need help in buying an external hardrive

[ojsdaman]

Im about to buy an external hardrive to back up my music
Im looking at the MY BOOK 500g for $109

I have a wireless network with 2 computers connected
Is it worth buying the external hardrive with ethernet connection so I can network them. I am worried that it will be very slow over a wireless network and maybe not fast enough to burn cds off.

Any suggestions?
Any Brands that you would prefer.

thankyou very much for your help

Thanks

[funkyworms]

The main thing to consider when buying an external hard drive is the connection type. There are basically 5 different standards.

USB 1.1 - any computer made within the last 10 years should have a at least one USB port. This is the slowest.

USB 2.0 - faster than USB 1.1. Standard in any computer produced in the last 5 years. 480 mb/sec (burst speed)

Firewire 400 - has speeds between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0. Is usually practically faster than USB 2.0. Your computer may have a firewire 400 port. 390 mb/sec

Firewire 800 - transfer speeds above 750 mb/sec. Not very common yet.

E-sata - this connection will be as fast as an internal SATA drive. Transfer rate of 2.4 gb/sec. These are rare in all but the newest of motherboards.

Check your motherboard specifications to see what kind of connections you can support.

Edit: Don't bother wasting the money for an external with ethernet support. You probably won't be happy with the performance even if you manage to get it working properly. Western Digital and Seagate are popular brands.