[ale] off the shelf NAS for school with Linux, Mac and Windoz PCs

[Brian Pitts]

Daniel Howard wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with off the shelf NAS units?  Goal is 
> to make integration with all three types of platforms as seamless as 
> possible in a school and allow files generated in any of three computer 
> labs (one with Windows XP, one with iMacs, and one with Centos thin 
> clients) to be easily transferred between the three labs and the 
> classroom PCs.  And cheap and easy for school IT folks to set up, of 
> course...

The disadvantage of NAS appliances is that the manufacturers
differentiate the products by enabling or diabling features in the
firmware. For example, does the school use Active Directory for
authentication? If so, and you wanted the NAS to utilize that, you'd
have to upgrade from the LinkStation EZ to Linkstation Pro.

-Brian