Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jun 21, 2010 in
Apple 
Like most people, I have multiple devices that require internet access, however I hate having to run cables.
My main problem has always been the upstairs, downstairs divide. Not wanting to run a cable through the floorboards, I’ve tried multiple solutions from wireless access points, to the Powerline adapters . Now don’t get me wrong, the Powerline mains adapter does work ok, and it’s only very occasionally I get buffering, however I thought I’d give the Airport Express a try.
I have multiple devices which use wireless n, and to be honest wasn’t really that impressed at the speed difference over wireless g, that was until I got the Time Capsule. The Wireless n technology used by Apple is pretty amazing, I went from an average transfer of 4Mb/sec to around 20Mb/sec.
Currently I have my downstairs Xbox360, PS3, and Wii connected to a Netgear DGN2000, which forwards all traffic to my Sky Router via the Powerline Adapters. Realistically I could have bought the Airport Extreme and just used this to bridge the networks, however I like the idea of the AirTunes.
What the hell is AirTunes you may ask, well let me tell you. The Airport Express comes with a 3.5mm jack plug, which you can connect either a pair of powered speakers, or connect to an amp. iTunes then recognises this as another set of speakers, and you can stream music to this output. With it being quite warm outside, I thought it would be a good idea to have some outdoor speakers connected to this, which can be controlled from my iPhone using the Remote app.
As with any Apple product, you just plug it in, and it works ! My MacBook popped up with the Airport utility, allowed me to bridge the network between this and the Time Capsule, and that was it, jobs done !
I gave it a quick test, and I got on average 25Mb/sec transfer speed, which is twice the speed of Powerline Adapters. I plugged in some powered PC speakers, fired up the remote software, and sure enough I heard my music through them ! Perfect !
The only thing is now, I want more of these, the ability to output the same music in potentially every room in the house, controlled by my iPhone sounds an awesome idea, however it may get a little pricy.
Unboxing photos below.
Tags: AirTunes, apple airport express, apple product, DGN, difference, Express, floorboards, house, iphone, macbook, multiple solutions, n technology, Netgear, outdoor speakers, output, pc speakers, Perfect, plug, powered speakers, Powerline, powerline adapters, pricy, quick test, Remote, remote software, software, speed difference, technology, test, time capsule, traffic, transfer, transfer speed, upstairs downstairs, wii, wireless access points, work
Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jan 15, 2009 in
Tech 
I’ve added to my toy collection, I’ve bought (as the title would suggest) a new NAS Drive.
I’ve has for the pass couple of years a 500Gb Western Digital MyBookWorld, which as ….well ok, well, slow, unstable, and over heats all the time.
I had quite a manual process to back this up too, I had to keep a machine on all the time, to run a scheduled task, to sync all the contents on the NAS drive to an external 500Gb hard drive, this was effective, however kind of overkill for a simple backup solution.
btw, the reason I’m so paranoid about backup, is a new firmware came out for the NAS drive, so I thought “OOOO, possible speed increase”, so upgraded, and it fell over Grrrrrr !, you can only imagine the paid and suffering I went though to a retrieve the content from the drive, the rebuild the linux partitions….not something I really want go through again.
Anyway, back to the Acer NAS drive, this drive is quick !, and I mean really quick !! (ok, getting around 18Mb /sec transfer speed, so about 3 times faster that the MyBookWorld)
It’s got an Itunes and Media server which supports Vob files (a god send for me streaming HD content to my PS3.
Currently running in Raid 5 (as raid 10 (0+1) isn’t available, so getting high read speeds, ok’ish write speeds, and 1.5TB of parity backup storage 
It does come with Wireless access too, however this is switched off as it’s connected to my Gigabit network.
| Technical specifications |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
4 x Serial ATA Hard Drives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10/100/1000 Ethernet, auto MDI/MDIX |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Network service protocols |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MP3, WAV/PCM, WMA, AC3/AAC, OGG, AIF/AIFF |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
VOB, AVI, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 V 150 W external power adapter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tags: 500gb hard drive, acer, aspire, AVI, backup, backup solution, backup storage, client, content, digital, disk, drive, gigabit, gigabit network, hard, hard disk drive, itunes, Linux, Mac OS, media server, MPEG, mybookworld, nas, Network, parity, power, Raid, raid 10, raid 5, raid level, serial ata hard drives, server, SMB, speed, speed increase, support, technical specifications, time, toy collection, transfer speed, vob, vob files, Western, western digital, windows, wireless access, X
Dimensions
