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D-Link’s gigabit router, 802.11n (”up to 14x faster speeds* and 6x farther range* than 802.11g while staying backward compatible with 802.11g devices”):

• http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=530

Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive).  My instincts were right then (I did not install it).

• http://raoulpop.com/2007/06/25/hardware-review-wd-my-book-world-edition-ii/
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t/t-300586.html (which references the above)

In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS).  In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it.  Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).

The following has a nice explanation and diagram of the arrangement, showing Final Cut Server being used to interface to both online and archive material.

• http://studiodaily.firstlightera.com/ERA/ResourceHandler.ashx?73070b2c-c5ba-4db8-a4a1-616a7da709ef;SB00016.pdf

Problem:

• After half an hour or so, the MacBook Pro base (top and bottom) tends to feel hotter than I’d expect, and I worried whether the innards were getting broiled or fried.  Having no previous experience to go by, some investigation was needed.  Various forums have some people claiming this is normal while others worry about the temperatures.

Solution:

• Downloaded iStat, a free widget for the Mac dashboard, that displays temperatures and fan speeds.  There are several temperature sensors and two fans.
• Download site: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html
• It looks and works (as far as I can tell) really good.  Also reports things like network traffic, which I also like to know about.

Result:

• Despite the case feel, the internal temperatures were not too bad, typically around 65C though sometimes the CPU & GPU rose to 81C, which I think is the upper sensible limit.  At this speed, one of the fans speeds up a bit e.g. 2300 rpm as compared to 2000 typically.
• A colleague (Matt Roberts) said chips are designed OK up to say 90C and higher, though connections can break down at around 120C.
• Seems all within tolerance then, no need to worry.