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can anyone recommend a good/affordable NAS drive with wifi and usb connectivity? it's a jungle out there ...

i plan to attach the drive via usb to my wii and transfer files via wifi.

i don't recommend any "NAS Drive". they're crippled technology.

I have a http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ (8W power consumption) with WindowsXP attached to my network. 3 usb ports, wifi and flexible to do or hookup anything i want to it.

well, for connecting it to the wii i'd need something that shows up as a usb drive

Those NAS-boxes USB connection is not for using it as an USB mass storage device, but to connect extra USB devices to the NAS.

Even if the NAS would export it's drive as USB mass storage, the Wii couldn't use it anyways, those NAS machines often run Linux or *BSD which filesystem can't be read by the Wii.

ok. so i should go for a straight external usb drive instead?

depends how you wii is able to reference files. if it works well with tcp protocal for saving files and such, you might want the NAS. if not, get a USB. I have no idea about how the wii operates tho.

evil is not saying you cannot use a NAS with it, he is just saying that network drives are not registered as USB devices over a network.

rasmus: Yeap I think so. You have to get your ass off the couch and move the drive from the Wii to your computer to copy things to it.

button: no I said that a NAS-box will not function as a USB mass-storage device even if it has a USB connector. The USB port is for attaching other devices (USB HDD, printers..) so they can be shared over the network as well. And even if it did function as a USB mass-storage as well as a NAS, the filesystem would mostly likely be ext3/4 or UFS, and I would eat my boots if the Wii supported that :-)

youre right.

i misread op. :) i thought he was wanting the drive to showup as a usb device on his Wii via the network. but then that wouldnt make sense.

button, btw. the nas systems i've looked at are all mini-pc's as the one you described. they are mounted with some variant of linux with network and sharing capabilities.

yep, last time i looked into them that's what they were, with web interfaces that offered limited hardware and configuration options...but usually enough for their purpose (serving files). i just like the flexibility to play with lots of different services (apachi, ftp, media servers, etc) and install what i choose easily. but if you simply want access to files than i guess they are fine. :o

rasmusm watcha wanna use it for anyways? play your "backups" or watch movies?

latter is easy. Mplayer CE can access SMB shares, therefore a NAS is a better option. for games you need USB tho.

(that said, i don't have any good experiences setting SMB shares up. should have saild "should be able to access" on second thought)

thanks for the inputs - i think ill buy a new usb drive then :-)

rasmus - if you've got a decent router (pref. wifi with a usb plug) get yourself a usb hdd, plug it in & you should find a setup in your routers page to share the drive. Works a dream, you chose your filesytem, setup your own partitions etc.
That's what I ended up doing after a SAN fuckup (corrupted proprietary filesystem) - all my mp3's (back to 1997, remember audiogalaxy?!), photos the works. Either way good luck.

FWIW, like kesley said, I have an ftp server running whenever I want to watch something, and mplayer ce connecting to it and playing the files. Works brilliantly.

and when in times of need, you can run FTPii on the Wii for your networked file-upload needs. it's VERY slow tho.