Accessing a backup HD from afar.

[Loose rivets]

I have beside me - in its box - a Seagate Black Armor NAS 110, 1TB drive. The Idea is that I plug it into my router and be able to access it from the next room or indeed, the country.

I will be reliant on being able to make secure the main part of the disc, but specific folders must be accessed by people holding a password issued by me. That's what the blurb seems to say it can do.

Has anyone any experience of such a device - specifically NOT using other software to see into one's P.C. And just how secure is such a device in a world of very cleaver people.

[Bushfiva]

I do exactly that with a Buffalo Linkstation. It's taken until version 3 of the product for the remote access to be even marginally useful, but now it's there.

Remote access is via a web interface. You can set up access permissions locally (e.g. named people or groups accessing certain folders) and have thase permissions reflected on the remote access portion, or you can set them up separately.

You choose a name for your NAS, register it at buffalonas.com, and from then on you can log in to it via bufallonas.com. Once the connection is made, the link is direct. As I said, the user interface in previous versions was hysterically bad but now it's pretty good. You can also manage it remotely, if you discover your in Florida, the box is in the UK, and it's not set up quite right.

I'm sure there are plenty of other devices that can do this, yours may be one of them.

Security is fine: you can force https, so the data itself is secure. Other than that, it's down to choosing strong passwords.

[bnt]

Have you seen the bit in the manual about Seagate Global Access? Looks like it'll do what you want without the usual futzing with NAT port forwarding etc.

[Loose rivets]

Well,, no. It's still in the plastic.


Brush collection on Thanksgiving day, meant a huge cleanup of street, including disposing of 36 trillion acorns. Wonder if I could upload them to someone.

Finally, while talking to my fellow author-in-waiting in Dublin - who is one of the intended coded key holders to my Pulitzer-potential chapters - I noticed he'd fallen asleep. Just like when we were kids, and his mum would kick me out for the cold walk home. One thing about Skype is that you can shout at the recipient in a clear and very loud voice.

Tomorrow is another day...hopefully.

Oh, and a tad of interference from my pal.







He's even found the draw I hide my camera in.

[mixture]

LR,

And just how secure is such a device in a world of very cleaver people

Not very.

With all consumer grade devices, you will always be faced with a balance between security and featureset / ease of use. This will always be balanced in favour of the latter, because the manufacturers don't want to use up their slim profit margins trying to support your average Joe who has only just about figured out how to turn the thing on.

[Loose rivets]

Well sadly, after one and a half hours, I'm ready to stuff it back in its box and give it back to Staples. The only thing stopping me is that the $200 device was sold for $59.

My son got two. One WD, with a good set of write-ups, and this Seagate...with some really bad reports of bad documentation and almost impossible logic routes. Shame...it's nice and heavy, and I like that.

Some things seemed to go normally, but then the quick-start lost the plot. I am so glad I'm not alone in this, beginning to feel me age a bit these days.

User and Passwords not being recognized, erm, admin, admin. How hard is that? After some time if finally started to back the Cdrive up. Then got a big failed flag, and a nice set of calenders. I had selected no automatic backup, so they weren't much use.

Obviously the bloke that wrote the paperwork - all 79 pages of pdf, was pi$$ed. So, I'm going to get outside a bottle of something nice, and it will surely make sense. Doing this, hasn't helped.

[Keef]

I tried some of that stuff with various drives plugged direct into the router. After varying amounts of effort, I gave up on all of 'em.

Nowadays, the drives are connected to this desktop PC, which is never switched off. If I'm elsewhere and want to access stuff, I can use LogMeIn or TeamViewer (both running) to do it. Prior to Windows 7, I used Remote Desktop but that was left out of the Win 7 version I have.

I've never had a problem with LogMeIn - but it does offer a "cooperating partner" rather more than just database access, and you have to be not using the PC at the time. Since I'm the only one who uses this lot, it's fine.

[Loose rivets]

Well, that's something of a comfort to me, but I would like to beat the problem. I guess I'll have another bash - or two, and then see how my son gets on before making the decision to give it back.

One thing he mentioned was Amazon forums. I've not looked in there yet, but it seems they thrash out problems with stuff they sell.

The blurb says that the device manager should show Seagate devices ****. Nothing. and no change under ordinary drives. Nothing even remotely like it or its function in the entire list. Time for a reinstall.

Having found it won't do all sorts of things in W7, I read this.

Others are just plugging it in with no software and it goes - backup only I suppose.

The problem lies in the documentation from Seagate, which, sorry to say, has missing information and is full of errors. Only through experimentation can you get it to work, I’m not familiar with 110/220 firmware so these direction may not be exact but here is a general guideline to follow to get the media server to steam media.

I removed all the new software and simply plugged it in. It acts as a network fed drive, so at $59 it wouldn't be a dead loss to persevere with it. I copied 12,000 photos to it, and checked some of them. That works fine.

The big issue is weather Seagate will provide specific W7 drivers for something being sold off on clearance. The hunt is on.