With today's computers demanding more storage than ever before it has now become very popular to add a single storage unit to a central location where numerous computers can share files, MP3s, movies or even games from that location. This only makes sense when you think about it, why add a new 500 GB hard drive to say 3 or 4 computers when you can add a single unit and allow all of the computers to use that one hard drive at the same time.

The network setup in my home may not be typical of most homes but it shows how this type of unit has made a major difference it how files are handled in our household. The four main computers in our house are located are located in my office, one of them is my wife's, one is use primarily for surfing the web, the third is server box using Free BSD and the fourth machine is used only for web editing and transferring files since it is the slowest of them all. The last computer is my son's, that is used primarily for gaming.

Our house is fed with a 3 Megabit ADSL line which in turn feeds into a Cisco 678 modem and that in feeds into a 8-port switch. Five of the ports are used for the computers and the sixth is used for the CN-550 that we are reviewing today. As we get further into the review we will discuss what we found out about the unit through our usage as well as out likes and dislikes of the unit. The CN-550 allows us to consolidate our important files on to one drive and share them from that location.