Storage/backup/network questions?

[KatyMac]

Currently I have 2 laptops

One is on all the time (no battery in it) & I have the printer & a separate hard drive plugged in & I can use the files & send stuff to print from my other laptop

The other is on or on standby during the day and switched off at night

So in a effort to reduce electricity......

Could I turn off the printer & 1st laptop?

I could use a memory stick to transfer files back & forwards to the 1st laptop & use the ext as a back up (should I get a second because then I could back up to H/D1 first week & h/d2 second week then on third week go back to h/d1?)

I would have to walk to printer & turn it on when I need it or send stuff to print & it would be held until I turned the printer on and the whole catch would be printed

Is there anything I am missing?
Is there a better way?

[KatyMac]

I do (sorry forgot to say) & printer too (& battery charger & phone charger& keyboard &I am working on a way of turning the TV/Vid/sky off at the wall without crawling)

[KatyMac]

That is nice - does it have a long lead?

How do megabytes compare to gigabytes? I get lost o sale (I am shopping for my memory stick)

[KatyMac]

Should I also unplug my wireless box?

[KatyMac]

Yes but only when they are both on

So If I turn one off I want all my docs in one place (memory stick?)

[KatyMac]

What wirelessly?

Do I need 2? for backup?

[KatyMac]

Any other ideas?

[KatyMac]

Well I could do

I have an external h/d which I can carry around - I have been using that instead of using the laptop h/ds

So I should have it on each laptop & on the hard drive

[MrVibrating]

Other solutions?

I have one of these which is plugged in to my wireless router so it is available to any computer attached directly or wirelessly to my home network (you can even configure it so it is accessible from the internet).

They cost about £100 for the 500GB version, which is more expensive than a simple USB hard drive but it does a LOT more. The drawback is speed - backups run about 10%-25% of the speed of a USB drive. You can pay more for faster versions - google for Network Attached Storage (NAS) which is what these devices are called.

The next step up in sophistication and cost is a Home File Server. Make yur inner geek happy with one of these, although shut the door and it even appeals to non geeks! Guess what's on my Christmas list.

[KatyMac]

So would anything solve my printer issue?

Ie Laptop connected to printer is off so I can't print?

[MrVibrating]

Yes, the thing I linked to has a built in print server so it might solve that as well.

Having said that I don't use the print server on mine so I don't know how well it works. As it happens I have a borrowed printer sitting on my desk at the moment which I will try hooking up to it - I'll report back.

The best solution though is a printer designed to attach to a network - these are a bit more expensive than basic printers: look for 'Ethernet' in the printer's specification.

[KatyMac]

I have this one

I am guessing it hasn't got ethernet....

[MrVibrating]

Yeah, the print server seems to work OK, set-up fairly obvious too - at least from a Windows PC which already had the right driver installed.

I

[KatyMac]

I don't think DH will let me have anymore 'toys'

So I could sneak a memory stick in...but not a very expensive box

We are trying to cut our expenses.....& electric

[lurkingdad]

If you get one of these you can connect the usb hard drive to it instead and it will leave it on the network all the time, not using much power. two hard drives a hub and the nslu2 consume about 35w of power. Although it does need to be network cabled. Depending on how techie you are you can use this site to change the firmware and you can configure it as a print server as well for USB printers. I upgraded the firmware and it was pretty simple, but I've never done the print server part (although need to as my print server has just died)

This is an alternative for a print server but pricey when you put the two parts together, when you could buy a whole linux server from ebuyer for £140 which will do everything and more.