Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336

From Iomega
	Price: $159.99
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Features - Simple to use: Three step set-up ¿ simply plug into your router, power on, and install the software CD. Friendly web screens for easy management - Sharing: Access files from any networked Windows PC or Apple computer for easy file sharing - UPnP AV Media Server: Compatible with DLNA certified media players, able to stream photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices like game consoles, audio bridges, DMAs (digital media adapters), picture frames and more - Torrent Download: Torrent is the new standard in peer-to-peer file sharing. Direct file transfer to your StorCenter is easier, faster and more reliable - especially with large media files - Remote Access: Access and manage your data from anywhere in the world via remote browser access Product Description Enjoy your digital life! Easily share and access files, photos, videos, and music between all your computers with the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive. Powerful and fast, the three-step set-up is very simple, even if you've never used a network drive before. Ideal for centrally storing all your media files, the Home Media Network Hard Drive has a built in UPnP AV Media Server (DLNA certified) and iTunes Server so that content can be easily shared between computers and any other digital media adapters such as game consoles, digital picture frames or networked TVs on your network. Plus, remote access means that you can manage and use your content anywhere that you have an internet connection. Torrent download allows you to take advantage of the new standard in file sharing, and other features allow you to share a printer and control which family members have access to certain folders. Automatically backup all your computers to the network drive with award winning EMC Retrospect Express backup software for PC and Mac (included), or virtually any backup application, including Time Machine. For extra protection backup online with MozyHome Online Backup service - 2GB included free. Customer Reviews Pretty seamless home network drive Date: 2009-02-26 | Rating: 5 I've been using the 1TB media drive for about a month and a half now and have had a very positive experience. I set it up on an XP machine and had little problem connecting to it from my Vista laptop and XP netbook without installing any software. The only feature I haven't used is the USB print server (my printer is located in my office and the hard drive is connected in the living room next to the router and haven't wanted to move either one so they could be physically connected). My PS3 automatically found the device on the network, and I use the PS3 to watch TV shows stored on the hard drive on my HDTV. This works great. I can't edit files using the PS3, but I can play AVI and MP3 files (I sometimes play music through my stereo system this way as well as TV shows). Formats like .mkv files won't play this way, but that's a function of the PS3 rather than a limitation of the hard drive. I'm not using the backup software that comes with it; I manually load files to the device from any of my computers. I store my business files, writing, music, etc. on the drive and thus can, for instance, sit outside with my netbook while still accessing all my files (which is handy since the netbook has very little local storage). All my files are in one place and it doesn't matter which computer I'm using. Uploading files is not much, if any, faster than a USB 2.0 drive in my experience, but download speeds seem very snappy and even very high resolution video files play back over the network with no delay. For me, this HD solved a lot of problems. I highly recommend it if you have multiple PCs in your house and a collection of media or data files that you want to share, especially if you have a supported device like a PS3 connected to your TV. If you only have one PC and don't want to play media on your TV, you're better off with a 1 TB USB drive since that will be cheaper. Pros * Decent transfer performance over my network (via both wired and wireless connections) * Can connect to it via PS3 or Xbox 360 to view/listen to media files * Pretty painless setup * Takes up very little space * Works exactly as advertised and I'm in no danger of filling up the huge 1 TB drive Cons * Drive is a little noisy * Whether it's a factor of my router or the net drive, sometimes my netbook (wireless) and PS3 (wired) lose connection temporarily. I think this is something happening on my network rather than the drive though. * If I rename a file on the drive using my PC while a file is playing back on my PS3, there is a hiccup on playback: I lose sound for a second, then sound resumes but video playback lags for a few seconds before resuming. Audio and video remain synced when this happens, though. Easy Installation - Good Back-Up Software Date: 2009-07-14 | Rating: 5 The Iomega Home Media Network Storage device is an external hard drive that connects to a network. If you have a wireless router connected to the internet, you have a network. The advantage of a network drive is that multiple computers can access it at the same time. A standard external USB or Firewire drive can only connect to a single computer at one time and does not afford any real security. The drive comes in a nice aluminum case that can be mounted horizontally or vertically. Connect the power supply and network cable (to your routers extra hub ports) and it's ready to configure. The network interface is auto configuring. If you have a newer router or switch, it will do gigabit. In practice, gigabit speed is about 3-4 times faster than 100mb. Installation of the Iomega drive was made easy by the supplied software. If you're a knowledgeable IT person, you can skip using their software and just map a drive to it. Once configured with an IP address, you can use Internet Explorer to get into the management software. The management software allows you to set up multiple shares (folders with permissions on them) . This way you can have personal folders that only a single person can access as well as folders that multiple users can access. I set up 2 folders that have single user access (one for each of the two of us). Then I set up folders that everyone (on my network... not the internet) could access... one for music , one for pictures, etc. A network drive makes it easy to backup important files. Copying the files up to a share provides insurance in case your hard drive fails or laptop is stolen. The drive comes with backup software which works well. This is not a drive to carry with your laptop when you travel (there's no USB port), but if you need a good reliable drive to access at home this fits the bill very nicely. A network drive and media server for the price of a USB drive... no brainer! Date: 2009-08-02 | Rating: 5 This drive is great if you have more than one computer and are tired of moving an USB drive between them. You hook it to your wired network and all your computers can see and share it. If you have a large media library, this terabyte media server is your solution. It's not just a dumb network drive either, it can work as an iTunes or DLNA server so you can play videos and music directly on a compatible device such as the PS3 or a PC running the free XBMC media center application. Set up was easy. I haven't used the CD that came with it, I'm sure it is great, but this drive does not need any special software to work and the less bloat on my system, the better. Connect it to the network just like you would a computer and turn it on. Give it a moment to boot up, then go to your computer and look for it in your Windows Network under WORKGROUP. It has a funky name like Iomega-0a1234 which you can change. Now you can start using the device. You can copy files to and from it just like a regular Windows network share. Write speed on a regular (100Mbps) network is about 5-6MB/s. To take advantage of its Gigabit capability you need both a Gigabit switch like this one: Netgear GS608NA Giga Switch 8Port and your computer to have a Gigabit ethernet port. Then the write speed is close to 10-11MB/s and read is around 20MB/s (tested under Linux). Keep in mind that you *do not* need Gigabit to play videos. A regular home network should be just fine, although if your playback devices are on WiFi you might be pushing it and will experience problems if it's the slower kind (802.11b). Stay with wired (any kind) for consistent video playback. I also plugged an USB flash drive in the back to see how it works. The flash drive appeared as another network share by its name (I now have a "lexar" share next to the "music", "movies" etc). This means the Iomega drive has the capability of making your old USB drive accessible over the network also! To see its web configuration GUI you must know the IP address to put in a web browswer. That's probably one of the reasons to use the Iomega software but it is a simple command otherwise, or your router can show the IP in its "DHCP clients list". The web config is clean, it allows you to create or delete folders, enable/disable the iTunes and DLNA servers for each folder, create users who can access them. You can even adjust the brightness of the white LED so it does not light up the whole room at night. Nice touch. TwonkyMedia Server is the embedded software inside, so do not be surprised if you find that name in your DLNA browser. There is a second nifty web interface on port 9000 which gives you access to the TwonkyMedia GUI without the "friendly" Iomega skin. There you have a PC media browser, a mobile media browser in two resolutions and more advanced configuration settings including MAC-based access controls. The drive runs warm (100F) at normal room temperature like most USB drives. It is not particularly quiet due to the fact that it's a 7200rpm hard drive and has a small exhaust fan in the back. There seems to be some variance in how noisy the fan is, some may be quieter than others. On the good side, this fan appears to be temperature-controlled so keep the unit ventilated and don't sit it next to equipment that runs hot (cable box or game console) and you won't get to hear it whine too loud. Better yet, since it's a network drive, you're not stuck with keeping it on your desk, you can put it anywhere you can run a network cable. I'm giving it five stars despite the noise problem because right now, for this price, it has a great feature set. For future versions however, I would want a quieter fan, the ability to control hard drive noise (quiet mode) and a low-power idle mode. I don't think I want the hard drive to shut down because power-up is most stressing on hard drives, I'd rather leave it running at low speed or something like that. I have not tested hooking up a printer to it so I don't know how well that works. I recommend an already-networked laser printer Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces instead. A great idea. Easy to set up and use. Date: 2009-06-09 | Rating: 5 I have been looking for a solution of how to network my home computers, including a couple of desktops, and laptops. Music particularly, and also pictures and videos have been hidden from view because having different computers has meant lugging zip drives, photo cards and media all over the house. In short, it doesn't happen often. Wow, things have changes from the days of ONE Apple II in the living room. I was very happy when I received this item, because it looked like the solution to my problems. This is what I found: Pros: 1. Package: Nice looking, fairly small and fairly quiet. Not a ugly addition to a desktop at all. 2. Price: the price for this item and the larger 1TB is very minor compared to the ability to network home computers. 3. Set-up: I found the set-up to be fairly easy in that you essentially hook up the drive to your router through a standard (and provided) DSL Ethernet cable. You insert a CD for the drivers and you should be able to see the network drive listed on your computer. Next, add your media and your ready to go. Set-up went easily, much better than expected. 4. Size: 500GB is the size of the drive I received. Though 500 GB seems to be impossibly large, it could be that 1TB might be better. But, given a few years ago when 1GB was a lot of information, this is still a great deal of space. 5. Itunes capable: if your like me and you have a lot of music in your itunes library, this feature of being able to share a library across your network is a significant feature and would be a deal maker for me. I can't comment on the total ease of use because I have not had the item long enough, but it sure seems to work very well thus far. Neutral: 1. The instructions are not very clear and specific. If you are not computer-literate, you may have some problems with set-up because their are not tons of instructions in the manual you receive in the package, although you do get a more comprehensive manual on the CD, 2. The drive does stay on 24/7. It seems well ventilated with a fairly quiet fan. Who knows about long-term use, i.e. will it last at least four years when I figure a 2 TB drive will be under $100? 3. Print server: I have no idea how this function works because I already have a network ready printer so this function was not needed. 4. There is a USB port in the back which I have not messed around with, so I have no idea if you can link up a computer directly in this manner, but it does exist. Given the lack of a power down/powersave function, I hope this is a capability for a software update. Cons: 1. Long-term: as mentioned above, the drive does not spin down and there is no power down mode I could find. I would hope that this could be addressed in a software update. 2. Fan noise: Some reviewers have mentioned an issue with the fan noise. You can hear the fan, but it is quiet. You certainly do not notice it in a office or home setting where there is other noise. If you require absolute quiet you should be aware of this issue. Slight for me, it may drive some nuts. Then again, this is a hard drive and it needs to be kept cool. Overall, this is a very well made item. A great solution for those looking to network media in a easy and most importantly inexpensive manner. I will update this review in the comments with issues long-term, but so far (one week) this item has worked well. Very Cool Date: 2009-12-11 | Rating: 5 Basic netork storage with a few bonuses. Like torrent downloading and ftp server. Be sure to get the newest firmware when you get yours because it adds functions. I didnt try the included software. Im sure its ok but local software to run a network device never made sense to me. Just log in to the web interface and all you need is there. I personally set the drive to a static ip on my router just so its easier to find without having to guess its current ip. So to keep it short. Very Cool! Update!!! I did have one problem with the admin login. Suddenly after using the drive for a day or so i couldn't get into the admin interface if i set a password. It would just say error 500 web server error. It worked fine without a pass, but what good would protected folders be if anyone could just type in the drives ip and set sharing to everyone. So falling for the illusion that tech support knows anything more than i do i do the chat support. The person was friendly and moderately knowledgeable but couldn't help me. they offered to help me over the phone for free (how kind of them) but i declined. So after some brainstorming and a couple of redbulls i had a revelation. Could it be my username for my password protected shares? Turns out thats what it was. When you set up shares you can give them username and password authentication. My user name had a space in it. So i change my username to just one word (no spaces) and BANG!! everything works like a charm. I haven't found anyone else who had that problem but if anyone else ever does, there ya go. Im still very happy with the product. all it really needs is an update in the included literature. Heck it could be in there for all i know. i never read manuals.