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In a couple of days, I am going to get this great NAS-device:

The DS107+ features a single-bay 3,5" drive bay and I will populate it with a 1TB Western Digital drive. The WD's have been quite reliable in the past (my PS3 is running with a 250GB Caviar drive for the last 12 months). The DS107+ features a 500MHz CPU and 128MB RAM onboard; it provides 3 USB 2.0 ports and a Gigabit connection. The NAS will be hooked up to the Belkin N1 wireless router and then act as a backup device, UPNP- and iTunes server. Movies will be streamed straight via UPNP to the PS3 and then pushed through onto the big-screen and to my Soundbar in all it's high-def glory.

The device features some impressive performance-stats: transferring a 2GB file via Windows will take over 1 minute. Transfer-speeds: via Windows (Upload: 15MB/sec, Download: 28MB/sec), via FTP (Upload: 12MB/sec, Download: 38MB/sec)

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Apple has released a number of updates today. In addition to the release of OSX 10.5.4 which fixes a number of performance issues on the 5Ghz wireless channels, the all important Airport 7.3.2 firmware update was released.

Will Apple generally does not disclose much information about Airport Express updates, the recent firmware seems to have resolved the issue where I was not able to manage the base-station once the access-point was placed in bridged mode. A number of people in the Apple forums experienced the same issues and should now be as ecstatic as I am.

The OSX 10.5.4 update includes improvements of iCal reliability when it comes to the software's handling of meeting requests, cancellations, and syncing with the iPhone. To Dos can apparently be marked as private again, too. Safari has gotten a performance fix when loading secure web pages, and a number of issues with Spaces (such as application focus problems and dragging applications between different Spaces) have been fixed. Apple lists out these updates in its support document, and there are sure to be a slew of hidden ones buried in 10.5.4 as well.

I was running my N-wireless network for months through my Belkin N1 router without a problem. The router is located in my office, connecting to an iBurst desktop modem and was connecting via a Gigabit connection to my PS3. As more people have moved into our estate, interference has now prevented to consistently push Wifi through the remainder of the house.

I had to get a quick fix in the shape of the Airport Extreme:

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