Verbatim MediaShare 1TB Nas
Home and away
Review Verbatim is best known for its range of straightforward and affordable hard disks, memory sticks and other storage devices. However, its new MediaShare drive is a little more ambitious. The low-profile aluminium chassis bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac Mini or AppleTV, but it’s essentially a good-looking Nas drive with a few extra media-streaming features thrown in for good measure.
Verbatim's MediaShare offers phone access, for a price
I tested the 1TB version, which costs a very reasonable £150, and there’s also a 2TB model available for £200. At the back of the unit you’ll find a Gigabit Ethernet interface for connecting to your home network, along with two USB ports and an eSata port that can be used to connect additional storage, if required.
There’s also a third USB port on the front of the unit, accompanied by an ‘easy transfer’ button that enables automatic copying of files from a flash drive straight onto the MediaShare’s internal storage. There’s no HDMI port, so you can’t directly connect the MediaShare to an HD TV in order to play your media files, but it does support DLNA/UPnP networking so that you can stream files to a games console or other DLNA-compatible device.
Unfortunately, I encountered a few problems getting the MediaShare installed and set up properly. The MediaShare did show up on my office network as soon as I plugged it in and connected it to my router – although, confusingly, it appeared as two separate but identical volumes labelled ‘MediaShare’ and ‘MediaShare2’. However, things ground to a halt when I tried to install Verbatim’s software and configure the MediaShare for use on the network.
Even an eSata port is included for hooking up additional storage
The installer program requires you to set up a user name and password, and to register the MediaShare with the Verbatim web site. Unfortunately, the Installer repeatedly announced that it wasn’t able to register the device, forcing me to put in a call to Verbatim’s technical support. When Verbatim provided me with a new username, the MediaShare began running properly, but that doesn’t bode well for less-experienced users setting up at home.
Next page: Want more features? Pay more money
COMMENTS
Cheap NASs
I have bought and hated cheap NASs in the past.
How well does it stand up to sustained work? Some die while you are trying to copy multi-GB to them (uploading the contents of your digi-cam or cam-corder).
How fast (or slow) is it? I take it for granted that you can read files off it, but does it take all week?
What is this software you talk of? It doesn't work without it? It is a VERY long time since MS PCs needed extra software installed for file-serving. Are Verbatim living in the 80's?
These extra USB / eSATA ports for additional storage, how do they work? Do they all show up as separate drives? How does that work in their viewing software? How much slower are they?
Power consumption?
You should be bothered to plug all the always-on hardware you review into a cheap energy monitor. It's easy to do and it would be very useful to know.
Verbatim is best known for...
5.25" floppies. Mine's the parka with the JEDI patch sewn on
Price
How about if it was £150 for 1TB and £200 for 2TB? (As per the article)
So....
...What use is it if you don't have an internet connection?
Why oh why do manufacturers go down the route of setting things up via the internet? There are people I know that don't have internet - no phone lines unless large amounts of money handed over and then no guarantee that anything other than dial-up would work - that have an extensive home network. They got a netgear nas that required an internet connection to set up - didn't say that on the box - found it couldn't work in their situation so returned it. Now they have a D-Link DNS-343 that just works.
As far as I can see any box that will not work on a network with out an internet connection is not a NAS box but something else.
