My NAS drives still need a master computer to make it accessible. One computer controls the network settings. It may not be a true NAS device like the one you are looking at. (but they were about $29 for just the box no drive)  I don't know how you can run ftp software without a computer? If the device you are looking at is what I think it is, it means you can receive ftp files, because it's acting as a server.

I can't see where it works for sending data.

Do I understand that you want to spend over $300 so you won't use as much electricity? 
That doesn't include the hard drive...

You could just get an old laptop and leave that running at night, uploading. It would use less energy and cost much less.

Quote from: RacePhoto on March 20, 2009, 10:53

I don't know how you can run ftp software without a computer?

The NAS devices I have in mind are actually little computers. They all have embedded LINUX versions on board and can act independently.

Sounds nice. Not trying to be obtuse or thick, but why not get a $300 notebook or a used laptop and do the same thing? Do you have some other use for a Network Attached Storage hard drive?

The NAS you had in the OP would end up costing you about $500 to get started. They are good for doing back-ups. If you have multiple people using the same storage and want to control a network printer, outside of the fact that you can do that already with two computers, or have a need for outside people to be able to upload and access files, I don't see what advantage buying a NAS would have over a notebook or laptop?

Your original post was about uploading without having the desktop computer running. A Linux notebook would do that and you could do much more than a dedicated storage device?

I wasn't going to go off into other ways, but I have a KVM switch and an old Dell GX150, 12.5 x 3.6 x 13.9-inch, 933MHz Pentium III, with XP pro, that I picked up for $100. Looked it up, 34 watts. It's the controller for two NDAS drives. That's the mule computer for uploading when I don't want to run a full desktop while I'm sleeping.