Review: Linksys Instant GigaDrive

The Linksys Instant GigaDrive 20 GB ($550 street, a 40 GB version is about $200 more) is a product that falls under the category of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. These devices tend to emphasize ease-of-use as its most attractive characteristic. You simply power up the box and plug it into an available port on the network hub or switch. Usually after about half-an-hour or less it can be up and running and fully configured via a web-based interface. The Instant GigaDrive is no exception.

Physical Characteristics

The footprint of the dictionary-sized drive suggests that it is best used for small businesses and home-offices. Larger organizations tend to prefer a rackmountable format. Weighing in at about 6 pounds, the GigaDrive is very portable and can be placed sideways. The labels for the wealth of LED's are printed as such that it seems the drive should be oriented in the sideways position. I must say that I had envisioned a smaller footprint- but the huge box it shipped in dispelled those notions quickly.

Features

The following are its features and specifications of the GigaDrive:

• Provides 20 Instant Gigabytes of External Hard Disk Space (IBM-DJNA-352030)
• Built-in PrintServer Gives Your Network One Extra Location to Attach a Fully Shareable Printer
• Web-based Configuration and Diagnostic Interface is Accessible from Any PC on the Network
• Can Act as a Stand-Alone DHCP Server.
• Divert Traffic from Your Primary Server to Increase Network Productivity
• Includes Utility Program for Easy Setup
• Built-in Pentium-Grade CPU
• Self-tuning and Self-repairing
• Fully Configurable Administration Features
• Free Technical Support
• 2-Year Warranty

Specs

1. Model Number : EFG20
2. Standards : IEEE 802.3, IEEE802.3u
3. Protocols : TCP/IP, AppleShare**, SMB
4. Network Port : 1 Auto-Sensing Dual Speed RJ-45 Port
5. Printer Port : 1 DB 25 standard parallel port
6. Speed : 10/100Mbps
7. Cabling Type : 10BaseT: CAT 3 or 5 UTP
8. 100BaseTX: Cat 5 UTP
9. Topology : Star
10. LED Indicators : Rear: 10 and 100Mbps Mode, Front: IP, HD, LAN, Status, System & HD usage (10%-100%)
11. Switches : Power, Reset, Uplink

**The GigaDrive works with AppleShare but Linksys does not offer Technical Support for this feature.

Although Microsoft Networking and AppleShare are supported, NFS, a popular protocol for UNIX network storage, is not supported by the GigaDrive.

Installation / Configuration

After connecting the GigaDrive to its power adaptor and plugging in the included CAT 5 cable to my 100 MBit network switch, flicking the power switch on the back of the device powered up the unit. The LEDs lit up and the fan spun with a light but discerning hum. The spectacle of flashing LEDs finally stopped after about a minute, which indicated that the unit has completed booting up. The Instant GigaDrive Setup Utility installed from the CD-ROM took about 10 seconds to find the device. The subsequent configuration (changing IP address, name, time, etc) took about a minute to complete with plenty of disk access occurring. I decided to name the device "gigadrive" on the network. Next it was time to setup the shares and users and the other advanced features- these must be done via the web interface on "http://the_ip_address/CGI_main/index.htm". Once authenticated, options for features such as the DHCP server, DNS, AppleTalk, Microsoft networking, print server, and email problem notification can be configured (see screenshot). The IP address can also be configured from the web interface, but initially it must be done via the Setup Utility.

The web-based Storage Management configuration was very easy to use. Creating new shares and setting user/group permissions was a breeze and quickly I was able to create a share public folder for testing (see screenshot). It was nice to see that quotas is supported to limit disk usage by user (see screenshot). When trying to access the share from my Windows 2000 machine, however, I was greeted with the error message " gigadrive is not accessible. The remote procedure call failed and did not execute". After some troubleshooting, I decided to check Linksys website for updates. Indeed there was a new firmware version out. Upgrading the firmware, which is also done from the web-based interface, from V1.0 R06 to v1.1 R00 fixed this problem. The progress was fairly quick- took only about 45 seconds. I also used the opportunity to upgrade the GigaDrive setup utility to version 1.4 from 1.2.

Instant GigaDrive versus Linux PC

$550 can buy you a lot of PC nowadays. You can easily get a 700+ MHz machine with motherboard, case, 20 GB hard drive, and 128 MB SDRAM without monitor for less than that price. Red Hat Linux sells for only $30 (or free if you download the CDs from Red Hat). Therefore I chose to compare the performance and features of the GigaDrive with a Celeron 633 PC (192 MB SDRAM, 10/100 NIC) running Samba 2.0.7 on Red Hat Linux 7.2. For those of you unfamiliar with Samba- it is an open source software suite that lets you turn a Linux machine into a file server accessible by Windows clients.

As you can see the Linux box is more than four times faster than the GigaDrive. This can likely be attributed in the difference in processing power. Although the GigaDrive is equipped with a 10/100 interface, it's "Pentium-class" CPU is likely something that's much slower than the Celeron 633 from the Linux machine. Despite its slower performance, the GigaDrive's speed is certainly fast enough for normal purposes.

The GigaDrive does offer several advantages over the Linux box. It is easier to configure- setting up Samba with the right permissions and users can be a tedious task. The GigaDrive also takes up less space and consumes less power. The Linux PC does offer better expandability and lower cost.

Conclusion

The Instant GigaDrive is an excellent product for the small/home office where the company wants a plug-and-play file server for the network that is a breeze to administer. Despite its somewhat higher cost and slower performance relative to a Linux PC, the GigaDrive's easy-of-use may well be worth the premium since just about anyone with basic networking knowledge can configure it. And that may well alleviate the need for a network/systems administrator in a small company.