Maxtor Shared Storage Plus family dishes out A/V files and serves as a network backup

Maxtor's Shared Storage Plus family of networked hard drives is based on the UPnP A/V and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) guidelines. DLNA is a consortium of consumer electronics, mobile, and PC companies focused on digital interoperability, which would allow for the seamless sharing of digital content between devices from different vendors. The MSS Plus hard drive sits on the network (plugged into the router), and its built-in media server feeds out audio and video data to multiple devices, such as digital media adapters, even if the client PCs on the network are turned off, effectively acting as a digital entertainment hub. Each client PC has a public, shared folder, as well as a set of personal, password-protected folders, and users can set up automatic backups from their PCs to the MSS Plus. The drives also have two USB ports for sharing USB printers or additional external hard drives. The 200GB and 300GB versions began shipping in December for $299.95 and $399.95, respectively. The 500GB version will ship in the first quarter of 2006 for $499.95.