3. File And Printer Sharing

The default sharing configuration of the box features a single shared folder with wide-open permissions. For more complete control, users can be defined (as shown in Figure 4) and directories created and restricted to certain users. There was no option for creating groups of users.

Figure 4: Adding a new user

Quotas can also be assigned to users if you want to restrict how much space any one user can take up. As a test, I assigned a small quota to a user and then attempted to exceed it. Once I passed my quota, I got a "disk full" error when trying to write, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Disk Full

The StorCenter can also act as a network print server, using a combination of LPR and Samba print services. When I went into the printer configuration page, it basically said, "Plug your printer into a USB port" as shown in Figure 6. All real configuration was accomplished on the client computer, not on the StorCenter itself. Instructions were provided for setting up the printer under Windows and Macintosh. Linux users were advised to consult the documentation specific to their distribution.

As a test, I plugged my printer into one of the available USB ports, and using the supplied instructions, added a network printer to my Windows laptop. A quick print test I ran worked fine. I assume it would work under Macintosh and Linux as well, as long as the proper printer driver was available.

Figure 6: Setting up the Print Server