Ethernet connected External HD enclosure

SandLake

I would like to buy a HD enclosure that connects via ethernet so I can connect it directly to my router and then I will be able to access it from any PC on my network, I have only ever seen USB enclosures, does anyone know of any reasonably priced ethernet enclosures for sale?

Thanks

MercilessKiller

What you are looking for is NAS (Network Attached Storage)

There are a lot of differnet types. I'm looking at Netgears new one which is aboslutely state of the art.

About £100, will accept up to 2 SATA drives (cheap as hell nowadays) and allow you to raid them if you wish (so you have mirroring/backup in case one fails)

Has power management, can be accessed by ftp worldwide, easy back software... just a great piece of hardware...

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/12/review_netgear_sc101t/

Cerro

NAS drives tend to be a good deal more expensive that USB external hard disks because NAS is much faster and is ideal for external backup. You might be cheaper just using an external SATA connection, which is very fast and most USB external HDDs come with SATA connections these days.

MercilessKiller has actually pointed out a SAN (Storage Area Network) which is perhaps abit overkill for the average home user. SANs are mainly used in businesses - SANs have their own OS installed which is only really needed for dedicated backup devices.