Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336 Reviews
Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
- Simple to use: Three step set-up ¿ simply plug into your router, power on, and install the software CD. Friendly web screens for easy management
- Sharing: Access files from any networked Windows PC or Apple computer for easy file sharing
- UPnP AV Media Server: Compatible with DLNA certified media players, able to stream photos, audio content
- Torrent Download: Torrent is the new standard in peer-to-peer file sharing. Direct file transfer to your StorCenter is easier, faster
- Remote Access: Access and manage your data from anywhere in the world via remote browser access
500GB HOME MEDIA NETWORK DRV HARD DRIVE 7200 RPM
Rating: 
(out of 174 reviews)
List Price: $ 159.99
Price: $ 359.99
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Review by David Lee for Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
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I’ve been using the 1TB media drive for about a month and a half now and have had a very positive experience. I set it up on an XP machine and had little problem connecting to it from my Vista laptop and XP netbook without installing any software. The only feature I haven’t used is the USB print server (my printer is located in my office and the hard drive is connected in the living room next to the router and haven’t wanted to move either one so they could be physically connected).
My PS3 automatically found the device on the network, and I use the PS3 to watch TV shows stored on the hard drive on my HDTV. This works great. I can’t edit files using the PS3, but I can play AVI and MP3 files (I sometimes play music through my stereo system this way as well as TV shows). Formats like .mkv files won’t play this way, but that’s a function of the PS3 rather than a limitation of the hard drive.
I’m not using the backup software that comes with it; I manually load files to the device from any of my computers. I store my business files, writing, music, etc. on the drive and thus can, for instance, sit outside with my netbook while still accessing all my files (which is handy since the netbook has very little local storage). All my files are in one place and it doesn’t matter which computer I’m using.
Uploading files is not much, if any, faster than a USB 2.0 drive in my experience, but download speeds seem very snappy and even very high resolution video files play back over the network with no delay.
For me, this HD solved a lot of problems. I highly recommend it if you have multiple PCs in your house and a collection of media or data files that you want to share, especially if you have a supported device like a PS3 connected to your TV. If you only have one PC and don’t want to play media on your TV, you’re better off with a 1 TB USB drive since that will be cheaper.
Pros
* Decent transfer performance over my network (via both wired and wireless connections)
* Can connect to it via PS3 or Xbox 360 to view/listen to media files
* Pretty painless setup
* Takes up very little space
* Works exactly as advertised and I’m in no danger of filling up the huge 1 TB drive
Cons
* Drive is a little noisy
* Whether it’s a factor of my router or the net drive, sometimes my netbook (wireless) and PS3 (wired) lose connection temporarily. I think this is something happening on my network rather than the drive though.
* If I rename a file on the drive using my PC while a file is playing back on my PS3, there is a hiccup on playback: I lose sound for a second, then sound resumes but video playback lags for a few seconds before resuming. Audio and video remain synced when this happens, though.
Review by Matthew Godkin for Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
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I’m getting another one b/c they are so inexpensive, plus I plan to reuse the 1TB HDD in the old one. But here’s what happened: One day it was working, next day it wasn’t being located by the network. Hmmm. Weird. I power it down, then power it back up. Lights on the case flash, then turn off once the NAS gets up to speed, about 20 seconds I think. The drive is still moving, but the same thing happens each time. I look in the lengthy Iomega forums and see other people have posted this problem. One response from the Iomega person asks if there were any ‘brown outs’.
Oh, yeah! I put two and two together, the power outage I had at home corresponded to the NAS failure!
SO… if you buy this thing, be sure to give it a UPS.
I had it networked with my ReplayTV boxes and was able to watch archived TV from it at real time, albeit 480 resolution.
Review by TechGuyBill for Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
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I was shopping for a storage device to back up all of my data from my 3 computers (1 running mac os x, 1 running windows 7, 1 running xp) and my wife’s laptop (vista) so some type of device sharable between multiple devices was a necessity. Initially I was thinking about buying a larger drive and putting it in my home server but came across the iomega device on sale when walking through a local store. They were on sale so I snapped it up… I bought a gigabit switch as well and did a couple of tests from my two PCs – one with gigabit and one with 100Mbps. The transfer of a 700MB avi file tool took ~ 68 seconds with the one with the fast ethernet (100Mbps) interface. My other pc with the gigabit interface was able to transfer the file in about 35 seconds.
I don’t like installing 3rd party apps to manage backing up so I’m manually copying things over that I want to back up versus using iomega’s included software.
The device is DLNA compliant and will stream to various media devices…. you’ll be able to see it under network and also the PS3 sees it as well. I believe the playback of various media types are dependent on what your player will support (ps3 – divx (both avi or divx extensions) – mkv’s won’t work since ps3 doesn’t support it). XBMC picks up the shared folders as well.
You can set up different permissions for each folder by going to the web interface. The web interface comes up as completely open by default. You’ll have to set up an admin password. You can create user accounts for each of the folders and specify under each folder if you want to secure it and which users to allow access to the folder. Creating/deleting folders is a snap as well (though folder names are limited).
The device is also a print server. I plugged in my usb hp 2410 all in one. I only use it as a printer so I installed just the print only driver from hp and it works ok… a little setup is required like specifying the ip address, and for Mac osx specifying the queue as printer1 but took me less than 5 minutes… takes a bit for the print job to come out (~30 seconds) but now I can print from any of my computers which is a plus.
I only wish that the drive was a bit quieter (the cooling fan of the enclosure is the culprit I believe) as well as a way to spin down the drive in a power save mode if no one is accessing the server since it sounds like the drive is always on and I worry how long the disk will last being on 24×7… guess time will tell but since this is my back-up drive, makes me a bit uneasy.
Review by Gonnie for Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
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This is an awesome drive (I bought the 500 GB model), but it can be very slow. I notice that connecting to the drive causes my laptop to freeze for about 45 seconds, then it comes back up. Don’t get me wrong, I really love my drive, but it is very slow.
It was also a bit tricky to install, but I didn’t have too many problems. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO READ THE SETUP PART OF THE MANUAL INCLUDED! IT WILL SAVE MUCH FRUSTRATION! (sorry for caps, but I think this part is extremely important)
The drive has excellent security features. It will automatically find all the user accounts on your computer and put those accounts on the drive. You can also manually add accounts via the web-based setup, which is excellent if you have multiple computers using the drive. I would recommend locking this drive down as tight as you possibly can. This way, if a peeping neighbor comes across the drive, they can’t get into your files (even by mistake). Post a comment if you need help securing your drive, I would be happy to help!
As far as the noise goes, I don’t notice any, but my drive is in my basement with the home theater and a dehumidifier which drown out any noise it may make.
This part will sound very hypocritical: I know I said that it can be slow, but that’s for connecting to it. Even with Wireless-G (54.0 Mbps all over in my house), transfer speeds are good.
I have not tested the software that comes with the drive for automatic backups, I use SyncBack (Google it, 2BrightSparks makes it). This combined with the drive make for good transfer speeds.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS WITH YOUR DRIVE:
- As stated above, lock the drive down tight. This prevents neighbors from seeing files, or even dropping their own in the drive. It uses basic security, but it’s very difficult to get around it.
-Secure your wireless network. If you don’t have remote access enabled, this makes it about 10 times more difficult to get into the drive.
-”User Accounts” on the drive:
~Be sure to create a folder for everyone in the web-based setup. (Login using the IP address of the drive and click ‘Folders’ on the left-hand menu panel.)
~Make an account for everyone with each having a unique password. If you have a user account for each person on your computer, then attach each folder to the computer on the individual account to prevent users from seeing each others’ files.
-Be sure that you use a STATIC IP address for the drive. (Login -> Click “System” icon on the left -> Click “Network” at the top -> set it to MANUAL, not automatic -> give it an IP address that you will remember.) This makes it alot easier to have it connected to user accounts since it won’t be hopping all over your network addresses.
-Obviously, never tell anyone the drive’s password. Write it down if you think you won’t remember it, then hide the password somewhere safe.
-Put the drive in a locked closet that only you have the key to. This prevents someone from pressing the RESET button and wiping the drive completely (no way to recover these lost files!)
Best of luck to you and be sure to comment if you need help!
UPDATE (11.15.09): I am getting extremely fed up with this drive. It is giving me more headaches than it is worth. I attempted to use the Print Server feature on the drive, and it knocked my drive offline. I couldn’t figure out was wrong at first because my network said it was there, but my PCs wouldn’t find it. Then when I went to reset it, I couldn’t tell when it was resetting because the LED light wasn’t changing at all. Furious at the time, I pulled the power cord out of it and plugging it back in and then it decided to work. The manual specifically said that it has a print server and that all you had to do was plug the printer into your drive; needless to say, that didn’t work. Neither of my PCs would connect to the printer. And the “best” part of it: my printer didn’t work correctly when I plugged it back into the computer! Then I had to spend more time figuring that out. Another “wonderful” part of this drive: if you don’t connect to it very often, it disconnects itself, but it doesn’t disappear from your computer so you can’t re-mount it unless you restart your computer altogether. Now I need to go take an aspirin because I am very angry after having just edited this review! I know I originally said the drive was great, but spend the extra money to get a better one. The original rating of this drive was 4/5, but now it is down to 2/5.
UPDATE (1.20.10): I regret to have to say that with less than 5 months, my drive failed. The network port on it died and iomega wanted to charge me to replace it. I am so very disappointed with this company. Their customer “service” is atrocious, the online representative decided to take an attitude with me. They have lost the very little respect I had for them and they have also lost a customer. I hope you heed my warning–do not buy this product. It’s much much more trouble than it’s worth. I am so infuriated with iomega and their support. The rep I spoke to is lucky I did not contact his manager–I would have made sure he lost his job.
Rating dropped from 2/5 to 1/5, but I wish I could give it 0/5. I attempted everything I could think of to fix it, then I ended up destroying the hard drive with a hammer to prevent any data from being pulled. So thanks iomega, you’ve cost me money and my data. I really appreciate it. I might as well have burned $112 or threw it out the window on the highway.
~Gonnie
Review by J. Landes for Iomega Home Media 500 GB Network Attached Storage 34336
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I bought my first one of these, and the fan was very, very noise since it was rubbing on the fan housing (slowly eating itself alive). I contacted Iomega, and they said they would replace the unit…with a refurbished unit. I also would have to pay to ship the unit back to Iomega. I just sent it back to Amazon for a replacement…Amazon is really fantastic!
My second (replacement) unit from Amazon had another fan problem right out of the box. The fan would not run, ever. The unit gets hot and I’m worried the hard drive will be toast, so I’m sending it back as well. I contacted Iomega, and they first said the unit did not have a fan, so it’s OK…hard to believe they don’t even know their product.
Anyhow, Iomega has really poor quality control, awful customer service and replacement policies. On the other hand, Amazon has great replacement policies so this hasn’t been a stressful event.