I have reasonably many electronic gadgets that can go LAN or WI-FI. But how do you share and/or syncronize all your files among them?
Well, between my laptops and my desktop I use Dropbox. A nice way to share files among computers. But what if your HDD on your laptop is not large enough to carry music, pictures and films. Normally you would buy an extern USB HDD and store them there, but then you cannot reach the files from other computers which are not connected to the USB device. Many would say I should use a solution like a cloud with a disc station or something like that.
But my needs are follows:
A mass storage which can be reached among devices (laptops, desktops, iPhone, Android phone, XBox or Playstation).
Has low power requirements and is silent.
Can be reached inside home and it would be nice if it could be reached outside home as well.
Cheap
I have looked around and I have found an wireless router which can share a USB device: D-Link Wireless N HD Media Router. I thought it would be an interesting solution for a simple local cloud solution. D-Link uses a little program called SharePort Plus which mount the USB device to your computer.
Unfortunately is the transfer rate to the USB storage device rather disappointing. The transfer rate was 5.8 Mbps even though the distance between the laptop and the router was 2 meter. The same is happening when I use cable from the computer to the router. Another thing is that SharePort Plus only allows one computer be connected to the device at a time. The last thing was something I could live with.
I have search on the Internet for other solutions and found this video from Synology. I'm not sure if their solution is the right one. I think a disc station connected to my home LAN could the right solution.
What have you done in your home to store and share files among your computers and game consoles?