Sometimes a full-blown server is overkill.

GASP! HERESY!

No, really.

Do you REALLY want to spend the time on the phone (and in person) to support a small server for your brother? Your sister?

Let's face it -- in the early 80's it was unusual to have a PC at home. Now it is unusual to have only one PC! And if you have more than one PC, it is VERY useful to share information between them. USB keys are great, but they don't work well as a permanent picture archive for your family snapshots, nor are they a good place to store your large MP3 collection (that presumably you legally ripped from your own CD's).

In the last couple of years, the market has been practically flooded with an ever-widening range of Network Attached Storage devices. What are "Network Attached Storage" devices? Well, they are basically a small server appliance, usually with simplified web based configuration and administration. The hope is that they are simple enough to set up for non-technical people. Does reality match the manufacturer's expectations? Is it really possible for non-technical people to set up and maintain one of these appliances? You will have to read this article and decide for yourself. :-)

So what comes with the Hotway HD9-U2LA?

• the "LanDrive"
• an external AC adapter
• an Cat-45 network cable
• a USB 2.0 cable
• a small "stand" for vertically mounting the drive
• a manual

What else would you need? This is a simple network appliance after all!

There is not much to say about the cables or the external AC adapter - after all, after you've seen a USB and Ethernet cables, and you most likely have also seen a variety of AC adapters.

The drive itself is in a nice brushed aluminium case, with an obvious "ON" button on the front. The button is surrounded by a translucent key shaped window. When the NAS is powered up, a blue LED lights the window. Network activity and drive activity is shown by a red LED.

The back of the drive has a jack for the AC adapter, a USB connector, and an RJ45 connector for the Ethernet cable. Pretty simple, I'd say.

The top of the drive has four thumb screws that are used to tighten the top aluminium plate to the top of the drive. This way, the whole case acts like a heatsink for the drive.