LaCie Wireless Space takes on Time Capsule with UPnP, more
updated 08:40 am EDT, Thu September 16, 2010
LaCie Wireless Space merges router and NAS
LaCie today became one of the few to follow Apple into the combination of a router and network-attached storage by launching the Wireless Space. Like the Time Capsule, it can share both an Internet connection over 802.11n Wi-Fi and to three Ethernet-linked computers, though with more sharing features. The NAS can serve content to other devices with DLNA or UPnP as well as serve as an iTunes host for a device like an Apple TV.
The disk is eligible to be used as a Time Machine backup by Mac owners and has two back USB ports and one front to add more storage, although support for printer sharing over the link isn't known. LaCie's unit is mostly limited by its dependence on single-band 802.11n instead of the Time Capsule's dual-band wireless support.
Versions of the Wireless Space will come with 1TB or 2TB of storage and start at $230. Shipments should start in October.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
Which File System?
I've set up some clients with Western Digital and LaCie NAS RAIDs. They work well, but there's a problem with whatever file system the drives use and incompatibility with common characters in file names that we Mac users take for granted. Everything but colon and backslash is the norm, but even file names peppered with periods, instead of spaces or dashes were a problem. Truncated file names were common.
I had to spend days with a file renaming utility changing characters, so they could be copied to the drives. This was a major pain in the a**! Worse was trying to force file naming offenders to change their ways: NOT to insert periods everywhere.