Heya guys. LaCie have desktop and rack mountable ethernet hard drives available (you can plug them into your network direct with ethernet port).

Sounds pretty cool. But they are way more expensive than the standard Firewire or USB 2 variants. Do any of you actually know why you would use one of these suckers? Wouldn't it act like a file server without any advanced security that a hard drive connected to a server computer would offer? My guess is that multiple servers could use them - sort of like a mini Xserve RAID. Am I off the mark?

Its basically a mini NAS (Network Attached Storage), although, the only purpose for this would be a small home or office that wants to share files without the added cost of a dedicated server. I assume the software would allow for some level of security, otherwise its kinda pointless.

They run embedded Windows XP I believe.. and just do netbios over TCP/IP for sharing. Basically a simple samba type sharing. I honestly dont know why they used embedded windows. They should of used some cut down linux with samba, like some other firms did.

Download the manuals and take a look. Bit expensive I must admit.

Agreed. The fact that they had to license commercial software surely would have added to the manufacturing costs.