Get More Out of Your Wireless Network

Add More Hard Drive Space to Your Network

A network storage drive is one of the best investments you can make in your home network, wired or wireless. You need plenty of space to store all your streaming digital media, after all. Network-attached storage, or NAS, also brings many side benefits such as automatic backups of multiple PCs (with the right software) and password-protected folders for everyone in your home. If the drive supports Universal Plug and Play, devices such as the Buffalo LinkTheater, the D-Link MediaLounge, and the Roku SoundBridge M1000 can all play files stored on the network drive without having to go through your computer. Click here for a lengthy list of UPnP media devices.

Adding NAS to your network is simple: Most NAS drives come with an ethernet connector that you can plug into a free port on your router (nearly all Wi-Fi routers also have ethernet ports). While wireless NAS drives exist, this is one area where you're usually better off going with wires because they afford faster transfers.

Popular choices in home and small-office NAS devices include the Buffalo LinkStation series, the Maxtor Shared Storage drive, and the Snap Appliance Snap Server. For more on such products, see "Net Drives" from the February issue.

You don't need to buy a special NAS drive to get the benefit of networked storage, however. If you already have an external USB drive, you can network it using a Wi-Fi router with USB ports, such as D-Link's DI-624S Wireless 108G USB Storage Router or Netgear's WGT634U 108Mbps Wireless Storage Router. Or, if you don't want to replace your Wi-Fi router, the Linksys Network Storage Link can give your USB drive an ethernet connection.