LAN Hard Drive enclosure - set up help needed

[popper]

http://www.serialata.org/esata.asp
people might think it would get congested, but mostly only on a Burst, and even then, probably not, as the PCI spec tells you it can handle 155MegaByte/s sustained, and its also DMA'ed so that to helps a lot...

why not just make your linux semi NAS into the gigabit router if its already powered anyway,or even simpler, if you only have one machine able to benefit by a direct gig iSCSI connection , just use a simple extra gigabit card x-over directly to the desktop machine and leave the 10/100 to be used by the slower wireless/powerline machines.

an idea for the more advanced *nix readers to play with anyway....

[dragon]

Don't want it to be the router since I don't leave it on 24/7

Laptop has a gig port so I could Replace the switch with a 1gbit/s one when I get around to it

Network is follows


Pc/xbox360/bthomehub (its been reconfigured to act as a sip ATA)/server/btvision box > 8 port belkin 10/100 Switch

Switch > Powerline (currently 200mbit/s comtrend upa adaptors as supplied with vision, although I might go back to homeplug 85mbit/s as i have a couple and might get a 3rd for the downstairs pc) > Router (voyager 2110)

Laptops and the downstairs desktop connect to the voyager via wireless

Speed to my other computers doesn't matter to much since its only my housemates that tend to use them (well seemed better than just leaving them to gather dust )

Its my desktop mostly, I use the server to store stuff I either want a backup copy of or want to move to storage.

Need to get around to seeing if i can get it to share the printer (I hardly use the printer so haven't gotten around to it yet, biggest pain is going to be the HP driver for XP)