LAN network

[chriscor]

I'm moving my backup drives from my office into my house.  For backup purposes I'd like to keep the drives connected to the computer in my office.  I need to cover a distance of 50 feet.  Originally I thought I could just run a long firewire cord to connect the drives.  I discovered to do this I'd need to use several hubs or repeaters.  All (from my research) require power to run.  Since I'm running the wire through the crawl space in my house this isn't really practical.  It was suggested that I set up a Category 5 LAN network instead.   I can't find a good tutorial for what I want to do.  Can I set up a LAN network that connects a computer to a bank of firewire drives or does a LAN network only work if a second computer is involved?

Thanks for the help

[DarkPenguin]

You might be able to find a NAS controller that hooks up to firewire drives.  I'm not aware of any but there are USB devices that are similar.  They tend to be insanely slow but might be worth a shot.  Linksys makes a couple.

[Chris_Brown]

Two solutions come to mind. The NetGear ReadyNAS which connects to an ethernet switch, and Firewire rackmounted RAID system which requires a host computer attached to your network.

[Jack Flesher]

Can I set up a LAN network that connects a computer to a bank of firewire drives or does a LAN network only work if a second computer is involved?

Some drive boxes are called NAS or "Network Attached Storage" meaning they have LAN ports built-in, attach directly to the network, and do not need to be attached to a computer in the network to be seen by other stations on the same network.  However, basic drive boxes that have only firewire or USB ports will need to be attached to the network, and this requires a computer or network server.  The good news is it does not have to be anything special in the way of computing power; any old computer with GigLAN and the proper connectivity ports for your drive boxes will work.

If you need to buy a computer for this purpose, then it might be more cost-effective to sell your old enclosures and replace them with NAS boxes.  There are a bunch of NAS options available and they are getting reasonably priced IMO.  

Cheers,

[DiaAzul]

You may want to speak to the people who produce this device which will provides IEEE1394 (Firewire) connectivity over Cat-5 cabling. The market for this type of device is growing as a result of HD Video around the home. You will need a pair of devices and it will reach 75m.

http://newnex.com/products/firenex/firenex-c-400.php

[chriscor]

Thanks for all the replies and the helpful information.

I've checked out the NAS controller and boxes.  As mentioned, the controllers appear to be available only for usb and not firewire.  My concern about switching to NAS boxes is that I would have to reformat my drives to work with the specific box that I was using (at least this is my impression after reading about NAS boxes on the web).
The easiest solution seems to be the the repeater that uses CAT5 cable.  In addition to the newnex box there's this - http://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp...&pf_id=2561.   It seems the easiest and cheapest way to do this.