Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station

This is a great little device if you have the knowledge and skill to set it up correctly. Following initial disappointment I now have this fully working for printers and shared drives. Other items to follow.

Whilst multi function printers are not fully compatable the key thing is all users can print from any of the PCs in the house and attached to the shared drive making them computer independent. If they need to scan, which in truth is rare, the printer can always be directly connected to a laptop again for this single use.

It would seem the key to making this work over a wireless network is not to use the DHCP addressing but to set a constant IP. Once I did this the wireless connection to the device has been stable, it would drop out after a few hours and using DHCP resulted in IP clashes. Setting the constant address is a simple task in the network services\network settings options.

Now this is set up right I am very pleased and would recommend to others.

OK, this is a nice idea but as other reviews have stated the device fails on the little extras that make it so appealing in the first place - and due to some hidden charges.

First up, the interface is slow and clunky in the way that too many web-based front ends are. It can be a pain finding sections you're after.

The claim that you can secure certain "folders" is incorrect in as much as the system calls any volume (i.e. hard drive partition) attached a folder. You can only restrict user access to each of these, not to the *actual* folders underneath. If you need to do this, look elsewhere (like a file server).

To stream media to an XBox or PS3, you tell the system to make all media available for streaming on a per-folder/partition basis. This means that if you have kids in the house, you'll have to store your "mature audiences" films on a separate drive and log into the interface to enable/disable media streaming as and when you require it via the console. This is also the only way to block them from the content using the "security".

Torrent download is a complete waste of time. Only one torrent at a time, and the speed is ridiculously slow. I attempted a couple of downloads. On a PC attached to the same network I was getting 250+Kb/s. On the iConnect, I peaked at 3Kb/s. THREE. Estimated time to completion was over a week. Just forget this feature - it's pointless.

The ability to access the device from outside the home seems fine, though when you enable it you find that after 12 months, you have to cough up each year to keep it working. The system employs a 3rd party web service which checks your external IP address and logs it on a web site with a personalised URL. You go there and it redirects to your iConnect. This helps get around the issue of dynamic IPs as usually issued by home ISPs.

There *may* be way round this by using a service such as no-ip.org. Keep a machine on at home running their service (free) and check the IP address when you need it by pinging your no-ip address. Then use the URL https://YOUR-IP/index.html?t=1

This may not work if the iConnect itself decides to disable the system after 12 months. I have no idea if it will or not and won't for 364 more days!

I've also set the system to email me with any faults that occur. This seems to work fine, but it worries me that it's mailing so often - usually claiming it can't access the remote server that stores the external IP address.

Oh, the available volumes frequently vanish from the supplied management client software meaning that you can't manage them using it. Having said that, you can get round this by going to the iConnect's static IP address (make sure you give it such an address on your router!) directly. This issue doesn't seem to affect the volumes being displayed and accessed through your Explorer - you just can't administer anything.

Overall, nice idea but let down by rubbish unreliable software. Having said that, it (sort of) accomplishes the main task we had for it which was to stream media to the XBox and kids' laptops. A shame the security wasn't better on it so that we could restrict things more easily although I recognise that due to the fact that the Xbox can't "log in" as such, the media either streams or doesn't. Just a good job we have a little girl who's trustworthy!

The other reviews here are spot on. (Unfortunately I got this too soon to see them). The sharing drives isnt too bad although I have a 1TB Philips drive that fails to work with the iConnect. Plug it in to the pc and all is well. Plug it in to the iConnect and wont recognise and drive spins down and goes to sleep. The printing is a disaster quite frankly. I have a Epson RX620 multifunction and this doesn't work, well not at the same time as the drives. When i connected the printer the drives disappeared and nothing worked. Got some printing done but only when no drives were connected so somewhat defeats the point. In the manual it actually warns you that it wont like multifunction printers. Pity they don't tell you that before you buy it. Used the Iomega support and lost interest. They keep asking for all this information to try and help when clearly there is a bigger issue at stake here. Never mind will continue with the device for sharing and might get my hands on a non multifunction to try that but wasnt expecting to have to buy a new hard disk and a new printer when i bought this. Be very careful. They also mention the tested compatible printers in the manual but cant find the list anywhere so even if i did buy a printer couldn't be sure it would work.