[SGVLUG] Linux capable wireless hard drive enclosure?

[Braddock Gaskill]

Thanks Rami, Dan, and Matti,

After some research I'm giving up on the idea of an all-in-one solution
which has both wired and wireless networking (oh for even one lot of old
WL-HDD's on e-bay, but no).  For wired solutions, that ZyXEL looks pretty
good, as does the GoFlex Home, and both seem pretty hackable, both could
have wifi with the addition of a USB connector.

A very sexy alternative is the Seagate Satellite Mobile.  Wifi and runs
off a battery - you could literally walk around with this thing in your
pocket and be a mobile hotspot reference library.  It runs Linux, with an
entirely insecure telnet port, and some people have hacked it to the extent
of adding software packages to it, but I haven't seen anyone putting Debian
or Arch ARM on it - I expect I would need a "real" distro to run
mediawiki/mysql/openstreetmap and whatever custom Gutenberg viewing and
search web app I'll have to create without too much pain.

I'm intrigued by this project.  Maybe I'll actually execute it.

-braddock

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:15:43 -0700, Rami Al-Ghanmi <alghanmi at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I have been looking into a cheap NAS solution and found the ZyXEL
NSA310:
>
http://www.amazon.com/NSA310-Network-Attached-Storage-Server/dp/B005TJLU24
> 
> A number of different hacks to install Debian on it is available. These
> range from the plug a flash drive and reboot to soldering an RS232
> interface on the drive:
> http://7bits.nl/blog/2012/04/15/chrooted-debian-on-zyxel-nsa310
> http://forum.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=249&t=5145
> http://ixrv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/flashing-your-nsa310-with-debian.html
> http://forum.nas-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=249&t=5145&start=105#p25013
> http://veldmuijz.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/skip-the-laptop-take-the-nas/
> 
> Although it is not wireless, if you have Debian on it you may may be
able
> to configure a wifi usb interface.
> 
> Enclosure + 500GB HDD + Wifi USB = 85.00 + 70 + ~20 = $175
> 
> Rami
> 
> On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 1:24 AM, Doug <dougvargas at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
>> Unfortunately nothing comes to mind with the hardware but just wanted
to
>> say that that's an awesome idea :)
>>
>> Braddock Gaskill <braddock at braddock.com> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >Hi folks,
>> >I'm brainstorming a potential project.
>> >
>> >I need a cheap NAS-like hard drive device with wireless and wired
>> >ethernet
>> >ports that can run some form of Linux (preferably Debian) in current
>> >production.
>> >
>> >The idea is to load it (or buy it with) with a 500GB HD.  On the
device
>> >build web interfaces and mirror Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, the Khan
>> >Academy videos, the full Ubuntu software repositories, Open Street
Map,
>> and
>> >various open source textbooks.  Ship it to the developing world as a
low
>> >cost local library that a small school can pop onto their network and
>> >use
>> >via a web browser.
>> >
>> >Total hardware cost should be under $200.
>> >
>> >The WL-HDD 2.5 circa 2005 is exactly what I want, but it is no longer
>> >made.  It could run Debian, had wifi and wired ethernet ports, and
>> enclosed
>> >a 2.5" HD.  http://wlhdd.co.uk/wiki/Guide
>> >
>> >Is there anything equivalent on the market today?
>> >
>> >Thanks,
>> >braddock
>>