Expanding home network - looking for options n suggestions
 

Hey Folks,

Sorta researching my options for expanding the home network. Currenlty it simply involves the following connected to my DLink wireless N router:

Various wireless notebooks (most importantly my Wireless N notebook).
Samsung printer
DLink DNS-323 NAS

Intermittently when fixing computers for people, i'll need to hardwire into the router as well for various projects.

Problem is, i'm looking to expand the network attached storage. Granted upping the size of the hdd's in there currenlty is an option, it'd make it tough to transfer the data over, and would leave me with 2 unused drives. So, I'm looking at purchasing another NAS. I'm open to sugestions on NAS devices if anyone has any.

Requirements:
Gigabit LAN
Raid (striping) capabilities
2, possibly 4 drives (sata)
preferably EXT 3 file system
no restrictions on harddrive size (capacity aka gb)

Adding said device iis going to use the last of my 4 network ports. So, I need the wireless N as transferring data is slow even on the wireless N, let alone wireless G. So, the question is, can I fairly easily add another router into the situation (granted it'll use 1 port on the current router. I guess the second router wouldn't necessarily even need wireless capabilitiles since it just connected to the first, it'd essentially just be there to provide more ports and supply IP addresses.

Can anyone confirm and/or add suggestions.

if you go for your DLink to a splitter (so the DLink has 3 ports and your splitter has 3 ports ) you can do this over and over

You don't need a second router, just an ethernet switch. Staples (or FS, or BB, or your network supplier of choice...) has many to choose from, but if GigE is a must, there aren't quite so many and they cost a bit more.

Look for something like this:

D-Link DGS-1008D 8-Port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch at STAPLES

or

Linksys SD2008 8-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch at STAPLES


Cheers,
--
Terry McG

that'd hook up n provide essentially the same thing, except 8 ports instead of 4 from yoru basic router. I'd still have my router as my primary wireless device with that 8 port switch connected, right?



Anyone have much experience with various NAS devices and whats worked well for them?

Yup, plus a total of 10 'wired' ports on the router and switch combined (2 are used to connect the two devices). Those two switches also support GigE (1000Mb), while your router likely doesn't (it's probably 10/100Mb), but the router and switch will talk to each other fine @ 100Mb.

Good luck!

Cheers,
--
Terry McG