Travel Technology - Is this a good deal - Hawking Nas Attached Networking Storage - HNAS1 - $14.99

After rebate

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10395851&adid=17654&dcaid=17653

Seems to get good reviews. Max of only 250gb drive can be used but still......

I assume NAS means you can just connect it to a router with a LAN cable and it's available on the network?

I got an NAS last week and so far am VERY happy with it, fwiw.

Looks pretty decent. Supports Microsoft Networking with SMB sharing. Using some implementation of Linux embedded within, I assume, since it's using Samba. Get a decent quality hard drive and you've got yourself a decent NAS device.

The FTP feature is nice when traveling and your home computers are off. As long as this device is on and you have configured proper port address translation on your router, you can access your data from anywhere.

Requires $25 MIR. After the Connect3D fiasco where they didn't pay out the rebates and Buy.com also not paying out I'm extremely reluctant to buy anything from Buy.com with a MIR. So if you think that $40 is a good price for this thing, by all means.

Reviews are horrible. Max. 250Gb (IDE only) drive, very slow transfers, loud fan and already people are having their rebates on it denied.

Pros: NAS
Cons: Limit of 250gb, MIR and poor reviews.

I would pass on it.

People, there is no such thing as a free lunch. $25 is a joke - you cant even buy a decent shirt for $25, let alone a piece of computer hardware that is supposed to be the heart of your home audio/video system.

A NAS that can be sold for $25 is garbage inside. Why waste your time on such thing? You need to pay minimum of $200 for a decent home NAS and maybe $300 for a top notch one.

People, there is no such thing as a free lunch. $25 is a joke - you cant even buy a decent shirt for $25, let alone a piece of computer hardware that is supposed to be the heart of your home audio/video system.


Looking at the Hawking site it looks like it's discountinued - could this be a reason for the cheap price?

I've been pretty unhappy with previous Hawking hardware.

Looking at the Hawking site it looks like it's discountinued - could this be a reason for the cheap price?
Even if it sold for $99 originally, that price point itself is still junk territory for a NAS. If you want to minimise headaches and problems you really should begin at $200 minimum and and probably far more.

Maybe we associate these things with like $15 routers, but you really get what you pay for when it comes to NAS. You might fool yourself briefly, but you will just be throwing away money.

Now, at this point, it's on buy.com at $82.24 (w/rebate, $57.24). Nowhere near the $14.99 thread title.

As a rule, aren't we all better served with thread titles showing the before-rebate price, then possibly followed with the rebate?