Network Storage W/o Router - SATA HD Enclosure for my Dorm

My roommate and I have been looking for a way to share a network drive. I recently bought a 250GB SATA HD for my computer because I desparately needed more space. When I go to college in August, my rommie and I want to share that space. Is there any enclosure that will support a SATA HD and still allow two computers to access it simultaneously. I know that this doesn't seem like a network issue but there is the possibility that we would use an Ethernet enclosure and try to attempt some type of NAS set up. We do not have a router and we really just want an ad hoc network. Also, he must be able to access the data even if I have Linux running, or if I'm restarting, and vice versa. We both have Firewire, USB 2.0, and Gigabit Ethernet. Thanks

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hmm don't know of any special enclosers that would do it but you could look out for a cheap second hand pc that supports SATA and set it up with linux or windows and use that as a network storage. If you both have gigabit ethernet get that on your storage box and it should be pretty fast too..

Hope that helps..

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Thanks for your input. I don't think we'll be able set up a NAS box in the end. What if we get an enclosure that has SATA out as well as USB 2.0 out. Will I be able to connect the SATA to one computer and the USB 2.0 to another? Or will I have to attach it to a USB capable router.

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What I would recommend, is that you place the hard drive into one system (whichever is fastest) and network the computers via a crossover cable.

Then both systems would be able to have access to the hard drive, once you set it up for sharing.

I think trying to find a special enclosure and network it as external storage would make it far more trouble than necessary, and they already make such "boxes" but they aren't all that cheap.

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The only problem with this is that you have to have the system with the hdd switched on all the time. If you get a hub you can get a special adapter for a ext hdd to convert it to ethernet.

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Now there are boxes arriving, doing exactly what you want.
For instance, see here :
http://www.cdiscount.com/informatique/disq...ksys-boitier-ip
This gives a usb disk or a usb flashdrive access from any PC on the ethernet (ou will probably need an Ethernet switch if you don't have one.
Another way is this one :
http://www.cdiscount.com/informatique/disq...0&numpage=1
you put your internal disk drive in one slot of the box, and this makes the disk available to any computer on your ethernet network. You still need to have an ethernet network (meaning one ethernet switch and three ethernet cables).

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I'd say the best option would be to go the usual router/network setup and just connect the drive to a third pc, you could get some old ass used pc for like 50 bucks that could do the job, wouldn't need a monitor once you set it up, and you could use it for other things such as a shared printer server or something to that effect, plus adding further shared space would be simple. You could easily get the whole setup going for under $100 and it'd be much better in the long run probably. Seems like buying a special enclosure just to avoid having a traditional network is more effort then its worth, since traditional networks became traditional for a reason, they are awesome

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$100 for a solution based on an old PC.
$100 for a solution based on brand new material. Which solution is the best one ? Besides that, the current NAT devices are base on traditionnal standards for Ethernet networks : Microsoft CICS and Unix nfs ! So, it's the best solution for a team where PC's boot sometimes under Windows and sometimes under Linux.

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