Linksys Network Storage Link

CompUSA had an item in this week's flyer that amazed me. It was a Linksys Network Storage Link device.

This tiny network appliance connects USB 2.0 hard drives directly to your Ethernet network. You can connect up to two stand-alone USB disk drives of any size, and access them from anywhere on your network. You can even plug a USB flash disk into the Network Storage Link, for a convenient way of accessing your portable data files. The Network Storage Link can also be set up so that your storage devices are accessible from the Internet -- files can be easily downloaded via your web browser. Your files can be available publicly, or create password-protected accounts for authorized users.

Think about that for a second. Not only is it a clever device but it's advertised in the Sunday newspaper. That kind of device was a niche solution even to data centers just 5 years ago.

Here's what it looks like:

The Network Storage Link features built-in disk utilities, accessible through your web browser. ... It will even send you an email message when a hard drive gets nearly full, completely full, or has an error.

Here's a link to the user guide. It just blows me away that this stuff is in the consumer realm.

PS. I had a similar entry here.