Digital Trends

Linksys NSLU2

June 26th, 2006 | by Brandon King

Setup and Use

Setup is very straightforward, except for the configuration we will discuss later. Just plug the Ethernet cable into your router, attach a couple hard drives, and boot the NSLU2. After 30 seconds, you hear a beep indicating you are ready to go. In order to access your files, you need to setup the network identity and IP address. This can be done through a slick browser interface. While the device does support Fat32 and NTFS, most of the more interesting options are only available to the router's native ext2 file system. These include quotas, permissions, and users/groups options. After all your options are set, drives are visible under Network Places.

Copying small files is moderately efficient, but larger files, over 1GB, tend to drag on. Also, the maximum supported file size is 2GB, due to the limitation inherent to the Fat32 file system. Copying 24 files totaling 101MB took 22 seconds, a single 100MB file took roughly the same amount of time, and a 350MB file took 1.25 minutes. A 1.35GB file, which at the previous rate should have taken 4.8 minutes, took 5.5 minutes. There is a simple mod that will void the warranty, which significantly increases the speed of transfers to and from the Slug. The processor is underclocked by default, and the removal of a single diode from the motherboard restores the default processor speed. The difference is very noticeable once the 133MHz processor is firing at a full 266MHz, performing twice as fast in some tests. Keep in mind, though, that transfers will always be lower than writing directly to a PC hard drive, since you are limited to 10Base10/100 and USB 2.0 speeds. There is currently no Slug with gigabit Ethernet support or Firewire 400/800. We performed the un-underclocking mod and have had a stable system for 4+ months. The above speed test reflects the regular-clocked NSLU2 performance.

Drive capacity limits are a little disappointing. The maximum supported drive size is 250GB for each port. What's more, attaching a USB hub causes numerous problems, and is mostly unworkable. The underlying Linux subsystem can be accessed over Telnet and custom firmware can be installed, but again, you risk voiding the warranty. However, even with a firmware flash, the maximum drive capacity is still 250GB. This is due, in part, to the Slug's disk checking and backup programs, which require a certain amount of RAM per MB of drive space. Should the unit power down improperly while using a drive larger than the recommended maximum, you run the risk of irreversibly losing data (as it is limited to only 32 MB of memory).

Linksys NSLU2