStation, but the 
price was about what I would pay just for a drive of that size.  It 
works great so far and was pretty easy to set up.  Unlike some other 
NAS devices this drive can only be accessed over a network.  It lacks 
a USB or Firewire interface.  But I suppose that is why it is priced 
considerably less then other comparable devices.

Of course it includes software for windoze and Mac, but you don't need
it to configure the device.  All I had to do was connect it to my 
Netgear WGT624 wireless router.  The device used DHCP to get an IP 
address, which I was able to learn by accessing my Netgear server with
FireFox and finding the attached devices which was conveniently named 
"SimpleShare" so I could easily find the IP address.  I could then 
access the SimpleShare's internal web server, again via FireFox,  and 
using the advanced configuration, configure it with a static IP 
address and change the password and the Workgroup name to IBMPEERS.  
The initial setup wizard item didn't work in eCS but the advanced 
configuration worked fine for everything I tried.  It has the ability 
to access the device remotely, but I haven't managed to turn that on 
yet.

It comes with a WDC WD5000AAJB-00UHA0 500GB EIDE drive defined as an 
entire single network share.  I had checked previously with 
SimpleShare support and found out that the internal drive is formated 
ReiserFS so this  is a Linux device.  There are 2 USB ports on the 
back.  SimpleShare support told me that only those formatted FAT32 or 
NTFS (Read only) are supported.   I'm not sure if that just means 
official support, or if the device will also use a drive formatted JFS
or ReiserFS as well.  I'm not a big fan of FAT32.  The web browser UI 
allows you to do some basic drive configuration (you can reformat the 
drive) and drive status checking and testing.  You can also attach and
configure a USB printer for network printing.

I was then able to use the command line "Net view" or the eCS
"File 
and Print Client Resource Browser" to find the \\SImpleShare server 
and then I used "Net Use V: \\SimpleShare\Netfolder" to mount the 
drive as drive V:. I'm copying files to it as I type and so far only 
one file failed with an "Incorrect internal file identifier" error.

So far the only issue is that the metal case gets very warm but its 
not uncomfortable to touch.  SimpleShare claims this is normal as the 
device is fanless and the case acts as a heat sink to cool the drive. 
The case also vibrates a little but its very quiet.

All in all for the price, 500GB of network storage that can be easily 
accessed/configured by both my eCS machines and my Macs, I think its a
pretty good deal.    I'm sure it works equally as well with Linux, 
though weirdly enough that OS isn't listed as supported.   I still 
need to try adding USB drives, especially ones formatted something 
other than FAT32.

Mark 

-- 
From the eComStation of Mark Dodel

 Warpstock 2007 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada: http://www.warpstock.org
 Warpstock Europe - Valkenswaard close to Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 

Hiya Mark,

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:25:14 UTC, "Mark Dodel"
<madodelNOSPAM@ptd.net>
wrote:

> I was then able to use the command line "Net view" or the eCS
"File 
> and Print Client Resource Browser" to find the \\SImpleShare server 
> and then I used "Net Use V: \\SimpleShare\Netfolder" to mount the

> drive as drive V:. I'm copying files to it as I type and so far only 
> one file failed with an "Incorrect internal file identifier"
error.

I'd be interested in knowing if Netdrive + the Samba plugin from 
svn.netlabs.org/samba work with this too - I'd expect they would.  
Hint - this would allow files > 2gb in size to be transferred to/from 
the device :)

-- 
Cheers,

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:10:33 UTC, "Paul Smedley" 
<pauldespam@despamsmedley.info> wrote:

-> Hiya Mark,
-> 
-> On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:25:14 UTC, "Mark Dodel"
<madodelNOSPAM@ptd.net>
-> wrote:
-> 
-> > I was then able to use the command line "Net view" or the
eCS "File 
-> > and Print Client Resource Browser" to find the \\SImpleShare
server 
-> > and then I used "Net Use V: \\SimpleShare\Netfolder" to
mount the 
-> > drive as drive V:. I'm copying files to it as I type and so far only

-> > one file failed with an "Incorrect internal file
identifier" error.
-> 
-> I'd be interested in knowing if Netdrive + the Samba plugin from 
-> svn.netlabs.org/samba work with this too - I'd expect they would.  
-> Hint - this would allow files > 2gb in size to be transferred to/from 
-> the device :)
-> 

I was wondering that myself.  I was reminded of this recently when I 
copied a 4GB ISO to a network drive (an eCS file server share, not 
this new NAS) and it was cutoff at 2GB.  Trying the Netdrive plugin is
on my list of things to do.

Mark

-- 
From the eComStation of Mark Dodel

 Warpstock 2007 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada: http://www.warpstock.org
 Warpstock Europe - Valkenswaard close to Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 

Hi Mark

Mark Dodel wrote:
> I just bought a SimpleShare 500GB Network Access Storage device from 
> buy.com when it was on sale for $139.95 with free shipping.  I was a 
> bit hesitant as to whether it will work with eComStation, but the 
> price was about what I would pay just for a drive of that size.  It 
> works great so far and was pretty easy to set up.  Unlike some other 
> NAS devices this drive can only be accessed over a network.  It lacks 
> a USB or Firewire interface.  But I suppose that is why it is priced 
> considerably less then other comparable devices.
> 
> Of course it includes software for windoze and Mac, but you don't need
> it to configure the device.  All I had to do was connect it to my 
> Netgear WGT624 wireless router.  The device used DHCP to get an IP 
> address, which I was able to learn by accessing my Netgear server with
> FireFox and finding the attached devices which was conveniently named 
> "SimpleShare" so I could easily find the IP address.  I could
then 
> access the SimpleShare's internal web server, again via FireFox,  and 
> using the advanced configuration, configure it with a static IP 
> address and change the password and the Workgroup name to IBMPEERS.  
> The initial setup wizard item didn't work in eCS but the advanced 
> configuration worked fine for everything I tried.  It has the ability 
> to access the device remotely, but I haven't managed to turn that on 
> yet.
> 
> It comes with a WDC WD5000AAJB-00UHA0 500GB EIDE drive defined as an 
> entire single network share.  I had checked previously with 
> SimpleShare support and found out that the internal drive is formated 
> ReiserFS so this  is a Linux device.  There are 2 USB ports on the 
> back.  SimpleShare support told me that only those formatted FAT32 or 
> NTFS (Read only) are supported.   I'm not sure if that just means 
> official support, or if the device will also use a drive formatted JFS
> or ReiserFS as well.  I'm not a big fan of FAT32.  The web browser UI 
> allows you to do some basic drive configuration (you can reformat the 
> drive) and drive status checking and testing.  You can also attach and
> configure a USB printer for network printing.
> 
> I was then able to use the command line "Net view" or the eCS
"File 
> and Print Client Resource Browser" to find the \\SImpleShare server 
> and then I used "Net Use V: \\SimpleShare\Netfolder" to mount the

> drive as drive V:. I'm copying files to it as I type and so far only 
> one file failed with an "Incorrect internal file identifier"
error.
> 


Does this device support EAs?

Can you use the "File and Print Client Resource Browser" to copy files

and access previously copied files without problems?

Regards

Pete



> So far the only issue is that the metal case gets very warm but its 
> not uncomfortable to touch.  SimpleShare claims this is normal as the 
> device is fanless and the case acts as a heat sink to cool the drive. 
> The case also vibrates a little but its very quiet.
> 
> All in all for the price, 500GB of network storage that can be easily 
> accessed/configured by both my eCS machines and my Macs, I think its a
> pretty good deal.    I'm sure it works equally as well with Linux, 
> though weirdly enough that OS isn't listed as supported.   I still 
> need to try adding USB drives, especially ones formatted something 
> other than FAT32.
> 
> Mark 

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:19:56 UTC, Peter Brown 
<losepeteSPAM-ME-NOT@ntlworld.com> wrote:

-> 
->  
->  
-> Does this device support EAs?
-> 
No idea, but I doubt it.  Does Linux support EAs?

-> Can you use the "File and Print Client Resource Browser" to copy
files 
-> and access previously copied files without problems?
-> 

 
In F&C resource manager the server is listed.  Clicking on that 
displays the root folders, but when I try to open the Netfolder object
I get a mesage "No objects were found that match the specified find 
criteria", whatever that means.  I can access the drive via the 
command prompt (though using XCopy I got errors on some files saying 
they could not be copied because of an error on the target) but 
nothing shows through the drives object for the drive. Also trying to 
do a mass copy through FileStar/2 using drag and drop resulted in a 
string of error messages about invalid parameters, but the files were 
in fact copied, at least until I cancelled the operation because I got
tired of hitting skip button.

I installed the latest SMB netdrive client.  Creating a new mount 
point (W:), I still get errors trying a mass DnD copy using 
FileStar/2.  Copying just a single directory with 48 files in it 
worked, but I still get a few "Incorrect parameter" messages and have

to press "skip".  But all the files are in fact copied.  

The drive works in the drives objects now, at least for displaying but
when I tried to copy a folder I got a SYS0266 message that the file 
was not copied. In fact the folder was created, but no files in it 
were copied. Copying each file individually I get the same error 
message, but a file with the correct name, but a 0 size is created on 
the NAS.  

Looking at what has been copied so far using XCOPY at a command 
prompt, that looks fine with no errors at all and with correct file 
sizes. So for now it only seems to work correctly from the command 
line.

Mark


-- 
From the eComStation of Mark Dodel

 Warpstock 2007 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada: http://www.warpstock.org
 Warpstock Europe - Valkenswaard close to Eindhoven, the Netherlands: