Network Attached Storage Anyone?

[mnmlmike]

So I've seen these for a while but I always wrote them off as I assumed they would be extremely slow.
However the other day I sent a large file to my friends computer that was directly connected via Ethernet
and it was pretty damn fast! (We both had Mac Book Pros) Which made me realize that Gigabit ethernet "technically"
is faster than Firewire 800 no?

Does anyone on here use these? What has your experience been in practice? I play in a Live electronic band that is heavy on visuals
so we have TONS of files of music and video always floating around and we generally are in the same room together. Would this be a good
solution? What about connecting to it via 802.11n still acceptable?

Is it possible to turn all the externals I have into a massive NAS array?

Can any of you guys recommend a good NAS?

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

[iro3]

I've around 4 Buffalo TeraStations in the office with capacities from 2TB to 6TB, all on 1,000 BaseT networking, each containing 4 SATA drives. I've watched the same video on 3 different macs (the same file), with no loss of latency, and regularly view single video files - QT, HD video or DVD on a single machine - usually compressed, with no problem.

For watching a film, they are fine, a constant stream of data, but I do not think they are quick enough for VJ use, with uncompressed video and multiple, rapidly changing files. Subjectively FW800 feels and looks quicker (I use a Western Digital 2TB RAID), though there is apparently a dedicated TeraStation for video streaming which runs a slightly different protocol.

There are also some issues with the mac with the filing system only permitting approved ANSI characters, a real PITA if you have been used to the mac naming system.

But for secure data storage and distribution on a network, they are excellent.