External Hard Drive
 

Is there an external HD that I can run into a router (rather than into a single machine) and use it for storage for my simple P2P network?

Pretty much any external HD that runs off the USB power should suffice.

The main thing you'll need is a router that supports this feature.

Thanks

Will check on that now

Want you want is a NAS (network attached storage).
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...rk-Storage-NAS

essentially they're hard drives with network ports. plug it into your router with a network cable.
I've had good experiences with Buffalo brand NAS devices and currently have the D-Link DNS-323 installed at home for backups of all my computers over the network and as an FTP server. The D-Link DNS-321 is another good option (cheaper, but has 80% of the features of the DNS-323) if you need 2 drives or RAID capabilities.

a NAS device works, or get a box that will effectively turn an extern harddisk into one.
Sitecom has some, and no doubt other brands as well.

Thought about doing it this way

considering the prices of NAS systems, there isn't much justification for a usb to network bridge device (not counting print server devices... those are really handy).

e.g. $100 for a lacie 500GB NAS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822154195
500GB external USB drives run around $65 for no-name generics. $80-$90 for a brand name like Lacie or other reputable brand.

If you already have the bare drive, then you can get a NAS enclosure for $30-$40.

I'm curious as to why you'd want to use a network to usb adapter box? I've worked in IT for quite a long time and there are only a few very specific situations where i'd ever suggest doing it that way.

For me the justification was that I already had a non-networked 500GB USB drive with some data on it I wanted networked :)
Regular USB drives are also often so steeply discounted you end up paying less for one + the extra box as compared to a NAS system. While less flexible than a NAS system, that's not usually a problem if your home network is small and the chances of many people connecting to the drive at the same time is almost zero.