Lacie network external drive + AEBS + AEX= wireless bliss? Will this work?

Question

Hey everyone,
(Just to get it out of the way, I know you can't use the USB ports on the base stations for external Harddrives) Here's what I'm trying to do. I'd like to beable to have a stand alone wireless external Network harddrive (shown here http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10592 ) to store all of my media and music, and at the same time beable to stream that music wirelessly to a speaker system. Yeah, I know transfer speeds will be slow and I know I could buy a Mac Mini to do this, but I don't mind the slow speed and a Mac Mini is out of my budget range right now (and I'd kinda like to wait for the Intel version )
Okay, well I had thought all of this through with the idea that I could use the Lacie network drive wired (through ethernet cable) to my Airport Extreme Base Station which would then be wired to my airport express. Then the fatal flaw hit me. No port to connect internet access.
So that was my original idea, here are my backup ideas. I was hoping you guys might beable to give me feedback on what might work best and what won't.
First idea: Use my relatively old Netgear Wireless router (shown here http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WGR614.php) hook ethernet and the Lacie HD into that, send a cable over to the airport express, disable wireless on the Netgear and have the airport express handle all wireless activity. What do you guys think? Could I use my powerbook as the hub where I could choose a song on itunes and it would find it on the wireless HD and stream it to the wireless speakers through the Express?
Second idea: Hook the Lacie HD into the Airport Express, hook the ethernet into the Airport Extreme and set them up using the WDS system in the admin utility. The Extreme would be the Main and the express would be the satellite. Do you think this would work?
Last idea: Hook the Lacie HD and the ethernet into the Airport Extreme, and have the airport express set up with WDS again as a satellite just to stream music and to print. Close to just the reverse of the second idea. Do you think this might work better?
And of course there is always, just getting really frustrated and saying forget the whole thing lol.
Thanks for anyones input here. I really appreciate it. I really think this could turn out to be very helpful to a lot of people if it works. I've looked everywhere for a good solution for a stand alone wireless media hub + wireless music streaming and only came up with lots of people asking questions and no one having a solid answer. So hopefully we can work out something that really works for everyone on this great forum.
Matthew

Answer 1

Have you had any success with this?
I have a powerbook, Imac, and a Lacie 500GB and an airport extreme. I am trying to set the network up so that both my powerbook and Imac can connect to the Lacie wirelessly.