NSLU2 Pitfalls

I’ve been using Linksys products for quite some time now. When it comes to network equipment, I use nothing but. I bought the NSLU2 to use in conjunction with SyncBackSE, (a backup utility that copies files and folder structures from one location to another as a backup) SyncBackSE is also capable of copying files and folders to an FTP location. That’s when I found that the NSLU2 has a restriction to 255 characters per ftp command. That means that when my file or directory was more than 255 characters they could not be copied to the NSLU2. When you add the actual commands in the 255 characters become even less. Nowhere in the User’s Manual dose it mention the 255 character limit. When I talked to tech support, the technician had to put me on hold after every question to talk to her superiors. At the end of two 1 hour phone calls, they could not give me a solution to the transferring problem. At the time of this review the Firmware the NSLU2 shipped with was version 2.3R73.
Another problem with the ftp was that you can not specify what port to run the ftp on. Port 21 was the default and could not be changed.
That’s not the only pitfall about this drive. In order to use the disk tools included to perform scan disk on your drives, you must format the drives using the NSLU2 proprietary file format. This format is not compatible with windows so you can never disconnect form the NSLU2 and connect the drive to a computer for faster file transfer. They specifically say in the NSLU2 user manual, “IMPORTANT: The Storage Link’s format is NOT compatible with Windows. You cannot swap USB hard drives between Windows systems and the Storage Link.”