The product is not plug and play. It would be so much nicer if it would be possible to hot plug the device to a switch, hub or NIC (1:1) and see it working instantly without the need for installing software. No, if you opt Ethernet connectivity then at least one machine must have the driver software installed. Once installed you can share the drive, but that requires one PC online all the time. The second option here would be to install the software on all PC's.

That dear people is the only negative point about this product. Now all the positives, the NetDisk rocks over the Ethernet reaching 9 MB/sec and 22 MB/sec over USB 2.0

The installation procedure is quick and easy, anyone can do this. Furthermore it's capable of RAID functions with multiple NetDisk devices you are able to combine them up-to a total diskspace of 1.6 Terabyte. Lastly, it's very reasonable priced.

So there you have it, there are so many things you can do with this drive. You can collect movies, MP3, share files with friends or take it on the road if your laptop is running out of space. Me personally, I'm using it as a backup drive right now. Since it's hot pluggable to any other machine it suits my needs very well. The idea to give this product an Ethernet connection was very clever, because who does not have a PC connected to the Internet through a HUB, Switch or router these days ? It's like this: Hey, Brian how are you doing, "click" and your HD is ready to copy/read/write at high speed. That's the true power of this product, plug it in and use it immediately.

Hopefully XiMeta will  release one gigabit product in the near future also. Several of our test-machines already are equipped with a 1000Mbit/sec solution, it would speed up this product over the Ethernet with factor 2 maybe 3 and would give it all the breathing space it needs. The 100 MBit/sec interface is actually a limiting factor for the HD right now.

The NetDisk is a very original and affordable product and I will highly recommend this product with both thumbs up and therefore will receive an editor's choice award.

Product: NetDisk 80GB external USB 2.0 and Ethernet HD
Manufacturer: XiMeta
Estimated Price: 199 USD