Cloud Engines Pogoplug 2
Build your own online file store
Review Pogoplug - now in its second incarnation - is the kind of gadgets 'real' geeks hate. It's brightly coloured - an awful white and pink combo; not a plus point - it's consumer friendly and, when all is said and done, it's just a network adaptor for hard drives.
Why work a weeny, girly gadget when you can maintain an enormous, manly Nas box?
Cloud Engines' Pogoplug: not macho
One reason: you don't want a noise monster blowing hard in the corner of your room. Another is the way Pogoplug makes accessing and sharing connected drives over the internet so easy.
And - geeks, please note - it runs Linux and has already spawned a community of hackers who've installed their own distro and apps on top.
But Pogoplug isn't really aimed at Nas boxers. It's aimed at ordinary folk who have a stack of photos, documents and videos that they'd like to make available so Granny can see the latest snaps of the kids.
Pogoplug has four USB ports - three at the back, one on the front - for the shared drives and incorporates software that will automatically copy across media files from your computers. It has a Gigabit Ethernet port, but no Wi-Fi.
Three HDD-ready USB 2.0 round the back
It also has a stand that doubles-up as a cable tidy. Handy for some, we're sure, but we were trying the unit out with a couple of drives with built-in USB cables, and it got in the way. Make it removeable, please.
COMMENTS
Maybe..
It's advantage is the software means you can get to it anywhere, and you can network any USB drive, most people have a few spare small USB drives (the old 120/250GB ) size things that are pretty much redundant now.
I can give you a like to the page you can access anywhere in the world through a standard browser, thats not built into many entry level NAS boxes.
If you in the market for a new NAS, this is not the best price. It your going to be using old USB drives it is.
I'm still waiting...
...for external modular eSATA or other faster interface HDD's you can RAID together. Kind a a stack em and RAID em type of drive. Infinite extensibility (Assuming you have enough power points. Hell make the power extensible too for up to a certain number of drives then you have to add another power point).
I should patent it before it's done by someone else!
Re. Security
Says Cloud Engines: "The link to the shared folder will expire 2 weeks from the time it was generated and sent. If the user it is being shared with has not created an account and password they will no longer be able to access the share. If the owner of the share removes them from the share list and re-adds them, a new link will be generated and sent with a 2 week expiration."
Question reg. security...
Quick question - once a folder is shared then is there any way to expire the url, or any sort of ACL?
ie. is it possible to just share a folder of pics to my family and not worrying should the url get out into the wild?
but but
If you run over to Scan (first place I looked) you can get a Buffalo NAS with 1TB drive built in for the same price. DNLA, USB, Ethernet.. am I missing the point of this device? Regardless it's hard to miss the colourscheme.. nasty.
