Pogoplug Multimedia Sharing Device

[hlewton]

If anyone is familiar with the Pogoplug Multimedia Sharing Device - Pogoplug POGOE02 can you tell me if I can use it to access hard drives connected to it without having to access the Internet to do so? I don't want to access these hard drives from outside my home but it seems from all I have read I have to activate this devise by connecting to the Internet and then the hard drives can be access from any computer in the world as long as they have the correct password, etc. to connect. I only want to be able to access these hard drives from the computers in my own network and I'm not sure this devise will allow that without setting up an Internet account which I don't want to do.


Thanks

[HansV]

The Pogoplug device is specifically intended for accessing your hard disk across the internet, from outside your house. So I don't think it's suitable for your purposes.

I'm not an expert on home networking, but I think sharing drives inside your home should be much easier. Hopefully someone else will come up with useful suggestions.

[hlewton]

Thanks Hans

[StuartR]

...I only want to be able to access these hard drives from the computers in my own network...

Please let us know

• What operating systems you have on all the computers that need to access the shared storage
• Do you already have disk drives with data that you want to share or will you be buying new disks?
• Which computer will be serving the disks to your home network
• How each of your computers is currently connected to the Internet

Then we should be able to point you to suitable instructions for sharing the data, and accessing it over your home network.

[hlewton]

...I only want to be able to access these hard drives from the computers in my own network...

Please let us know

• What operating systems you have on all the computers that need to access the shared storage
• Do you already have disk drives with data that you want to share or will you be buying new disks?
• Which computer will be serving the disks to your home network
• How each of your computers is currently connected to the Internet

Then we should be able to point you to suitable instructions for sharing the data, and accessing it over your home network.

First I read this article Putting a hard drive on a network and thought that the recommended devises would do what I want to do.

All the computers are XP with the exception of one with Windows 7 on it.

I have two external USB connected disk drives that have data stored on them which are connected to one XPP computer at present.

Which computer will be serving the disks to your home network

Don't know what this is asking, sorry.

5 computers are connected through Ethernet connections and two are wireless connections. I have a wireless router which I connect to a switch then the Ethernet connections are connected to the switch.

My goal was to be able to access these external hard drives from any of my computers without having to turn on a specific computer which was connected to them.

[StuartR]

Edited by StuartR to add
I have just seen that you said

...My goal was to be able to access these external hard drives from any of my computers without having to turn on a specific computer which was connected to them.

This makes a very big difference. You will have to buy some kind of Network Attached Storage device to do this. There are quite a few vendors of these devices, but they all seem quite expensive to me and I have never used them. Maybe there will be a lounger who can advise on specific products.

The rest of this post describes how to share the drives if you are prepared to leave the PC they are connected to running.

---

...I have two external USB connected disk drives that have data stored on them which are connected to one XPP computer at present...

The easiest solution will be to "serve" the disks from this Windows XP computer, and then to map the drives from all the other computers.

The basic steps to get this working will be:

• Make sure that you have a user account configured on EVERY computer that has the same username and password. This must not be a blank password.
• On the Winodws XP Professional computer that the drives are connected to
  • Right click one of the drives in Windows Explorer
  • Select "Sharing and Security" and tell windows to share the drive, give the share a name you can remember - you will be typing this ShareName later
  • Set permissions for the share to allow Everyone to have Full Access (I don't have a Windows XP system here to check how to do this at the moment, but it should be on a menu that you can find when you are sharing the drive
  • Do the same for the other drive you want to share
  • Make sure you know the name of this computer, you will be typing this ComputerName later. If you don't know the name then you can find it from Control Panel > System
• On all the other computers
  • Open windows explorer
  • On the tools menu select "Map network drive"
  • Type the name of the remote share as \\ComputerName\ShareName
  • When you OK your way out of the menus you will see the shared drive as a new drive letter in Windows Explorer
• If you have any problems getting this to work then have a look at Troubleshooting shares on a home network

[hlewton]

Thanks StuartR but I really wanted to be able to access the drives without the computer being turned on and thought those devises in the article I linked to would do that for me but not absolutely sure of that.

[StuartR]

Thanks StuartR but I really wanted to be able to access the drives without the computer being turned on and thought those devises in the article I linked to would do that for me but not absolutely sure of that.

The article describes Network Attached Storage devices. These can do what you want. They act as small self-contained computers that make disk drives available to all the other computers on your network.

I am not familiar with any specific devices, but a Google search for "Network attached storage reviews" has lots of hits. You should read the reviews with some scepticism as some of them will just be advertising rather than genuine reviews.

[JoeP]

Thanks StuartR but I really wanted to be able to access the drives without the computer being turned on and thought those devises in the article I linked to would do that for me but not absolutely sure of that.

You ought to check out Windows Home Server – media server, backup and data recovery solution. If you are going to end spending the money on a NAS device why not look at a small server like WHS which can do so much more than just make files available?

Joe

[hlewton]

Thanks to you both and I will look into the other suggestions.

[hlewton]

WOW the WHS seems like an expensive way to go of the $70.00 devise I was looking at would do the trick. So if the first one I mentioned isn't what I want here are the specs for another one and do you think it is what I am looking for? At only $70.00 it seems to me to be the answer. It is an Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station 34779

Product Features and Technical Details
Product Features
Gigabit Ethernet and Wireless Connectivity: Connect directly to your router in either a wired or wireless configuration.
Connect securely from anywhere in the world and get full access to pictures, videos, files - everything stored on the connected hard drives
Time Machine Support: Allows Apple users to easily bacjup any Mac computers running OS X (10.5 or later) using Time Machine.
Integrated utility based on the Cooliris technology for quick browsing and sharing of pictures stored on connected hard drives.
Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP): No touch, automatic transfer of photos from digital cameras via the USB port.
Technical Details
Brand Name: Iomega
Model: 34779
Hardware Platform: PC, Mac
Form Factor: External
Connectivity Technology: Wireless
Networking Feature: Wireless device server
Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11n (draft), IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
Network Transport Protocol: DHCP, Bonjour, SMB
Network Remote Management Protocol: HTTPS, HTTP
Width: 1.1 inches
Depth: 5.2 inches
Height: 6.3 inches
Weight: 9.5 Ounces

Product Description
From the Manufacturer

The Iomega® iConnect Wireless Data Station is the simple way to bring all of your USB storage into your network. Connect, share and access files anywhere — even over the Internet.

Share & stream media from your USB storage with the Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station! Simply plug your USB drives in, and your files are accessible from any computer on your network or remotely via the web.

Remote access to everything stored on the connected drives via a personalized web address
Built-in iTunes® and media server for easy playback
One-touch file copy with Iomega QuikTransfer
Device-to-device replication for data protection
Torrent download manages peer-to-peer file transfers without the need of a dedicated PC
Integrated Coolirisâ„¢ slideshow functionality
Retrospect® Express backup and support for Apple® Time Machine®
Connects directly to your router in either a wired or wireless (802.11b/g/n wireless protocol) configuration
Simple three-step setup: plug it in, install the software, and add your USB storage (additional steps required for wireless configuration)
Simple expandability by connecting more external USB drives
Intelligent print sharing capability for up to 2 USB printers
Embedded RSA® BSAFE® encryption for protected installs and upgrades



Contents
Iomega® iConnect Wireless Data Station
Ethernet Cable
Power Supply
Printed Quick Install Guide
Solution CD with StorCenter Manager software and User Help documentation
Service & Support: Three year limited warranty with product registration.


System Requirements
PC:
Pentium® 300Mhz processor or higher
Must meet minimum RAM requirements for your operating system
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home / XP Professional / XP Professional x64 / Windows Vista™ Home Basic/ Home Premium/ Business / Ultimate / Windows 7
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.0, Firefox® 1.5, or higher
256MB RAM or higher
CD or DVD drive to install software
Available 10/100/1000Mbps network Ethernet port (required for initial set-up)
1000 Mbps recommended for maximum performance
DHCP-configured network (recommended)
Network hub, switch, or router (Wireless router required for wireless operation)

[StuartR]

...It is an Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station 34779...

From the specs this looks like a device for sharing USB connected devices to the Internet.

Most NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices share internal disk drives to a home network. This is a somewhat different set of functionality.

If you have existing USB based storage that you want to share on your home network then you could try a device like this one that I found on Amazon.

[hlewton]

Thanks that seems to be the perfect solution.

[jonwallace]

I have tried various solutions for this job, and I'm currently using one of these Synology 110J enclosures which serves files and streams media (music, photos etc) to my PS3 (or any other DLNA-compliant device) and a bunch of other things that I haven't tried. Note that the device usually comes without a hard drive, and that the drive you put in has to be formatted by the device.

[John Gray]

Home NAS works fine provided that you bear its limitations in mind! At home I have had a Buffalo LS-XHL 1.5 TB, and you need to find out that

• it appears as a network share so you have to access it as \\NASbox\share\your directory (say). This means that Properties does not give you information about how full the share is, and I have to use Buffalo's program to do this. You can, of course, do a NET USE to assign the share a drive letter, when Properties gives you the fullness information, but that's another step
• the NAS box is running its own variant of Linux, using Samba to give the appearance to Windows that the file system is NTFS (but only with a 2-second timestamp quantum, just like FAT) even though the 'real' file system is probably ext3. That's the only real annoyance that I've found with Samba, which does a pretty good emulation job
• it may be a peculiarity of my Buffalo NAS, but it does need to be kept awake by having a PC send it WOL magic packets every minute or so, via a Buffalo service, otherwise it goes to sleep. You can bypass this by having it 'always on', but I use the former method to save (some) electricity.

Mine is one of the simplest 1-disk NAS boxes, and at work we've got a hefty 7 x 1.5 TB-disk RAID-6 Thecus box for backups using v. wonderful iSCSI. No more ghastly DDS tape backups any more!

[JoeP]

WOW the WHS seems like an expensive way to go of the $70.00 devise I was looking at would do the trick.

You do not have to purchase a machine preloaded with WHS if you have a machine that can house WHS. If one of the XP machines is not really used for much WHS could be installed on it. You can find WHS for around $100 USD - see Microsoft Windows Home Server w/Power Pack 3 - license and media - offers - Bing Shopping for some pricing.

Joe

[hlewton]

Thank you Joe.