The net is full of bad reviews about the Netgear SC101 saying that it is a piece of crap. It is, but only if you don’t run XP.
The SC101 is just a nice looking housing for up to two IDE harddiscs with a build-in ethernet port. So if all your computers in your network run XP (because you need to install netgears application to access it) — your fine, but as soon as you have an old w98 machine, or linux, or a sexy mac, then your screwed.
That’s what they say. Well, i set up the SC101 in the basement, and right next to it is a PC that is always on. So i just shared the whole drive from within this pc and whenever that PC is on (and it is always on), i can access the drive. Simple as that.
Netgear is working on linux and OS X drivers, meanwhile this is the only solution.
The Google Summer of Code project turn out a free, open source driver called SC101-NBD to allow the SC101 (and possibly the SC101T) to be used on Linux using Linux filesystems. A Linux SFS driver is not yet available to my knowledge.
Linux should be able to use the Red Hat Global File System to share data between Linux machines in the same way that SFS allows it to be shared between Windows machines. Windows and Linux would not be able to interoperate however.
http://code.google.com/p/sc101-nbd/
I’m in the same dilemma, salesperson promised it would work with Macs
But I wanted to replace the linux fileserver with teh SC101, now the HDs are back in the Linux box, 28MB/s instead of 4MB/s, sacrificing speed makes no sense if I have to keep the server running.
Moin Volker,
why the speed difference? But i noticed that this thing is kinda slow anyways. Well, it’s only for the network at work and to serve Word and Excel files, so i guess it’s ok for them, but i tried bigger files, and it is a nightmare.
Still no beta OS X drivers?
When I bought my SC101 I put 2, 300 GB drives it in… and it has ALWAYS worked fine. Some people say that the device is flakey, but I HAVE HAD NO TROUBLE WITH IT
. The large files can be slow, but it is not a problem. I use the SC101 for my media drive, videos, and MP3s… I even burn from it! No problems.
Never thought I would get a Mac, but should have thought it was coming now that I drive a Honda Element and shop at Ikea… LOL. Well, I have a Mac Mini now and am interested in connecting it up to the SC101. I am a computer engineer and have soooo many computers in my house. My Belkin router has finally crapped out, so I bought an Apple Airport Extreme Wireless router an hour ago… and I am going to see how the SC101 works with it.
I cannot wait for the OS X drivers to come out. Am hoping that with the 802.11n interim wireless standard, that the SC101 will be even faster.
It is important to always check for updated drivers… Netgear has been faithful in rolling out both driver and firmware updates.
Well, here is waiting…. !