Not only does Iomega's StorCenter Wireless Network Storage 1TB NAS ($899.95 direct) offer a full terabyte of storage, it's also got one feature most home and small-business NAS appliances don't: built-in wireless connectivity. I highly recommend Iomega's NAS for its combination of storage and flexibility.

You can configure the StorCenter, which has two antennas sticking out the back, to function as an access point for connecting clients or as a wireless client attaching to your existing wireless network—a configuration option I find even more useful.

There's more to the StorCenter than wireless. For starters, the unit houses four 250GB, 7,200-rpm PATA (Parallel ATA) hard drives with 8MB cache each. The drives can run in a RAID 0, RAID 0+1, or RAID 5 configuration. RAID 0+1, a new flavor of RAID, is a mirrored array whose individual segments are striped (RAID 0) arrays. To put it more simply, you set up two drives in a striped configuration (for better performance) and then mirror them on a separate set of two drives (for redundancy). The StorCenter's 250GB drives, in this arrangement, give you 500GB of storage. The advantage is high data transfer. The downside: You fall back to RAID 0 if a single drive fails. Even so, I think it's a great option. While you can no longer perform mirroring until you replace the faulty disk, you'll still have all your data.

Those who need every last bit of storage space—and who don't mind living on the edge—can combine all four drives and run the unit in a JBOD (just a bunch of disks) configuration. This maximizes storage space at the expense of redundancy.

Getting Your NAS on the Network

Getting started with the StorCenter is as easy as plugging in the power and network cables and turning the unit on. The provided installation software works with Windows-based systems as well as with Macs. But what I found astonishing is that Iomega included a utility for installation on Linux systems. Many peripheral manufacturers ignore the Linux market.

When you run the Iomega discovery tool, it automatically configures the StorCenter for use on your network. You can use it on each computer connected to your network to assign a drive letter for the StorCenter on each PC. For smaller networks, this is a quick and convenient method of getting your users set up with basic access to the NAS appliance.

For advanced configuration, the StorCenter provides a well-designed Web interface. It's a good idea to explore this interface, since the default configuration is just one big share with general access. In the Web interface, you can create users and shares and set access permission, based on user names, for shares. Thanks to the handy interface, this was a snap.

Though you can limit each user's available space on the NAS device through quotas, you can't create user groups. This won't affect those in the home, home office, or very small businesses—but businesses with more than ten users might appreciate the addition of group policy capabilities, so the administrator wouldn't have to change permissions and settings for each individual.

The StorCenter also includes a print server that can address USB-connected printers and share them across your network. This is a handy replacement for those who share their printers through a PC, a setup that requires the PC to be powered up at all times for the printer to be available. The StorCenter can take the place of the PC. Setting it up required only a moderate amount of effort and networking know-how, and it worked quite well in my tests.

Iomega added one attractive feature not found in every NAS unit—the StorCenter can act as a media server. Sure, you can use many NAS devices to store your music files, photographs, and videos. But the StorCenter uses the UPnP protocol to serve these files to a multimedia adapter hooked up in your entertainment center. The Buffalo LinkTheater is one such adapter; it lets you use your TV as the control interface and display for your multimedia content. Using the StorCenter as a repository and media server will save you a great deal of energy and space compared with using a PC or a clunky dedicated server.

Those of you planning to store critical business data, valuable family memories, or large music libraries on the Iomega StorCenter will appreciate the option that lets you back up your data to either a USB-attached storage drive or a second StorCenter appliance.

I was impressed with the features, capacity, included software, and documentation for the Iomega StorCenter Wireless Network Storage1TB. It's a well-rounded and powerful product and a great choice for the home or small business. The reasonable price is just icing on the cake.