ElectroNext.com

Share Files Via the Internet (2008-12-26)
Do you want a common storage device to share pictures, music, or other small files with a few friends via the internet - and no subscription service fee? This may be the only device for you.

If you need an external hard drive for back-up purposes, keep looking. The data transfer speed of this thing is going to frustrate you.

Even sitting on your desk 2" from you computer, data is transferred via your router / Ethernet connection to the hard-drive, so speed is poor. The Disk Mini Home's USB port is apparently not available to use as a "faster" connection to you computer. According to LaCie's website, it is for "backup on external USB hard drives."

This is a poor choice to use as an external hard drive.

However, as way to host files, for $99 and no subscription fees, where your friends can upload and download files via the internet, this may be the only option.

As far as installation; I was not able to use the automatic setup program via my Mac, but it did work using Windows XP - without a hitch. Many users have complained about set-up problems with Mac / XP / Vista, but I suspect that LaCie has worked out at least some of the XP setup issues over time.

My sister-in-law was browsing pictures via her phone in the USA that I had posted on my Ethernet Disk Mini Home in Europe within 30 minutes of me opening the LaCie box. That's impressive for $99.

see LaCie specs here: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10994

A great little device (2008-12-23)
I bought this to serve as a network storage device for a multi-user homeoffice, all of which is running off a CAT6 gigabit network with all gigabit interfaces, routers etc. All PCs are XP.

Out of the box, I did have a problem getting the self-detection software to pick up the unit which was very weird. I am a competent network/systems engineer so I know what I am doing in terms of the firewall, router config etc, but if had me baffled for a while until I realized it didn't really matter since I could just map directly to it even though the SW couldn't see itself.

Since the software still can't see its own device on my network I cannot really comment on the automated backup software which comes bundled. This is not really important to my needs so please note that it doesn't really affect my rating of the product either.

Apart from that initial setup issue, the device is great. It's a shame that the files need to go into the pre-defined top-level directory structure (MyLibrary, MyBackup, FamilyLibrary etc) but it really isn't an issue since you can easily create your own mappings to folders under these top-levels and you would never know that the top-levels were even there.

The speed of the device is decent. On a single large 1GB file transfer to the device I get nice consistent 350MB/minute. (i.e. a little under 3 minutes to copy the file). Faster would be nice for a gigabit, but that's not too shabby. It should be noted that several hardware review sites show testing of this device running at around twice the speed I get here, but others show what I see. If I ever figure out why I'm getting worse results I'll post a comment. Compare that to a locally connected USB 2.0 drive which will get around 900MB/minute.

The nice additional feature which I wasn't really looking for is the web interface so I can share files with other people in my company at remote sites. I just set them up with accounts, send them a URL and they can then get files from the shared folder or upload their own. This works very well and is pretty easy to use. Thinking about if from a non-business perspective I can see this being great for sharing photos etc with family without having to keep emailing them one at a time. The nice thing is the ability to see graphic files in a little preview window in the browser without having to download the whole file first.

As at least one other reviewer noted, the download speeds from the device to a PC are for some reason slower than upload speeds. I'm not sure why that would be, since reads are normally far faster than writes, but its not a killer. Think 3.5 mins to download that 1GB file which took 3 mins to upload.

I should also note that of all the reviews for this device which were really bad - 1 star - it looks like they were all Mac reviewers. I guess this could mean that there is a Mac compatibility issue. That doesn't affect me but I will say it almost put me off buying one until I realized that was the case. Once I saw that all the bad reviews were Mac-related I ignored them.

Bottom line, this is a nice little product that could be faster, and apart from a quirky setup process with their own software detection, it has been working flawlessly for me since. I would definitely buy another if I needed more space.

Not what I expected, but good for the price (2008-12-22)
I got this a couple months ago to use primarily as a music/photo server and backup drive for both Mac and Windows laptops. I had never set up or used a home NAS before this, and was expecting it to behave like a "regular" external hard drive i.e. show up as a hard drive icon on the Mac desktop.

The setup process seemed straightforward, but after the setup the LaCie software could not see the drive. I followed the online troubleshooting guides, and learned quite a bit about router and firewall configuration, port forwarding, and other networking intricacies I had previously never had to mess with, but it still wouldn't work. Finally I tried uninstalling the VPN software I need for my job, and the drive appeared and the LaCie/Hipserv software worked perfectly. Had there not been the VPN incompatibility, it think it would have set up fine in 30 minutes or less.

Once it was setup, I found that it's more like a adding another computer to your network than a hard drive to your computer. It's pre-configured with folders with cheesy names (will we ever be rid of the "My" cliche? I hate that everything sounds like it was named by a greedy 2-year old.) In Windows I mapped a drive to it, but I have to re-connect and login every time I start or wake the computer.

On the Mac side, it shows up as "hipserv" under Shared resources, and Time Machine will not recognize it as a drive that can be used for backups. Time Machine was one of the primary reasons I bought the NAS, so it's a total bust in that regard. It did come with an automated backup utility "Destop Mirror" which I thought I setup for my Windows documents, but seems to be only recording changed items, not the original folder contents. I'm sure I can get this straightened out, but the backup configuration is not intuitive.

I was able to move my iTunes libary to the drive, and it works well. I can access a single music library from Mac or Windows without much problem. I was also pleasantly suprised by the ability to access the drive from the Web. I can get to my home files from work, and share music and photos with family across the country. However, the HipServ software was developed by a 3rd party, and there is some confusion about what website you go to for web access and software updates.

Overall, it does everything LaCie said it would, but not the way I expected/wanted it to. It's not a smooth, fully controllable OS-level interface like a directly-attached drive - it's more like a storage rented to you by the HipServ people. Much of this I'll chalk up to my general ignorance of NAS's

Pros:
- 500gb of file storage accessible to multiple computers
- Drive can be accessed over the web via LaCie/HipServ website
- Low price

Cons:
- Cannot be used with Mac Time Machine
- Must login to access (downside of web accessibility)
- Intermediation by the LaCie/HipServ software is a nuisance
- Initial setup can be difficult
- Doesn't work with VPN client software on the same machine

Good consumer NAS, but no speed demon to be sure (2008-12-09)
I worked in IT in the past, so I wouldn't consider myself new to setting up networks or NAS devices. I have set lots of them up, this LaCie Home Edition wasn't too difficult, but I can see how some people would be frustrated too as its not very well thought out. That said, I have got it delivering files to a Windows XP desktop, Windows Vista laptop and a MacBook Pro. As per usual, the Mac is the easiest, their is something called the HipServ which shows up in your shared devices and then you click on Family Library or My Library. I have set it up with a static IP address and have shortcuts to folders on the NAS, so it looks and works as if it were the same as an internal drive.

Bad news though, it is slow, even by consumer NAS standards. Using my 802.11n network, I get 4.5MBps and through a gig LAN connection I get about 8MBps. Silver lining, its a stable connection so you can start copying things and come back to it later - much later. I threw about 350GB on it immediately off an older USB drive that was dying and it took over 24hours. Talking of USB, forget the USB port on the back for adding additional storage, its just for backing up what you have on the NAS which is helpful, but it would be nice to use it for other things too.

I have also connected to it whilst away from home and it works well enough once you've set everything up - again though, helps to know a little about network setup. Bad news is that its very slow, like topping out at 20kbps so downloading a movie or something is going to take a long time. OK to use for grabbing a Word file or something that you forgot to transfer to your laptop before leaving on a business trip!

You get what you pay for, for the money its not a bad NAS. It does what it says and its fast enough to stream movies/music - standard def at least. It is relatively inexpensive and fast enough for backups from multiple computers - as long as you stagger the backups. To give an idea of speed, its roughly 25-35% as fast as a typical USB2 drive.

Extremely good device for the price (2008-12-07)
Overall, the LaCie 301269U Ethernet Mini Home Edition is a great NAS media server, with some quirks and speed issues. Considering I got it for $100, the pros far outweigh the cons. The web services can be slow to access at times, though the newest edition of the software (firmware) does speed it up somewhat. I ditched the included software on the CD, preferring to access the folders on the device as shared drives from my WinXP PC and laptop running Vista. My PS3 immediately identified the server, and has only had a few issues streaming videos (PS3 is wireless, in another room, and I've always had issues with speed on it, so its more likely my router and not the NAS).

If you're someone who likes to fiddle with networks, and would be normally comfortable setting up another box on your network for file sharing, then this is the product for you. If you're a newbie who wants immediate setup and usage, then this product might be a little too complex for you.