The most common types of access points are called wireless routers or cable/DSL routers. A Linksys WRT 54G is shown below. The most common use for this type of router is sharing an Internet connection.

Wireless Access Point Router Outer Shell

The main external parts and ports of a wireless access point router are described below.

Reset Button – this button resets the configuration of the wireless router. In addition to any custom wireless settings the admin password and IP address of the device gets reset.

WAN Port – this port connects to the cable/DSL modem that is provided by the Internet service provider. Or connect to a corporate LAN port.

LAN Ports – these ports provide wired access to the network and Internet connection.

Antenna – these antennas amplify the signal from the 802.11 wireless radio that is inside the enclosure.

Wireless Router Autopsy

To better understand the various parts of a wireless router (LAN, WAN, wireless card), shown below are the internal electronics of a first generation Linksys WRT 54G cable/DSL router.

Wireless Access Point Router Network Architecture

Wireless access point routers are a combination of a wireless access point, multi-port network switch, and an IP router. The router portion is a three-port/interface router (eth0, eth1, eth2). The LAN switch ports and wireless access point are connected to two ports on the “router” and are bridged together (br0) as a single LAN segment. Network traffic is routed between br0 and the WAN port (eth1).

Newer Single Board Wireless Routers

Current wireless access point hardware has evolved into a single board design where the wireless card is integrated into the board.

Also, newer designs may have multiple wireless cards and additional ports like USB or printer ports.

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I purchased this drive back in April 2007 even after reading this post where the author had bad experiences with multiple drives. As stated in my first post about the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II, I liked the features of the drive and the price was right so I went ahead and purchased the drive from Costco knowing that they have a lifetime return policy on all products in store or online (since then they have changed policy to 90 days from purchase date for computer products and accessories).

I’m happy to report that I don’t think that the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II sucks.

My environment is Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista and I use drive via USB connected to a Adaptec USB hub. I don’t have a Mac and have never tried to use this drive with a Mac. I don’t why I have had better luck than others with this drive (knocking on wood) but below are some things I do/did that may have helped.

Reformatted to NTFS and Changed to RAID 1

This is the first external RAID capable drive I have owned. Normally, I would just plug a USB capable drive but I wanted to make sure I had RAID 1 setup correctly so I read the directions and followed the Quick Install Guide. I’m glad I did because this drive ships with RAID 0 and HFS+ file system and needed to be reformatted for Windows and RAID changed to RAID 1.

1. Install RAID Manager software
2. Connected drive to PC
3. Changed to RAID 1 (comes shipped with RAID 0 and HFS+ file system)
4. Ran Windows Disk Management Tool
5. Intialized Device
6. Partitioned and formatted drive (NTFS)

A full format took over an hour.

UPS Power

I have used an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with the drive and I would guess it hasn’t been powered cycled more than a dozen times since it has been installed. Not sure how much of a difference this would make but it doesn’t hurt to use UPS power for any computing device with storage disk or moving parts.

Better Cooling

Anyone that has this external disk would agree that even during normal usage the air the is forced through the top vent is very warm (almost like a place heater). I copy huge files to/from this device almost everyday (1Gig + at a time) and noticed that my device was getting very hot. To help circulate air, I added rubber feet to bottom vent. Again, not sure if this is needed but with computing devices cooler is better.

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I would love to own a network attached (NAS) appliance from Iomega or other vendors that supports multiple RAID options but don’t have the budget for this type of solution.

I also considered using Amazon S3 but the reoccuring charges for storage and bandwidth usage fees are too high. Another option was to use my existing webhosting provider to store my files but I decided against this option for security reasons. Plus, I prefer to have access to my files instantly, even when I don’t have an Internet connection.

After some research, I purchased a Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II. At sub $400, this device fits my budget and to meets my requirements.

• High capacity (RAID 0 at 1 TB)
• Redundancy (RAID 1 at 500 GB)
• External drive (USB and Firewire)

I followed the Quick Install Guide and did below.

1. Install RAID Manager software
2. Connected drive to PC
3. Changed to RAID 1 (comes shipped with RAID 0 and HFS+ file system)
4. Ran Windows Disk Management Tool
5. Intialized Device
6. Partitioned and formatted drive (NTFS)

A full format took over an hour. I now have about 500 GB mirrored drive (RAID 1) ready to store all my files. I can easily fill entire 500 GB but plan to clean up a few things and try to get that number down to 200 GB.

Hopefully, my experience with this device will be positive and not suck.

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