My NAS and more
Amongst the many storage units in my network is a simple WD 250Gb MyBook (World Edition), which holds most of my family media (photos, holiday videos etc). Recently it has been failing to be visible on the network, causing a 0x80004005 error in Vista (nothing to do with Access, Exchange or any other apps where that code is used). Fearing some calamity would befall my archive, I did a little research on the “WDMBWE” and discovered some interesting ideas. The best come from a dedicated site where one can find instructions for updating the embedded Linux features on the little device, including the installation of a CUPS daemon. The WDMBWE has a USB connection to enable chaining of additional USB drives, but with CUPS installed I have the option to convert my little NAS into a printer server (in addition to being a file server).
A printer server would be a great idea, because my current printer is attached to a Vista machine, and Vista doesn’t permit you to share a printer without requiring the users to log in. Previously, in XP, you could just share your printer (or folders) with anyone on the network. If you didn’t want them to log in first, you didn’t have to. This is no longer possible in Vista, and consequently whenever my wife wants to use my printer (instead of her own) she must borrow my PC (or move the USB cable to her machine). Why not just add her as a user on the Vista box? Simple, there’s no way to hide a user from the log in screen, and another user on the machine would be a waste of resources and open another avenue of attack. On my PC there is just an admin, me and “guest”, which is disabled. That’s as far as it will go.
I don’t know if I’ll actually install CUPS onto the WDMBWE, because of the recent problems with network visibility (requiring reboots) but if I do, I’ll record my experience here.
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