Storage World

Linksys, more commonly known for its wireless equipment, has now entered the Network Attached Storage (NAS) market with the Instant GigaDrive EFG80. Designed primarily for thesmall/home office markets it provides a simple-to manage, quickly deployable storage solution.

The Linksys GigaDrive EFG80 is supplied with a single Maxtor 80GB Ultra ATA/100 drive installed in one of the two lockable drive bays. The additional drive bay can be fitted with any E-IDE drive up to 120GB. This would allow you set up one drive as a backup, giving you some measure of redundancy.

A cut-down version of Linux is the base operating system, although you’d never know it as allthe administration is done via a Web browser. A setup wizard guides you quickly through theinitial setup process and you’ll find the Web interface simple to navigate.

It’s possible to set up a variety of user groups with individual storage quota levels. Additionallythere’s a parallel port connection for the built-in Print server. This is controlled through the administration interface, although the options for managing the print queue are limited. There are a number of utilities to maintain the file system structure and performance and you can schedule SMART analysis on the drives to monitor any potential hardware problems.

Support for more advanced features, such as Internet Attached Storage (IAS) and InternetPrinting Protocol (IPP), allows remote users to retrieve and print files over the Internet via their Web browser. However, while these are undoubtedly useful features, they can also introduce additional infrastructure and security issues unless used within a secure intranet.

Unfortunately the twin drives can’t be striped (RAID 0), which reduces the ultimate performance, although the benchmark results show they would be capable of supporting a small office environment without a problem in any case.

As with all NAS products the main advantage over cheaper entry-level servers is the lower overall administration costs and the Instant GigaDrive certainly provides a simple and clearly explained administration interface.

There’s plenty of competition in this field and, although slightly cheaper than other similar models, there are fewer redundancy options than some alternatives. That said, the EFG80 ease of use will appeal to those with limited time for administration or technical knowledge.

Comments:
Rapid deployment will appeal to those who require a basic file and print server for quick additional storage only.

The lack of RAID level 0 affects the GigaDrive’s performance, however, the performance is adequate for a small office environment of up to 20 users.

Platform support Wizard runs on Windows Vista, 2000 and XP
Protocols support including SMB/CIFS over TCP/IP
Maximum capacity 240GB (drives purchased separately)
Additional services DHCP server, Print Server, FTP server
Warranty 2 years RTB