NSLU2 – little file server which is worth to have

I was using PC for my  fileserver needs. It had few disadvantages:

• noise – very noisy (few HD, fans, cpu,…)  could not sleep in next room 🙂
• power consuption – let’s face it, most of the time it will be just running without any work

Advantages:

• you can install any OS
• applications (samba, VPN, media server, …. )

I have found very nice little piece of hardware made by Linksys called NSLU2.

NSLU2

Little nice HW with 2 USB ports. You can install several firmwares (openwrt, debian, …). Very easy to store and other things.

Advantages:

• small
• small power consumption – with 1 HD about 16W/hour
• OS – either linksys firmware or linux based firmware (openwrt, debian,…)
• applications (few thousands applications compiled for given firmware)
• very silent – just HD sometimes does little noise
• connect any USB peripheral (HD, printer, …. )

Disadvantages:

• could not run windows 🙂
• just 2 usb ports, anyway you can have USB hub and connect more devices 🙂 Actually it has 5 USB ports, but just 2 are open. The rest can be added by this manual.

I have set it up with OpenWRT firmware and have just 1 HD (for now).  I am running:

• samba – fileshare
• rtorrent – to download linux iso images like ubuntu and other things 🙂
• iTunesServer – to stream my music to local network
• VPN – using openVPN to connect to my local network from outside (actually running it on my WRT54GL router which runs also openwrt firmware)
• Asterisk – open source PBX, telephony engine, and telephony applications toolkit
• and many others

Things which I want to do:

• 2/4 GB Flash disk which holds OS (debian)
• 1TB hard drive Western Digital Caviar GreenPower 3.5″ 1TB WD10EACS
• This how-to encrypt HD with truecrypt