Introduction

When looking for additional storage for your PC there are 2 choices; internal or external. When going the external route most people opt for USB or Firewire drives. They are fairly inexpensive and very easy to setup. How about storage that you can access from any PC in your house and even from anywhere via the internet? Yes I'm talking about network storage. Today I am taking a look at a really cool device that not only serves as network storage but also acts as a router. The product I'm talking about is the IOGear BOSS 120GB Home/Office Network Server Appliance from Geeks.com, so let's take a look.

Specs

Before we check anything out let's take a look at the basic specs:

General Features:
120 GB IDE hard drive pre-installed
WAN port: 10/100 Mbps
WAN port: MDI/MDIX switch
Four (4) LAN ports: 10/100 Mbps

Hard Drive features:
120 GB storage capacity
7200 RPM spindle speed
2 MB buffer

Connection Sharing:
Flexible Address Space for NAT service
IP Alias
Multiple NAT

Firewall:
SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection)
Prevent Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
Packet/URL Filtering
Access Control, Virtual Server

Services:
DHCP Client/ServerM
Proxy DNS
RIP

A more detailed list of specs can be found at Geeks.com website.

First Looks

Well as you know the package came from geeks.com, if you didn't know they really protect their packages. Unlike most companies they use air bubbles instead of the peanuts and if you get as many packages as I do you can appreciate the air bubbles.

Alright taking a look at the retail packaging of the IOGear Boss it is much like any other retail packaging; picture of the device and some info. On the back it explains the functions and features of the device.

Flipping the box open we have the following items: BOSS appliance with 120GB hard drive, power cable, Ethernet cable, quick start guide, and CD with manual.

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