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From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To: "David Gerard" <fun@thingy.apana.org.au>, <questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 00:32:54 -0800
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Subject: RE: Cheap NAS using FreeBSD - practical considerations?
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of David Gerard
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 12:00 PM
> To: questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Cheap NAS using FreeBSD - practical considerations?
> 
> 
> 
> Let's say that, as fine as NetApps are, I can't afford their prices. So I
> set up a FreeBSD box with a whole lot of disk attached and use that as
> network-attached storage, serving files by NFS, with gigabit ethernet.
> 
> Setting up such a box is trivially easy. But what are the practical
> considerations? Have any of you done this, or know anyone who has? 

Maxtor's MaxAttach NAS 3000 products were exactly this - FreeBSD on a PC 
motherboard in a rack mounted case with a web interface to manage
them.  The rumor was that Microsoft got so upset about it that they went to
Maxtor and gave them a free license to use Windows as an embedded OS
for their MaxAttach NAS 4100.

Ted