I'm thinking there has to be ab open source/linux version of a software package that will allow me to take a currently unused PC box and make it a NAS.

That's right, I don't want to run windows server, or any other server for that matter on this box, that's more than is needed and more of a headache for me since NO ONE else can admin a computer in my office (I'm the Communications person, and apparently defacto IT guy too).

I'd love a Buffalo, but considering we've got at least two PC boxes lying around, I think it's a waste of money at the time. All I want to do is turn the box on, attach it to the network, and let it function as a NAS. I'm figuring that NAS's have to run some sort of software package, so there's got to be someone that's come up with an open source version to do exactly what I want.

The office is 4 PC's and one Mac. And all it has to do is have one HD that is accessable to everyone on the network as a mountable (or findable for windows XP) network storage device.

Can anyone/anything help me?

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...

You could try something like the package available at www.naslite.com

Note that there isn't any user-level security with NAS Lite, but it looks like that's OK in your environment.

No firsthand experience, was poking around looking for the same thing a couple months ago. I think if you google "free NAS" you'll probably come up with a couple potential setups as well.

This just in:

[www.freenas.org]

Build your own NAS in under 1 hr.
source: digg
posted: 2006-01-19 05:39:32
Based on FreeBSD and M0n0wall. Live CD easy to install and configure. Supports booting from CD, Hard Drive, USB, and Compact Flash. Support for samba, FTP, NFS, and software RAID. Gather up your extra hardware and setup a NAS in under 1 hr.

From Diggdot.us : [diggdot.us]
An ADHD RSS combo of
* [digg.com]
* [slashdot.org]
* [del.icio.us]

Enjoy!

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=DH
Donkey (Ye Olde Farte of ye Internette) Hotay is a Tilted Windmill® enterprise.