Addonics Intros a $55 NAS Adapter for USB Storage Drives

By Alexander Grundner | December 12th, 2008 View Comments

Ever wish you could convert your large external USB storage drive into an NAS server? Well, Addonics says you can easily for $55. Just plug your USB drive to the back of this peripheral and connect the adapter via Ethernet to your router and you’re good to go. The Addonics NAS Adapter essentially converts your drive instantly into a network SAMBA share accessible by any Windows, Mac, or Linux PC. What’s more, users can FTP to their drive as well as use it as a BitTorrent appliance or print server.

UPDATE: Missed this let gem from the product page feature list: “Can be set as a UPnP AV server to share photo/music files stored on the file server with XBOX 360 video game consoles connected to the LAN.” Whoa, Mama!

Related product back in time: Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Link (eBay Search)

Addonics Announces Network Attached Storage Adapter

Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the Addonics NAS (network attached storage) adapter, a low-cost way to add USB storage devices onto a local area network.

Once on the network, USB storage can be shared by any network user just like any NAS device. In addition, the new solution allows users to custom build their own NAS appliance with unlimited expansion and RAID capability by using Addonics family of drive enclosures, port multipliers and IO converters. When used with Addonics storage towers or racks, users can instantly add to any LAN multi-tera bytes of storage with RAID capabilities.

The NAS adapter supports both SMB (Server Message Block) and the open source Samba network protocols. This allows for cross-platform access of all shared data for most versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and various Linux distributions. The adapter comes with a USB 2.0/1.1 connection and a fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps connection.

For remote users who are not connected over the LAN, the NAS Adapter provides FTP access for up to eight simultaneous users anywhere in the world with an internet connection. In addition, the NAS adapter can also be used as a print server or as a bit-torrent file downloading appliance.

Other features include support for fast Ethernet 10/100 Mbps; the ability to power most 2.5″ USB hard drives or any low powered USB storage device; simple installation; small and light weight (about the size of a C battery); support for Samba and FTP servers; and user management that allows read only or read/write access to folders. The Addonics NAS adapter is compatible with all Windows OS, Mac OS, Linux 2.6.x and above, Solaris 9 and above.

List price of the NAS is $55.

Addonics products are available through the company online store www.shopaddonics.com, major catalog companies, resellers, VARs and distributors, including Amazon.com, PC Connection, CDW, Buy.com, Provantage.com, Insight, and Ingram Micro.

About Addonics
Addonics Technologies Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets a broad line of external and mobile storage products. Addonics is headquartered at 1918 Junction Ave, San Jose, CA 95131. Phone: 408-573-8580.