do IDE to network adapters exist? basically what i want to do is have a HDD conncted directly to a network w/o a computer. av had a look around but cant find ne thing

 

never heard of one. you would need some form of cpu to allow it to comunicate with the network - i.e. the hdd wouldn't communicate with the network by itself.

u can get ide to usb adaptors, then you may be able to use a usb thing (like a usb print server) to put between the usb-ide and the network. don't know if that would work.

or i suppose you could multiplex the data, feed it through the 8 wires of the network cable, un-multiplex (or whatever the technical term is) and connect it to the ide cable as normal. again, don't know if this has any chance of working.

Are you trying to use the hdd like a server? Because you could pick up an old PC for a few quid, put a network card in it and you have yourself a basic server...

Tim

 

I have seen the hardware for sale that has a single ide drive and network adapter. One of them is the linksys efg250 and is about 750US or so.

 

think al give up on that idea nd just use USB

 

sounds like you want tech called

Network Attached Storage aka NAS

The device itself is sometimes called a NAS engine

All the big manuf make engines (dell, emc, etc) also smaller guys like linksys, d-link, smc

an engine is nothing more than a simple stripped down computer that runs (usually) an open-source OS like linux or *bsd and acts as a network server... so you use almost any old computer (486 or better) into a NAS engine, which would also be a 'server'

if space savings is your interest, then look into Crusoe or Eden powered mini-itx systems... they're small enough to fit in a shoe box and draw only a few drops of energy.