Which wireless hard drive brands are best?

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If you were to go out and buy a wireless hard drive today, which one would you get? If you answered “I don’t know,” then you’re probably just like most people out there today. Heck, most people don’t even know what this is to begin with! Well, if you’re one of those and are unfamiliar, I’ll help you out today. A wireless hard drive is a hard drive that isn’t actually physically connected to your computer. Data is sent over a wireless network, and the hard drive doesn’t even need to be in the same room. All you have to do is sync your computer to it and it’ll back up your data by itself over the airwaves. Pretty fancy, eh?

Well, there are drawbacks to this design. First and foremost, data transfer rate is abysmal compared to the normal USB transfer rate. USB allows very quick data rates, while a wireless external hard drive is severely limited by the fact that each “packet” of information must be sent one by one in sequence. There’s currently no “paralleling” available for packeted information sent over a wireless system. It’s much like your internet: You only get data as fast as your bandwidth allows. The same is true for wireless hard drives. Keep that in mind before you buy.

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The Iomega 33349 StorCenter is one of the most capable and popular wireless drives on the market today. This is actually a hard drive that plugs in directly to your router or switch, and is not a standalone system with its own receiver attached. However, the function is basically the same. Any computer (be it a laptop, desktop, smart phone, etc.) can access the drive on that local network whenever the hard drive is actually hooked up. This actually affords a bit more security than if you were to have it available to the public. Wannabe hackers must first get into your personal network, THEN break into your router. This fixes that.

ASUS actually produces their “Asus Wireless Storage Router,” which operates very much the same as the Iomego, except that the ASUS is accessible to the public, and isn’t actually protected behind a DMZ. This does at least add a bit of ease of use, but security may be a concern for those who require a bit more in terms of keeping their data safe. However, should you not want to use this function, this wireless network hard drive allows you to plug straight into it with an Ethernet cable.

All in all, you can’t go wrong with either of these. Good luck!

Shopping:

HP ENVY 13 NOTEBOOK - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit , Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo SL9400(1.86GHz, 6MB L2 Cache)w/512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 4330 Graphics , 3 GB DDR3, 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection , 13.1" diagonal High Definition LED HP Radiance Infinity Widescreen Display (1366x768), WEBCAM, External Tray Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support with 2 USB Ports , Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth, Envy Instant On Solution, Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, Corel Paintshop Pro X2, Stardock My Colors , 4 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery , HP Color Matching Keyboard
Masscool 640GB MP-1369S HDMI 1080i standalone Hard Drive Multimedia Player w/Wireless Remote - Retail
TRENDnet 1-Bay Diskless Wireless USB 2.0 IDE Network Attached Storage Enclosure TS-I300W (Blue)
HEWLETT PACKARD - HP - TM2T TABLET PC - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit , Intel(R) Pentium(R) Processor SU4100 (1.3GHz,2M Cache) w/Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD , 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection , 12.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED Widescreen (1280x800) with Integrated Touch-screen ,External Tray LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer WEBCAM, Intel Wireless-N Card, Bumptop(TM), DigiFish(R) Dolphin, Corel(R) Paint it! Touch(TM), Megatouch Games , HP Color Matching Keyboard
Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand

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One Response to “Which wireless hard drive brands are best?”

  1. Media Hard Drive on November 12th, 2009 3:24 pm

    [...] do they work? An external media hard drive operates much like a wireless hard drive does; it’s either a standalone system, or is easily incorporated into your existing network [...]

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