Cisco-Linksys 1 TB Media Hub with LCD Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Everything you read about the features and setup of the LinkSys by Cisco NMH410 MediaHub is true: it is very easy to set up and to configure other computers and it does offer a browser-based way to access your media.
The problem is that most of it doesn't work. The lion's share of the software is broken, buggy, or simply incapable of doing what it is supposed to be doing. A quick glance at the support forums will confirm this, and unfortunately it appears to be endemic for many of the models of MediaHub, not just the NMH410. The problems that you will encounter are:
1) The Media Hub Online tool will not "see" all of your files. They will be physically visible when you use a computer to browse folders, but they will not properly share or index, even if they meet the stringent requirements (no long names, no special characters in the names, must be in one of the supported file formats, etc.).
2) The Hub will continually rebuild its index of your files. In other words, "now you see some files, now you don't". It regularly "forgets" what's on the hub and starts over, one by one, re-reading every file. You have no control over when it does this.
3) The Media Hub will not respond when it is busy. I can play an album that I manually launched from the folder, but if I try to open the File Browser, look at Configuration, or even just click a bit too fast browsing the media, the MediaHub Online will throw me "MediaHub is Disconnected or not Responding" errors and stop taking any commands. I have to randomly try again and hope to get lucky and get in.
4) The website for Remote Sharing (in other words, logging in to your device through the Internet from another location) regularly has Server Timeouts. You never know when it will let you in or when you will just get a dead white page.
5) Some features reboot the hub without warning. You choose the option, it says, "Resetting the MediaHub" and the next thing you know, the browser interface fails, the hub loses all of its indexes, and it starts all over again crawling through your files and not responding to your clicks.
It's very distressing to see aggressive releases of software and firmware updates, whose release notes claim to have solved these problems...only to find that all the "fixed in this version" problems are still there. If these issues really were considered fixed by the company, then Linksys/Cisco's problems are much larger--they may need to consider a recall. Thus far, the only features that truly work are the ability to view files and folders on a computer and the optional computer backup program (which should only be used for files and not as a full system backup).
It should tell you a lot that there are actually two pieces of software embedded in this hub: the Linksys by Cisco software, and a third party tool called "Twonky Media Server". Twonky is better, but still not what this product promises above. Both have really bizarre problems that should never have made it to the sales floor.
I'm reaching the point of complete surrender. I managed to get indirectly engaged with the hardware/software development team and have offered them access to my hub to try whatever it takes to solve the problem.
As of October 19, 2009, my unit was used for the Beta and the new Firmware was released. If you own an NMH and are having the above problems, you should give it a try. Unfortunately for me, the best I have seen with this new firmware is that the fixes are spotty: almost seems to mostly-work one day, then it's back to completely acting up the next. The cruel part is that one day I'll discover an amazing new feature or two that I'd never seen before...and the next day it's gone again. Content appears and disappears, and the system is always rebuilding itself. I have spent many, many hours on and off support calls struggling with this device and I'm sorry I bought it. It's November 19th, 2009, and my NMH410 Media Hub is now back in the original packaging waiting to go out the door back to LinkSys. I've lost over 4 months trying to get this to work and I can't recommend it to anyone.

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Enjoy your digital music, photos, and videos throughout your home! The Linksys Media Hub stores your favorite media files, and lets you view and listen to them on any PC, laptop, or TV¹ in the house, or through the Internet anywhere in the world! The pre-installed hard drive holds thousands of photos or songs, or hundreds of hours of DVD quality video, and the empty second drive bay and two USB ports let you add even more storage as your collection grows.The Media Hub presents your music, photo, and video collections in an attractive "catalog view" from most web browsers. There are no confusing network addresses to remember; give your Media Hub a personalized "name" (i.e., "Smith-Media"), and just type it into your browser to view the catalog. Use the same name to log in to your Media Hub from a web browser anywhere, and get the same easy-to-use access to your media.³

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Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 1 TB (2 x 500 GB) Network Attached Storage Review

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(More customer reviews)I have several other Western Digital MyBook directly attached drives and am very happy with them. This drive was purchased by a friend (at my suggestion) and sent to me for setup.
The installation instructions do leave a lot to be desired. I had to go to the WD Knowledge Base support website to find out how to reformat the drive into a raid 1 drive. Once I figured out that you MUST install the included software before you try and do ANYTHING everything went quite well. The drive reformatted without incident in about the five hours WD said it would take.
The next process was copying a 150GB drive from my directly connected MyBook drive to the World Edition. This takes about 2 hours on my directly connected drives. It takes about 8 - 9 hours with a gigabit ethernet connection from the computer through the router to the World Book. While this is a long time, it is not something that will be done more than once (especially with the raid 1 formatting.) After this the World Book functions like my other directly connected MyBook drives.
Because the World Book is an ethernet device attached to a router it is not necessary to have your computer running to access the drive. It is probably advantageous to not leave your computer on with no one around to deal with any problems that my arise while you are not there for an extended period.
What is special about the World Book is the Always Connected software it comes with. This allows anyone with a high speed internet connection to access files on the drive from anywhere. This particular drive will be accessed from Costa Rica for several weeks each year.
Do not discount the advantage of having all of your information in one place. No synchronization problems. No duplicates. No worry about sensitive information being moved around or more importantly, lost.
I would have rated the World Book higher if the instructions supplied by Western Digital were better. For someone without much computer experience, I can see twhis being a bit of a bear to install. If WD fixes the instructions, I would rate the World book 4 stars. AS IT IS, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO USE THE WD Knowledge Base for help. It is clearer than the supplied instructions.

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Storage System for Remote Access and Sharing.Designed for home users, creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for shared storage, WD's My Book World Edition II offers a surprisingly simple and secure way to access and share data, pictures, and music at home, in the office and anywhere in the world - even when your local computer is turned off.The dual-drive network storage system combines 1TB of storage, versatile RAID capability, backup software, user-serviceability, and remote access software to make it the most versatile and powerful remote access storage syste in its class.

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VortexBox 1TB Automatic CD ripping NAS Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this gadget after a considerable amount of frustration with a Netgear ReadyNAs I had expected to use as a server for my Logitech Squeezebox Duet. The ReadyNAS supposedly performs this function but with a large collection of files it is simply too slow to keep up with indexing and searching etc. Plus ripping my 2,000+ CDs was a real chore. I read about this product and jumped on it.
Well, within a week of getting my Vortexbox appliance, all my CDs are in my mini storage, my Levinson 31.5 transport sold on eBay, and my entire CD collection is now available to me throughout my home without the slightest issues, disappointments or problems.
I initially corresponded with the manufacturer a few times with questions about configuring this device to suit my particular needs I got immediate, understanding an useful help. I cannot speak more highly of the builder. In fact, I sent a modest voluntary donation to them as I felt the help I got was above-and-beyond. Since I became familiar with this gadget, I have had zero issues, it has been up and running for over sixty days without a reboot, issue, glitch etc. You just pop a CD in the slot and it will rip it to flac and/or any almost any other format you care to have.
Useful tip: if you are ripping a large collection disable the creation of MP3 copies (the system rips to both flac and mp3 by default). This will speed up the tedious job of ripping enormously and you can go back later on and create MP3 versions of any or all of your stuff as a background task when you're done transcribing your collection. Info on how this is done is on the manufacturer's simple but very useful web site.
Anyway, this is a great product from nice people and if anything happened to it I'd buy another in a flash.

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Your entire music collection, available anywhere in your home! VortexBox is designed to store your entire CD and Media collection in one easy to access location. With an integrated CD ripping engine and a huge amount of storage, the VortexBox is a single device connected to your home network, allowing blissful music management. It really couldn't be any easier - simply insert an audio CD into the DVD/CD burn drive. The CD is converted within a few minutes, added to the media library, shared on your network. You can then access your music from your Logitech SqueezeBox , iTunes, Windows Media Player, or other Media Player. VortexBox is easy to configure: just plug it into your home router and browse to the easy to use interface through your favorite web browser. Available in 500 GB or 1 TB (1000 GB) capacities, VortexBox distributes your entire collection throughout your home and has plenty of room to grow. Watch anything, anywhere at home. VortexBox doesn't only stream music. Add movies, TV Shows, and other content to its storage to stream to any part of your house. Works with Logitech Squeezebox, Sonos, XBMC or ReQuest server. VortexBox includes Slimserver for media serving to any network connected audio device.

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Buffalo LinkStation Live 500 GB Multimedia Storage Server HS-DH500GL Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm just writing this review because I believe this product and the company are dealt with a bit unfair in other reviews.
I just installed this device - I own a older Linkstation which works without any problems for non-stop 3 years now - and I would like to mention a few points. I also talked to Buffalo support before buying it (which yes, has a long waiting time on the phone but very compentent people, I believe, that answer at the end, and got clarification on a few points.
The good:
+ fast, just copying 75 GB in around 90 minutes on a 100 MBit network, and the speed is just fine
+ good looking, this device looks great
+ easy to install
The bad:
not much really
- if you enable the media server it reads/writes constantly, the reason is it indexes the disk for new files all the time - buffalo support is aware of this and will release a new firmware which allows you to index manually with a button on demand, this is a good solution for me
- no more bad, sorry ;-)
I find many of the reviews here a bit strange, lets talk about some examples:
- Scanner does not work (well, ALL these devices dont support Multifunction printers, because they technically can't, this is not Buffalos fault
- I put a new firmware on my device and now it's broken - well, apparently, earlier firmwares where different for the Pro and Live model, if you put the wrong firmware on it can't boot anymore, is this Buffalos fault??
- noisy hmmhh, mine is SUPER quiet - actually quieter than the old modell, how quiet do you expect a harddisk to be??
- web interface slow, that's true and I find it a bit strange, but how often are you changing parameters over the Web gui? It's a bit strange, but only a very minor nuissance.
I get the feeling that many users buying a media server are a bit novice at IT devices. Also because the PRO line gets better reviews.
Anyway, I nearly would not have bought this device because of all the bad reviews. But it would have been a mistake. I love it. It's not expensive and I personally recommend it!
Hope this helps.
Armin

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LinkStation Live 500GB Shared Network Storage

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Macally PHR-100NDAS Netdisk/Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Enclosure for 3.5" Hard Disk Drive Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are looking to stream video or require high transfer speeds, this enclosure is for you. I like that is has both Ethernet and USB2. It feels like a quality made product. I also like that it can use NTFS drives as well as FAT32 drives. Unfortunately, the drive does not spin down when not in use over an extended period of time. Also, a client must be installed on each computer acceessing the drive. This client disabled my laptop's ability to sleep when I closed the lid. I found myself turning off the drive when I had no intention of using it but this did not fit my situation. I wanted a drive that I can leave on and has a power saving mode. The transfer speeds were excellent though - I streamed a DVD rip to three computers simultaneously and I didn't even experience a slight hiccup.

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MODEL- PHR-100NDASVENDOR- MACALLYFEATURES- NetDisk/Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Enclosure for 3.5" drives High performance NDAS storage devices connect directly to wired or wireless. Ethernet network switch or router and share with multiple users at office or home.* Each user controls and uses the storage just like local disk drive.* Centralize network storage for your data music photo and movie etc.* Easy installation no network TCP/IP configuration needed.* With the innovative NDAS technology users are secured from Internet intrusion.* Access key control for individualized read and write privilege.* Solid aluminum body for protection and excellent heat dissipation.* Supports any capacity of 3.5" IDE Hard Drives.* Works with both PC and Mac computers* Supports USB 2.0 & USB 1.1 connection for single user.* Active LED to indicate power and data access-- SPECIFICATIONs ------------------------------------CONNECTORs - (1) USB 2.0/1.1 port (1) 10BaseT/100BaseTX/RJ45 portREQUIREMENTS - Windows PC Macintosh desktop or notebook computer with USBport and network capability. Windows 2000giWindows XPMac OS 10.2.8 to Mac 0S 10.4.xPentium II/compatible or above POWE SOURCE- AC Adapter includedDIMENSIONS - 5.2"w x 1.8"h x 8.7"d WT.- 1.3 lbs.MANUFACTURER WARRANTY:1 YEAR

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Hitachi SimpleNET NAS Head USB 2.0 Portable Dongle SNET (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)Hatachi SimpleNet NAS USB to Ethernet promises a truly simple way to connect a USB storage device to your home network via wired Ethernet connected to your home router. Setup and control is managed through an internal web server accessible through Apple's Bonjour (zero configuration networking) software. No MAC (Media Access Control) address in included on the box so installation of Bonjour for windows ([...]) is mandatory. Apple Mac users have Bonjour built-in to OS X through Safari.
All of this innovation as well as the small form factor induced me to purchase the device and set it up for use with both USB thumb drives as well as a Western Digital external USB storage device.
As promised SimpleNet connected to the disk / flash subsystems and made the storage accessible over my home network via Bonjour. However in about 10 minutes the plastic box housing SimpleNet became very warm. At that time the disk / flash subsystems were no longer network accessible. The internal web broswer's setup pages then became blank and no longer displayed information.
Removing the power (supplied through an included 5 volt adapter) for twenty minutes to permit the device to cool again allowed me to connect to my storage, but only after repeating the setup process. Clearly this became tedious.
Note that no paper manual is provided and the mini disk containing the manual and Bonjour for Windows software is only compatible with tray drives CD readers.
Sadly it's back to the store with this device. It would have been a great way to create a NAS (Network Attached Storage) system to a home or small business network. I hope they try again, but first do the beta testing in the lab.

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SimpleNET is the easiest way to make your existing USB drive even more valuable!Share its contents across your network, quickly and easily!SimpleNET is a small network adapter that enables you to share and access existing USB hard drives over a network.Simply plug a USB hard drive into SimpleNET and then plug SimpleNet into an Ethernet network. The drive then appears as a network drive on the network.Easy to install, easy to use! SimpleNet is extremely cost effective too!Why pay more for a new hard disk drive?Make your investments pay off by sharing music, photos, videos or documents in minutes!No configuration necessary, no additional drives to buy.

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Buffalo Technology TeraStation III 8.0 TB (4 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage TS-X8.0TL/R5 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first time I've ever taken the time to write a review, but I'm here to buy yet another one of these units, and I felt compelled to respond to a couple of the negative reviews here.
First off, this is the Terastation III, not the Pro as referenced in another review. Additionally, I own a medium sized video and animation facility, with up to 7 artists accessing one of our three Terastation IIIs at all times for video, animation, and rendering, and this unit IS compatible with Apple OS. Configuration is done via a web browser, not a PC. We're cross platform here, and PC vs. Mac has nothing to do with this unit. As for Mac, since it doesn't use drive lettering, you do have to know how to set it up as a server, by IP address, in MAC OS. PC is much easier in terms of mapping the drive, but either way it works fine regardless of platform.
These drives are fast, particularly if you set up port trunking, which is a very high end feature for a NAS in this price range. By using port trunking (which uses 2 network ports to effectively double the network connection speed), we have been able to eliminate several of our NAS units in favor of just a few Terastation IIIs. Multiple users can access the drive simultaneously with no problems.
As for reliability, we did have one DOA unit, which Amazon promptly replaced at no cost (not even shipping). Other than that, we've had absolutely no problems. Having said that, we ALWAYS back up nightly (that's an easy thing to set up in the web browser based config panel), and there's no substitute for that no matter what kind of NAS you buy.
As for Buffalo in general, we have used several different models of Terastations and Linkstations, some of which ran continuously for 4 and 5 years without failing before we removed them from service. In fact, the only Terastation that has failed on us, wasn't even the unit itself; it was one of the drives. 5 years isn't an unusual life span for a hard drive that runs day and night.
So I give this 5 stars, and Buffalo tech support is pretty much the best I've experienced. When you call, the phone is answered by a real person at Buffalo's service center (in Texas, I believe), and they always know pretty much everything about their products without having to read it from a computer screen. Hold times vary, but support is top notch.

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Buffalo's TeraStation III Series is the ideal choice for businesses or demanding users looking to implement a RAID based Network Attached Storage solution. As Buffalo’s flagship NAS product the TeraStation III includes all firmware features presently found in the Buffalo lineup of NAS products. Especially, business oriented features, such Active Directory support, DFS support, disk quota support, a share level replication feature and port trunking make the TeraStation III a top choice for small to medium sized businesses. Hardware features like hot swap and dual Ethernet ports add to the list of new features. Reliability and performance are again the key design criteria for the TeraStaion III. A heavy-duty power supply and oversized cooling system, as well as vastly improved CPU speed guarantee excellent and reliable performance. It is the clear choice for those users who desire maximum reliability and robust features.

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D-Link DNS-343 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my third D-Link NAS. I bought a DNS-323 one year ago and it has been on ever since, serving up files reliably to my PC/Mac home network, downloading torrents, and streaming videos to my PS3/XBOX 360 (after installing Twonky Media Server). Based on my mostly positive experience with D-link products and price-to-features ratio, I decided to stick with the brand. I had wasted money on a Galaxy Metal Gear NAS, and read mostly lukewarm reviews for Netgear, Iomega, Linksys, and other makers. Other NAS devices like the DLNA-enabled Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live were attractive, but their price point or storage capacity was not. I need a large number of bays to create a centralized media server.
When I outgrew the DNS-323, I bought a DNS321 2-bay when I really should have applied that $130 toward this 4-bay product instead. I wanted to consolidate the half dozen 1 TB external drives I had sitting around and network them so I didn't have to keep plugging and unplugging USB cables when I wanted to retrieve files. My home network is heterogeneous and I also needed the ability to write large files (4 GB+) to the drives. FAT32 is the only mutually writable format across XP and Mac, but it has a 4 GB filesize limit, making it impractical for my movie storage needs. The D-Link uses a Linux file system (ext2 or ext3, your choice), so filesize concerns are now gone.
I've had this product for a week, and so far so good. The device can be configured from any web browser, so you don't need the CD (which is a Windows-only configuration app). I have 1 TB Hitachi and WD drives inside. Build quality is solid (made of thick aluminum). It's a brick of a device and looks quite durable.
For the price, I am not expecting world class security and many bells and whistles. I just need it for storing my personal files and media on my home network, and stream them, and for that, it works to my satisfaction. The iTunes server works very nicely. For file transfers, I FTP to it and do all my copying that way. For some reason, the Mac is a lot faster (20MB/sec) than copying from XP (10MB/sec). Vista is the worse, and I usually get 5MB/sec.
It would've been really great for D-link to include BitTorrent support for this, like the DNS-323. Maybe in a future firmware update.
All in all, I'm quite happy with this product. I don't place heavy expectations on it and don't demand $1,500 server performance from a $370 device. It was the cheapest 4-bay NAS I could find for the features I wanted and gives great overall performance for the price. You can install telnet on it (look for Fonz's funplug) and open the device up to more hacking if you are so inclined.
Will update this review as I use the device more.

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The D-Link ShareCenter 4-Bay Network Storage Enclosure (DNS-343) connects to your network instead of to a computer so everyone on your network can back up content to one central location. Plus, it lets you share your stored content across your network and over the Internet so family members, friends and employees can access it no matter where they are.

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Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS411J (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)OK, my review might be biased. Coming from the Drobo, which was absolutely terrible, to this Synology unit was the best technological move I've made since I switched to OSX 10.1 all those years ago. Speeds are fantastic, built-in server features are excellent, and aesthetically the unit is very pleasing.
Unboxing/Installation/Initial Setup:
The unit arrived from Amazon in a large cardboard box along with the two SATA drives that I ordered for it (Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARS). The box for the 411j was very sleek and easy to unpack. No weird seals or wire ties to deal with. The unit itself fits well with the IKEA-assisted look of my office. To install the drives, you remove some handscrews off the back and the top/sides of the unit will come off (in the stock photo, the aluminum piece with the logo on it). The drive trays are plastic and slide out of the back of the unit. You just sit the drives into the unit and use the included screws to mount the drive in place. Then, just push the tray back in and the drive will be connected. No cables to connect was a big plus here. After the drives are all installed, push screw the back on and plug in the power and network cables.
One thing that was unexpected was that the unit has no software installed on it initially. Not a bad concept though..it forces you to load the most current version this way. The software from the CD happened to be the current version (major revision in December I think) but that might not always be the case, you it might be better to just download the latest Synology Assistant and DSM software from the company website before you begin. The Synology assistant recognizes the unit on the network and allows you to install the DSM (operating system) onto the unit. This process is pretty quick, and the unit will automatically restart when it's done.
Disk Allocation and Backups:
The recommended data allocation that the Synology makes is to use all the drives that are available, and in the hybrid RAID format. This will allow for one drive to fail (assuming you have more than one in it) and all the data will still be fine. It also lets the drives to be different models/sizes, which isn't compatible with regular RAID. You don't get the full drive size available to you. You actually lose the space of one of the biggest drives in the unit for redundancy. Plus a small formatting loss. The wizard makes the partitioning very simple; you can have multiple volumes if you want. I just went with one and have multiple folders. You can also have USB drives plugged in (and printers too I think, but my AIO HP is already networked) that are treated as an additional volume. One nice feature here is that the device will backup to the external drive on a defined schedule. So actually, the Synology can fail and the data would still be safe on the backup drive.
Shared Folders:
The device is capable of creating multiple shared folders. You can create a very complex multi-user system with individual shared folders if you want to. Or you can go the simple route like I did and just have a couple including the app-generated music and video folders. I also have a Time Machine folder that has the sparsebundle images that I use to backup my two Macs. Only one user with full access rights, and read-only access to everything for guests. In my home setup, this is plenty because the computers are the only devices that write data, and my jailbroken AppleTv2 is the only device that reads from it (for XBMC). As far as allowing guests read-only access to everything, my WiFi is WPA2-encrypted, so only those select few people have access. And those that do I couldn't care less about what data of mine they see.
Applications:
I haven't explored the apps very much aside from the media server. It will create a DLNA environment that allows the PS3 and also some TVs (I think) to play movies directly from the drive. For those of you that use PS3MediaServer for this purpose, it's not foolproof. PS3MediaServer trans codes on the fly those file formats that the PS3 can't naively play. The Synology, however, plays the files directly. This is a hardware restriction. Putting a CPU and enough memory into the unit to handle video transcoding would raise the price to about $1K. You can still use PS3MediaServer and map the videos folder as a file location, but be aware that if you do this wireless there will be bumps. If the computer is plugged directly into the router that the NAS is plugged into, it should be fine.
Misc:
The unit is surprisingly quiet. My old Drobo was too loud to keep on my desk (and ended up on a table in the corner). It's also very fast compared to the Drobo. On this unit, I average ~30Mbps write and up to ~45Mbps read. I use Aperture and have my entire library stored on the unit. It handles this fine and suffers no lag issues. One computer is directly connected to the router where the NAS is. The unit has gigabit ethernet on it, so that's great. Speed from laptops will obviously be slower. Even wireless N speed can only sustain about 15MB from what I've noticed, but that has nothing to do with the unit. On the Drobo, the fan at the back was behind a plate that couldn't be removed. I like to be able to open the unit and clean it if I have to. My home is near an airport, so it can sometimes be quite dusty during the warm months of the year. Overall, I couldn't be more happy with this purchase. The performance improvements over my Drobo were enormous. It's UI is great and has many features that I hope to someday experiment and explore.
Edit: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - When I purchased the unit, I put the two mentioned drives above into the unit, but I also put two 1TB Green drives from my old Drobo into it. One of those two drives failed last week. The unit sent me an email notification and set off on its warning beeps that the volume was degraded. I immediately Teamviewered into my desktop from my iPhone, and logged into the Synology UI. I was able to discover the serial number of the disabled hard drive and request an RMA from WD. Credit card was authorized for the replacement price, received the new one via UPS 2-Day Air, and returned the old one via UPS ground. For anyone that hasn't done this, you get charged the price of the replacement unit, you buy a discounted UPS shipping label ($6), and send the old one back in the replacement's box. When they receive it, you get refunded the replacement price.
The NAS allowed me to "repair" the volume with the new drive, and a few hours later the unit was back to operating at 100%. Flawless :-D

Click Here to see more reviews about: Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS411J (White)

Synology DiskStation DS411j is designed to provide a cost-effective file storage and backup solution with RAID protection for multi-user home environments. The operating system, Synology DiskStation Manager, delivers rich features for multimedia enjoyments, worry-free backup, Internet sharing, and energy-saving options.

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Iomega StorCenter 2 TB ix2-200 Network Storage Cloud Edition 35427 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this just a few weeks ago, but am happy to share very positive first impressions. The compact unit is generally cool and quiet, except for the usual SCSI chatter when active. Setup was just as simple as they said it would be, although there is a bit of a learning curve with the new feature set. One mistake I made was to underestimate the volume I needed to back up files from three computers (and three external USB drives) in the house; as a result I got midway through the process before deciding that I really needed to forego the RAID 1 redundancy and just use the whole 2TB as JBOD. Unfortunately, this meant starting all over -- so estimate your storage FIRST and avoid my mistake. I did have one technical issue in the middle of the reformatting, but online and on-phone tech support from Iomega was excellent and got me back on track in short order.
And now everything is just so much simpler! New music and media downloads are instantly accessible to all devices in the house. The backups are scheduled and perform automatically, plus you can configure for each copy job whether you want to trigger it off the front button on the device. This is a great feature, because any time during the day that I want to make an ad hoc backup, all I do is just touch one button and the rest is automatic.
Best of all, now I have my own personal cloud, completely within my control, but without a lot of administrative hassle. I may get a second unit to store at a secondary location to replicate storage -- if you have a lot of sensitive content, this is a great solution. But for now, I am happy to take advantage of my free Amazon Cloud storage, which materialized around the same time. So I actually have a hybrid cloud setup. And to be clear: I am not any technical wiz with this stuff, it's just designed to be really easy.
The only disappointment at all is learning that my current router may not support the bridging required to enable the remote access; but with the cloud configuration I really have all the access I need anyway, and I already use GoToMy PC to get all the remote access I need.
Bottom line: this product has solved every problem and delivered every functionality that I needed it to do, and has taken me to the next level with my own cloud at the same time, all for just a little more than a standard network attached storage solution. I give it all five stars.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Iomega StorCenter 2 TB ix2-200 Network Storage Cloud Edition 35427

The Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage, Cloud Edition offers content sharing with advanced security, and is ideal for small and remote offices, workgroups or home networks. Based on enterprise-class EMC storage technology, the StorCenter ix2-200 provides easy file sharing, iSCSI block access, and multiple RAID configurations for optimized data protection. The Iomega Personal Cloud offers unparalleled simplicity and versatility for data sharing and protection. Business users will appreciate the robust data protection features such as UPS support, print serving, folder quotas, rsync device-to-device replication, and user replaceable drives for business continuity and disaster recovery. The easy-to-use interface provides no-hassle management. Active Directory support and remote access round out the comprehensive business features. The StorCenter ix2-200 supports up to five Axis IP security cameras for basic video surveillance. Home users benefit from the advanced media features such as the DLNA certified UPnP AV Media Server, PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol), torrent download compatibility, and Bluetooth upload. Award-winning backup software is included, and RSA BSAFE encryption ensures protected installs and upgrades. Supports PC, Mac and Linux clients and is VMware certified for NFS and iSCSI.

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Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 - 2 TB Network Attached Storage 34481 (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been waiting for this for a long time. This NAS works period!. It works with Apple Time machine. It works with Ubuntu 9.10 (SimpleBackup) and it works with windowsXP (Windows Backup Program).
I wanted a RAID1 NAS storage. RAID standard dictates how hard disks are used. In RAID1 both the hard discs contain the same data. So if one fries the other one will save your day till you replace the broken one with a new disk. I wanted Iomega to act as the backup repository for all my systems which include a macbook (Leopard), ubuntu Linux (9.10) and WindowsXP Pro.
Pros
----
+ For 200+ bucks this offers you RAID1. Which is lot better than over prized Apple Time capsule which has only one hard disk.
+ Works seamlessly with Apple Time machine software
+ Supports FTP Server, UPNP (for media streaming) and SMTP (to send you an emails about diagnostics errors etc)
+ Supports Good Security. Remember once you connect any device to network you should enable user accounts passwords etc.
+ Very Very simple configuration.
+ You can connect external USB storage devices and they are available to all users in your home network. Makes regular usb printers network printers how cool is that ?
+ Very reliable. So far I have transferred 100 Gigs of data over the network and not even once did the network connection drop.
+ Compact and easy to service (in case the hard disk fries).
Cons
None so far
Help Instructions
For Apple Users
Once you install the supplied software the provided TimeMachine folder on the drive is visible to your time machine software as a backup drive. Configuration just involves opening up your time machine preferences and pointing to the NAS timemachine folder. Done! its that simple. I have tried creating a backup and restoring from it and it worked seamlessly.
For Ubuntu
I used the macbook to configure the NAS. Open the admin page in your browser and go to Settings->NetworkServices and Enable NFS. Once you do this the drive will turn on SMB protocol automatically (something that linux and unix worlds love). Now you can either create an additional folder on the drive (like i did or use the existing Backup Folder). Once you decided which folder to use, click on the small "Configure" Spanner icon next to it. This would open up the configuration page. Give a proper name and click next. In this page the software would ask you if you want NFS enabled for the folder. Check the box and give a name. For instance UbuntuBackup. Click ok. Now start your ubuntu computer-> places->Network and the explorer would show you the UbuntuBackup. To let Simple backup store backups here open the System->Administration->SimpleBackup Config-> in destination folder check the second option (SSH or FTP) and enter the following smb://EnterUserName@IOMEGANASNAME/UbuntuBackup (note you have to use username and password only if you have enabled security as i did. Your are done. Do a test backup and restore
Windows
Map the NAS as a drive (assigning a drive letter) and make the backup program use the mapped drive as the destination

Click Here to see more reviews about: Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 - 2 TB Network Attached Storage 34481 (Black)

The Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage offers content sharing with advanced security, and is ideal for small and remote offices, workgroups or home networks. Based on enterprise-class EMC storage technology, the StorCenter ix2-200 provides easy file sharing, iSCSI block access, and multiple RAID configurations for optimized data protection. Business users will appreciate the robust data protection features such as UPS support, print serving, folder quotas, rsync device-to-device replication, and user replaceable drives for business continuity and disaster recovery. The easy-to-use interface provides no-hassle management. Active Directory support and remote access round out the comprehensive business features. The StorCenter ix2-200 supports up to five Axis IP security cameras for basic video surveillance. Home users benefit from the advanced media features such as DLNA certified UPnP AV Media Server, PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol), torrent download compatibility, Bluetooth upload, and Cooliris slide show plug-in. Award-winning EMC Retrospect Express backup software and RSA BSAFE encryption for protected installs and upgrades. Supports PC, Mac, and Linux clients and is VMware certified for NFS and iSCSI. Available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities.

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Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2-Bay 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage ST340005LSA10G-RK Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I feel like I'm in a good place to review this item because I own both the Seagate 220 and also the Western Digital MyBook World Edition, and they are competitors. Both are inexpensive network attached storage appropriate for a home office or for home use. For both machines the only feature I use is reading and writing to the hard drive through windows sharing (from either a windows computer or a linux computer). For that reason I will not comment too much on some of the features like automatic backups, media sharing, etc. For the most part on machines of this level those features are gimmicks. They don't work very well and they degrade overall performance of the NAS, as you will be able to read from other people's reviews. When I want to play media from my NAS, I just mount the drive through windows sharing and play what I want. When I want to back up my computer, I copy stuff myself. For the reason I have a generally more favourable view of both of these machines than other people.
Anyway, on with the review. First I will mention two issues I had to overcome before this NAS was reasonably functional for me.
1. This is the big issue I had to fix: This Seagate NAS does not work well with just any gigabit switch. I originally had it plugged in to a TP-Link switch. I could write to the NAS at full speed, but when I wanted to read from it, the speed was horrible. Maybe 1/20th the speed at which I could write to the NAS. After spending a good deal of time researching the issue online I found out the NAS doesn't play well with some routers and switches. Notably it does not work with D-Link switches. Well, I will add TP-Link to the list it doesn't work with. If I plugged the NAS directly into my Linksys router, the problem went away, but that's only a 100-megabit connection. The funny thing is that the traffic still had to go through the TP-Link switch. In other words, the device this is directly plugged into matters, the rest of the network really doesn't. Anyway I tried various solutions (changing the frame size and so forth). They don't work. The only solution was to buy a netgear switch. If your network has a TP-Link or D-Link switch or router that you'd like to plug this into, budget for a netgear gigabit switch. They aren't real expensive, but I was very annoyed at this problem.
2. This is a small issue, and partly windows' fault: If you create a shortcut to this shared drive in windows and then play a movie from the NAS, it will disconnect 20 minutes into the movie. I originally thought this had to do with the NAS going into sleep mode, but I disabled that feature and it didn't change anything. I didn't notice the problem when playing from my linux machine, and the WD NAS doesn't do this. Anyway, the solution is to actually map the drive in "My Computer" instead of just using a shortcut to get to it. You'd think there would be no difference between those two, but the former works and the latter disconnects after 20 minutes.
Having overcome those two problems, the NAS now functions very nicely for me. The main thing I use this NAS for is to play movies that I have ripped from my DVD collection. They play perfectly on any computer in the house and I can even play two movies on two different computers. Actually I'm not sure how many movies I can play at a time. Nor have I tried playing any HD movies yet, so I can't comment on that, but the speed over my gigabit network seems more than adequate for that.
A couple of comparisons with the Western Digital:
1. This machine is significantly faster than the Western Digital. When I upload to this machine from my Linux box I sustain about 18 or 19 megabytes per second. On the Western Digital I get about 11. This may not sound like a big difference here, but when copying a large file or backing up a whole computer, it makes a very noticeable difference. I don't pay a lot of attention to my download copy speed, but it is above 30 MB per second, whereas I get more like 19 from the Western Digital. I am running this in a RAID 0 configuration. However, I also did a speed test using JBOD and the speeds were exactly the same, so the gain is not really from the RAID (the WD I use has only one HD in it, so there's no RAID option).
2. The Seagate is significantly louder than the Western Digital. It's not loud compared to most hardware, but you can hear the drives spinning if you get close and listen, and when they start up or go to sleep you can hear a click that is pretty noticeable. Sometimes it clicks when no one is using it and you would think it would just be sleeping peacefully. At first I thought this was a hardware problem but it turns out that my NAS is fine. It's just louder than expected. Of course, WD sets the bar high for silence. It is almost impossible to tell if the WD machine is on or doing anything if you ignore the lights on the front (or disable them, as I have).
3. The Seagate is much larger physically. It's not big on an absolute scale, and I don't keep it on my desktop, so it's not a problem, but it's much larger than the WD. The WD is just a hair larger than the actual drive inside it. The Seagate looks like a UPS or something. Anyway I think it looks nice, but one should be aware that it's not as minimalist as some others.
4. The Seagate doesn't try to accommodate tweaks from expert users as much, and it has a much smaller and less active user base. Both machines run Linux under the hood, so if there's a problem with them an experienced user could get in and change things up. On the Western Digital you can enable ssh access through the web interface. And there are bunches of tutorials online about how to fix the technical glitches this comes with and even install new hardware on it. Personally I went in and disabled their media playing software and the software that runs an apple network. Apparently on the WD these things run even though you disabled them and they mess the machine up. Anyway, there is no ssh option on the seagate, so in principle you can't go in and change things. There aren't really help pages for experts. However, recently a user did figure out a way to enable ssh. He wrote an update to the firmware. I used it and it works great, but I can see how some users may not feel comfortable upgrading their firmware in order to get ssh access. Anyway after ssh'ing in, I found that there is one windows bug that the NAS wasn't dealing with well. That is, windows clients delete the last character of the share when they are reading and it causes a bunch of errors to the log, though it still seems to work ok. The workaround is to create another share on the NAS that is not visible, called "Publi", which refers to the same directory. So I'm glad to be ssh'ing in now. Still, for tweaking, it's a better bet to go with the WD. It's been vetted by more linux people.
Anyway, this drive works very well for me. It's my larger and higher performance network attached storage and it is quite reliable for me. When I purchased it, this was cheaper than the equivalent capacity in WD (I use the 4 TB version). In part I believe I'm happy with it because I don't try and use the features that get touted in ads. I just use it as network attached storage. That's true of both drives, and it's what I recommend. The forums for both these machines are full of people ranting about how their device doesn't do what they want and that no one at the company seems to care about them---that's why I say just use it as a remote hard drive. Based on my perusal of the forums, Seagate seems to support their NAS customers less (at least on the forums), though neither company is real great in that respect.
I love both of my network storage devices and I use them both all the time. This seagate is a great buy. When I bought it, at least, it was the cheapest NAS available with this capacity and it turns out to be a very good performer. It's really nice to be able to back things up or store all my large files in one place and be able to access them from any computer in my house. If I were to buy a third NAS, it would probably be another Seagate, just because it's cheaper and faster than the competition.
But make sure you plug it into a NETGEAR device, not a TP-Link or D-Link. I'm not sure about other brands.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 2-Bay 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage ST340005LSA10G-RK

4TB Blackarmor NAS220

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Seagate Maxtor Central Axis 1 TB Network Storage Server STM310005CAA00G-RK Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've just purchased this device to backup my Macbook because of a hard drive crash.
I specifically bought the device because it would work with a Mac and I've met all of their minimum requirements.
So I hook up the thing, and their software doesn't find the drive as it's supposed to. I think, oh that'll be okay, I'll just configure the IP in the device and it'll be good from here on out.
Nope, It *must* run through the detect phase of the program every time. After a lot of trial and error, I got the thing to detect, but not reliably. This means backups don't happen as scheduled. Pretty much making the product worthless to me.
I spoke with their tech. support, when I told them I was using with a mac they actually said "you're killing me"
I recommend against this product if you have a mac.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Seagate Maxtor Central Axis 1 TB Network Storage Server STM310005CAA00G-RK

Digital videos of your children taking their first steps. The music library you\'ve built. The 15 years of personal financial data you\'ve compiled. They\'re highly valuable—if not irreplaceable—but when stored on your home computers they\'re also vulnerable to system failures and viruses, loss and theft.
Automatic data backup, secure web access and sharing, and convenient media access and streaming for your home network Central Axis storage server delivers a smart, simple way to automatically back up the valuable digital content on all the computers in your home network. Backups happen automatically—a welcome change from the tedious chore of copying your content to discs and thumb drives.
You can securely access and share your content via any web browser, too, so it\'s a snap to grab a file from any computer in your home or on the road, and you can easily share content with friends and family everywhere. And for a rich home entertainment experience, you can create a centralized library of household photos, videos, and music that offers anytime access and streaming to your networked TVs, digital music players, and computers.
With automated data protection, you can automatically back up all your network-connected computers to one central, safe location. The Maxtor Central Axis can securely access your stored content and can view images and slideshows from any Internet-connected PC, Mac, or laptop while keeping your firewall intact. Easy file sharing allows you to invite friends and family to view and download select photos and other files via the web. You can even authorize guests to upload their own content. The convenient media access and streaming will let you enjoy the convenience of a centralized, always-accessible library of your household\'s digital music, videos, and photos, and stream media from your Central Axis to any networked computer or home entertainment device. (Requires a UPnP AV-compatible player.)
Printer sharing allows you to print from anywhere on your network. Most importantly, Maxtor Central Axis Network Storage Server is easy to use. Plug your Central Axis into your router and it automatically configures to your network. The server quickly loads and organizes your content by file type, provides at-a-glance storage and backup status, and notifies you via email of system events.
The stylish design of this hard drive--only measures 6.8 x 2.5 x 5.9-inches (H x D x W). All that is required is a wired or wireless router with an available 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, an Internet connection (for system updates and web access), and a UPnP AV 1.0 certified Digital Media Adapter if media streaming is desired.
System Requirements - Windows - Pentium III, 500Mhz equivalent processor or higher, Windows Vista or Windows XP, 128MB RAM, and Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, or Firefox 2.X or later for management interface of or web access to Central Access - Macs - Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, Safari 3.1 or later, and 128 MB of RAM.
Product Highlights What's in the BoxMaxtor Central Axis storage server, Maxtor installation CD, quick start guide, Maxtor manager software, Ethernet cable, AC power adapter, user guide on CD, and a 5-year limited warranty.

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Netgear Stora 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage MS2110 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What's not to love about the Netgear Stora? On description alone, this sounds like a great product for home users to back up their computers and store their music and picture libraries. Perfect, right?
Although this is marketed for the non-technical user, after my experiences, I don't thing Grandma would ever figure this one out.
When I first installed the Stora I thought everything was going to work just like indicated. I had the stora set up, registered, password created, and had even added a couple of music files to test it out. Music was streaming perfectly. Then.. I tried to go online to read the owners manual and that is where the fun began. I found when the Stora was turned on that it hijacked my router and blocked Internet access from any other device in the house. Even computers that had never even accessed the Stora or had the Stora desktop applications installed were blocked as well as my squeezebox.
I turned off the Stora and cleared the cookies from my computers and restarted them, and I was able to get back onto the Internet. Then I turned the Stora on and it immediately blocked Internet access. I worked for a few hours on my own trying to diagnose the problem and find a workaround. Having no luck, I contacted technical support.
I found that Netgear surprisingly had 24/7 technical support, which was excellent at 2:30 am, except for the forty minutes of hold time. The first tech support specialist was a joy to work with. He was patient beyond what could be expected of saints. He went through every troubleshooting idea he could come up with. After spending two hours with me, at my suggestion he agreed I should try to assign an IP address to the Stora rather than allowing my router to auto-assign an IP address. I knew the IP address should be along the lines of 192.168.1.1xx but the tech support specialist told me to set it to 192.168.1.1, and against my better judgement, I put that in. At that point, my router decided he'd had enough and flipped out and kept flashing lights non-stop. My Internet AND Stora access were blocked. The tech support specialist set up a time for a higher level tech support specialist to call me back, and right on schedule I was contacted by Patrick. Patrick quickly ran through the notes and tried a few more things to help me, but finally ascertained that he couldn't fix the problem and suggested I either RMA it or return it to Amazon. He also understood that the Stora and the last tech support specialist made the problem worse so he tried to help me get my network working again even after we had taken the Stora off of the network. It didn't work, but I did appreciate his willingness to help.
The technical support specialists we talked to never addressed the issue of a possible hardware conflict, such as my router, but I got to thinking that might be the problem. We run a home business and in a fret of worry about not being able to print out and access tomorrows business I had my husband run to Sam's Club and purchase a new router. I did a system restore on all of the computers in the house to three days prior (and made sure the Stora was not connected in any way to my network, lol). I then installed the new router and my network was resurrected.
That got me to thinking.. maybe my router was not compatible with the Stora. Making a leap of faith I printed out tomorrows business and reconnected the Stora. Like magic, I did not get kicked off the Internet. The Stora was still working. I uploaded dozens of albums to the Stora and started streaming music around the house. I finally figured out that my router was incompatible with the Stora. Others on forums have complained that the Stora running blocks their http access. I would suspect that the problem lies in the router, how it assigns IP addresses, and that interacts with the Stora.
I don't feel that this product was ready for prime time. I did some backups, but found they did not create what I consider to be a mirror backup. I couldn't scroll through the hierarchy of drives and files like on my Seagate replica, but instead it's the type of backup you would use to restore a system. I also found the backup on this product to be incredibly slow compared to other competing products I've used.
I still like using it for streaming music and will probably add another 1TB drive to safeguard my files, but I don't know if the average person would persist through the many hours it took me to get this working correctly.
My other complaint is that the PDF user manual was "included" on the setup CD, but in fact it needed to be online to read. In other words, when they say the user manual is on CD, you have to be connected to the Internet to read the manual at their web site. It's not a stand alone PDF accessible straight from the CD. That REALLY frustrated me when I was having problems.
One more complaint, if the music folder is a folder within a folder it won't play. For example, if you have eight Michael Jackson albums contained within a folder called "Michael Jackson" and click "autoplay" it won't play any music. You have to manually drill down to get to the album you want.
Some reviewers have reported having to open ports on their firewall. I suppose experiences will vary. I set up my Stora using a Windows 7 64-bit operating system with Windows firewall and MSSE. I never had to adjust anything to complete the setup and my network is still secured. Perhaps there are compatibility factors that cause workarounds like disabling your firewall or opening ports.
I haven't yet set up the remote access free trial, but plan to give it a try once I have more loaded onto the Stora. I'll update my review and experiences after I try it out.
I hope that Netgear improves the Stora software because it has a lot of potential, but in it's current state it has basic functionality, basic storage, basic backup, with remote and network access. With better firmware and software, this product could be a must-have.
Pros:
Inexpensive
90 days free phone support
3 year warranty parts & labor
1TB storage
Remote access for only $20 per year
Ability to add another 3.5" SATA drive and utilize RAID feature
No need to install the desktop apps on additional computers, just access it's assigned IP on your network (192.168.1.?)
Can use this as a network printer server by connecting the printer through USB
File upload is very easy - just drag and drop
Cons:
Mirror backup is not a mirror- it's just a backup
Incompatibility with some routers
Folder management is pretty basic
Slow backups
I feel the 90 day free phone support should be longer, at least six months

Click Here to see more reviews about: Netgear Stora 2-Bay 1 TB (1 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage MS2110

Includes one 3.5-Inch SATA drive and one open hot-swap bay. Add a spare disk drive at your convenience for automatic data mirroring. Acts as a multimedia hub that serves music, video, photos and files to any device on your home network. High-speed network connection for fast data transfers and streaming performance. Access files and play or view content at home and over the Internet. Integrates with Facebook, iTunes, Picasa2 and Web-enabled phones2

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NetDisk 351UNE 3.5-Inch USB/eSATA/Ethernet Enclosure For USB or Network Storage Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
The Iocell NetDisk 351UNE is a poor product. The name makes everyone believe this device is a "Network Attached storage" device (commonly called a NAS device). This is NOT a NAS device. This device is a 'NDAS' device.
A NDAS device is a made-up word by Iocell/Ximeta to mean their version of a networked storage device. With the Netdisk 351UNE - Using NDAS- the storage device requires every computer to install the 'Netdisk' install utility.
Once done only ONE computer with THEIR software installed write to the drive. The rest can only READ from the drive. With newer versions of their software multiple people may have permissions (beta version). With the upgraded beta versions of the software- the 'host' computer (first computer to have write access while installed) must ALWAYS-BE-ON for other drives to access the data and write to the drive. The included software that ships with the drive only allows for ONE computer to write and is only compatible with Win98/2000/2003 Server for network access. Vista drivers included are only for e-sata/usb.
The Netdisk 351UNE does not support ftp/bit torrent servers/ ect as there is no IP address assigned to the networked drive ever. There is no configuration web page available and no drive statistics to view. To 'mount' and 'unmount' the drive you click on the drive icon available in the task-bar at all times.
Summary:
Do not buy this expecting a NAS device (A drive enclosure that you could simply turn on and have a drive available on the network to save files to retrieve files). The NetDisk 351UNE is not a NAS device. The NetDisk 351UNE is a network gimmick for a poor-mans networked hard-drive at a comparable price.


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3.5" USB/eSATA/Ethernet Enclosure For USB or Network Storage

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HP EX495 1.5 TB MediaSmart Home Server (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'm technically inclined, but not an engineer. I have some experience with this topic... I first built my own server with spare parts and run it at my home. I am reviewing this because I bought it for my parents and installed it.
Preface - as of 2010, I've seen a lot of heartache about Mac Compatibility. Please, do some research before purchasing this product for a Mac to see if this will fit your needs. There is a TON of outside forum support about this. Otherwise my original review still stands:
Part 1: The software, and what HP brings to the party:
Windows Home Server is actually a program (based on Windows Server 2003 with enhancements, optimized and pre-configured), and is easy to use in a home. And it is good, all by itself. HP's contributions by adding on its own 'add-ins' make the software better.
As a sample of what this means for you, an example: If you are recording tv shows on in Windows 7 media center you can offload your shows here, and still stream them giving you instant access anytime over your home network from a windows 7 PC. The new update to the software also makes it so you can set windows 7 up to offload your recordings from your Windows 7 pc to the server automatically so you don't tie up your computer's storage space. If you want to take a look at what that kind of pc setup might look like, just search listmania for "Win 7 HTPC build"; I'm the first search hit.
So what does HP bring to this? If you have media files that you want to convert for viewing on a mobile device, HP bundled an add-in transcoding software on this so you can offload that work to server's CPU and not tie up your computer while you'd rather be surfing or playing games or whatever else you do to make things better (Note: HP's transcoding will NOT remove DRM). There are a lot more add-ins they bundle with this, but it's exhaustive and there isn't the space.
Bottom line, there are plenty of 'WHS' solutions. But my take is that HP has put a lot behind making this a great software bundle, and I have to say I'm impressed with the bonus they bring. Emphasis on the word Bonus, because they are 'nice to have-s' not designed for the people who consider them 'must-have-s'. The core functionality of streaming video, storing shares and back-up is what this is designed for. Part deux: What's so great about the hardware.
The pictures make it look big. But it is small - about the size of a small bread box turned on end. I was surprised when I unboxed it. It's also easy to add hard drives. It comes with one, but you'll get hooked and want to add one. Just take out a tray, pop in a recent generation "SATA II" drive and replace the tray in the server and it self configures. I recommend buying one straight away anyway because then you can turn on 'file duplication'. That means the server at your specific direction will keep duplicate copies of folders you select on two separate hard drives in the server as insurance against mechanical failure.
You can also back up the system drive, which I'm learning how to do, and you need an external USB drive to do that.
Energy-wise It pulls about 4 to 6 watts under normal operation. Yet another reason to buy this if you are power conscious. Don't let that figure fool you. There's plenty of hardware oomph for most people's needs.
Part Three - Documentation.
There is a lot of documentation! Just not in the box that comes with the server. WHS started out of a user community/company initiative that blossomed into a server software product that now you are seeing hardware being made for. So, if you aren't sure if this is for you - please take a look online about what other uses this is for and what alternatives are out there.
Summary:
Good build, solid software, continuous integration to Windows backed by a very committed enthusiast community that makes it so you don't have to think 'what if my hard drive crashes/computer shorts out/child vandalizes my computer?
It's automated and low/no maintenance. For a commited user: a 'no-brainer'. For someone who needs to purchase tech support from a computer vendor, I suggest that a home server is not likely a good fit for you. You are probably better off with an online backup service for your needs.
I like this one because it has extra drive bays. There are configurations that just use one hard drive, but I would pass on that.
If you are buying an add on drive, a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 32 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD1001FALS should work just fine. Update - 7/9/10 WHS (the program, not the HP MediaSmart server) does random things when stuff starts failing, meaning if you ever get random restarts, can't find drives or things like that, it's not the software it's just not that robust to tell you when something is broken. On my HOMEMADE server, I had a stick of ram go bad and it gave me random errors until I figured it out. (But that's no different than any standard computer, just thought it was good to update about how its going)
Also, MSFT is working on a new version of WHS software called "Vail" that is in beta right now. It should handle errors like dying hard drives a bit more cleanly than what some folks are experiencing now...For those of you who are adventurous, I've put a listmania list together for you on how to build your own. http://www.amazon.com/lm/R1NJKRJG6H78L6/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb=

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The HP EX495 Media Smart Server is the all-in-one solution to manage your media: a home server that can automatically backup and protect your digital memories, centralize your media and content for sharing with family and friends, and enable you to enjoy your digital media while at home or away.Network-based backup of PCs using Windows Home Server as well as Macs using Apple’s Time Machine.Media streaming of photos, music and videos to PCs, the entertainment center and remote devices including the iPhone.What's in the box: HP EX495 (1.5TB plus 3 unused expansion bays) MediaSmart Server,Power cord, Ethernet cable, Software installation disc , PC restore disc, Server recovery disc and Setup Poster and HP support guides.One year limited warranty and our dedicated software technical support available from date of purchase both online and by phone.

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Apple Time Capsule MB765LL/A 1TB Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've owned the Apple Time Capsule 1TB model for several months now.
Pros:
1. Very large 1TB hard drive
2. Very fast WiFi connections
3. Easily sets up with your network (what Mac product doesn't?)
4. Much faster on my DSL network than the DSL wireless router I had previously connected
Cons:
1. Extremely SLOW data transfer. I'm not exaggerating when I say it took 15hrs to backup a wired connection with about 250gb of data to transfer...... wireless backup of that amount of data wasn't even reasonable, it was going to be several days.
2. I had wanted to use it for my iTunes library. To share my library on several devices when my Macbook was not available. Turns out the transfer speed is too slow for this purpose and I had to scratch that idea.
3. At times, it's been too slow to even use for Time Machine. The problem lies with the hard drive it seems since the wireless connection is extremely fast. Maybe there is some issue with the way the Time Capsule communicates with it's hard drive? I don't know, I only know it's painfully slow.
lf this can only be used as a wireless network hub and painfully slow backups, then there are better options out there. If Apple can somehow get this thing to work as advertised, then it might be worth a look. The way it is now... NOT RECOMMENDED!

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Wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It's also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station Time Capsule works with Mac computers, PCs, iPhone, iPod touch, Apple TV, and virtually all 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless devices all at the same time Protect yourself with the built-in firewall and industry-standard encryption technologies including WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP System Requirements - For Time Machine backup -Mac with Mac OS X Leopard / For setup and administration -Mac computer with Mac OS X v.10.4 or later, CD drive, and Ethernet or wireless networking capability; PC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista, CD drive, and Ethernet or wireless networking capability / For wireless client access -Mac with AirPort or AirPort Extreme wireless capability; PC with 802.11a/b/g/n / For shared hard drive -Mac with Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later; PC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista; Bonjour

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