usb drives

The Ximeta NetDisk is a great solution for sharing storage in a home or small business network without the hassle or expense of a file server or Network Attached Storage (NAS). Installation is simple; hook up the power cable and the Ethernet cable, write down the disk key and write access code from the bottom of the disk, install the driver, and access your drive just as if it were a local hard disk. Install the driver on all computers needing access.

It can currently be set up as having multiple write access if you only have Windows on your network, but if your network is mixed only one computer at a time can write data. According to their website they're working on updated drivers for MacOS and Red Hat Linux that support multi-write capability.

I've not used it with the USB 2.0 connection (nor will I, in all likelihood). The drive also supports aggregation (combining drives into one logical unit for larger volumes) and mirroring (having two disks maintaining identical copies of the data for data safety) with another NetDisk. Both require formatting the disks into the aggregate/mirror.

Data access is what you'd expect from a 7,200 RPM drive over a network--poky over Wireless-B, decent over Wireless-G, and good over 100 Mbps wired. If you were moving large files it might be advantageous to hook it up via the USB connection, move the files, and then put it back on the network.

The USB and Ethernet connections may not be used simultaneously.

I compared this with the Linksys Storage Link which allows network access of two USB 2.0 external drives and/or one flash drive. The Linksys device requires formatting the drives with a proprietary format, which keeps them from being used as "normal" external drives. (USB hard drives are also not hot-swappable on the device, which makes it a little suspect in my mind.) The NetDisk's price was also far more competitive than the Linksys device plus an external hard drive.

This product works as advertised, I use it in the Ethernet mode on a wireless network.

The one drawback - I can enable read/write access on only one computer at a time. Not a true net disk drive, but better than what I had. At least I can have read access on all of the computers at the same time.

Ive had my NetDisk for about 3 months now and i must say, What a great Product! Installation was a snap. Through USB i didnt even have to do much of anything. I did experiance a small issue with Ethernet mode but after talking to thier supurb tech support staff i soon found the issue to be my fault. But after that everything has been great! I would highly recommend this product!