Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice item fom HP (if you really need it), 4 April 2008
Considering for the price of nearly £500 you can buy a complete PC, this item takes a bit of justification. In my case a failed 500GB external hard drive from Western Digital didn't quite cut it, but I bought one anyway.
Like all hardware from HP this Home server comes with an easy to follow setup poster. Installation, whilst not a complete nightmare, was not a walk in the park either. I spent a fair bit of time tweaking my firewall settings in order for the unit to be found on my system. I wished i'd known too, that the CD-Key sticker was on the base of the unit - quite tricky to read this without pulling out the power lead.
Getting my router correctly configured for remote access was another minor challenge, allthough having a linksys router (an 8 port cabled BEFSR81 in my case) did help as it was for the most part automated.
I find the HP Media Smart Home Server easy to use now I am familiar with it. I have come to terms with being forced to logging on to my PC with a password (user accounts are essential for remote access)
With hindsight I am glad I bought the unit rather than getting another external hard drive. It is very usefull and I am filling up the storage space fast. Just as well it is easily expandable.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent machine, 23 Nov 2008
I think the 1st thing I will cover is what router will play nicely with Server. I'm using a netgear DG834GT with V1.02.13 firmware, version 14 messed up the port forwarding. Not all routers will work with the EX475 so do some homework before you decide on buying this unit.
I did have some problems with IP addresses swapping round on the router and when logging on via the web I would get my printer web page, this was easily fixed by creating static IP's.
I set up the EX475 using a vista powered laptop which was dead easy and straight forward. Basically insert disc and follow screen prompts. I've installed one Ad in which is a program called web guide which allows you to stream music and videos over the net.
The EX475 comes with 2 x 500gb hard drives & the EX470 comes with a single 500gb drive, I bought the EX470 and added a Samsung 1tb drive for the same price as buying a EX475, something to bear in mind when your looking to purchase one of these machines.
What else can it do??
Yes of course it's a server and its stores all your files etc, you can choose to mirror your important files onto another drive for safety.
Now the best bit I use it for is the media storage, photo's, video, MP3's etc. I was going to buy a Home theater PC to go under the tv and be able to stream all my films on to the television. I didn't need to as a Playstation 3 picks up the server and will play avi,mpegs,some divx and vob files which are ripped dvd's. It upscales films and really does a fantastic job.
To sum up it is a really good piece of kit and does work well, yes you will have problems along the way and more often than not a reboot will get things going.
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36 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
great package but not gone the full distance, 29 Feb 2008
i have had this great, silent and lovely looking box now for a week. had a great demo at PC world from the HP chap who sold me on the idea after about an hour of show and tell.
when i got home and plugged it all up, installed the server software on the PC, things just worked.
it makes very little noise, if not being totally silent stood next to my work server, network printer and sundries.
for what it is and what it offers, there is no heat to speak of.
as for not getting that elusive 5th star....
although its a windows home server (Microsoft) i was hoping that there would have been a MAC version of the PC software that lets me into the guts of the programming and set-up. so set-up and servicing all have to be done from a PC with the software installed... not great if you are mainly a MAC user.
the web login is great for accessing your files, but not having set-up rights from the MAC just puts it out there as a bit of a dud.
now back to the web login!
what a great little bit this is...
once the server is all set up and working, you can get it to let you in via a 'normal' https website, giving you secure reign over you files while you are away or want to let a friend or family look at your pics or even upload pics while you are on holiday.
a simple step by step system shows you the way to getting it up and running and needs little to no prior knowledge of servers or networking or even ip's and routers.
HOWEVER, should your router NOT support uPNP (universal Plug and Play) then you will have to read the handbook or the built-in help files to show you how to set up the 3 ports to make this work.
all in all, not rocket science and i know my technophobe mother could work it where her mobile texting skills fail her.
this thing is great... there is little doubting it!
the simple lack of care for the Mac user somewhat does my nut. (not that im a big MAC freak) im a basic novice Mac-ist and have a couple of PC's for most of my work, but i just love the relative simplicity and security of Macs.
so to conclude, a VERY solid, stable and well thought out piece of kit with a decent software package.
NOT needing or even allowing for a monitor, keyboard and mouse on it is a great thing... keeps cost down and makes it more of a setup and go machine, while removing the temptation for turning it into a PC.
while you can use it with Macs over the internet and networks, you can't control it, but granted its a Microsoft unit.
well done to Microsoft and HP
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