Gone are the days of e-mailing documents to coworkers or passing around a floppy disk. As more business transactions migrate from paper to ones and zeroes, most offices--even small ones--require lots of shared storage. And the more easily everyone can access that data, the better. Networked external hard drives, or network-attached storage (NAS) drives, are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to add accessible storage to your small-office network.
Not all NAS products are created equal. Some are as basic as a hard drive with an Ethernet port, while others sport extra USB and FireWire ports that allow you to daisy-chain drives for extra capacity. Still others offer nice additional features such as FTP servers that allow access to stored data from outside the network and dedicated print servers so that everyone can share a printer. If your small-office network is wireless, you can opt for a Wi-Fi NAS product that combines gigabytes of storage space with a wireless access point.
In addition, most NAS drives will allow you to set various permission levels for users. That way, you can keep the payroll and legal documents on the shared drive without worrying about prying eyes.
Read the CNET editor's take
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