First unveiled at CES 2010, the Iomega iConnect is a NAS device targeted at consumers and SOHO users with its simple set-up process that quickly connects USB drives and printers to a home network for file and print sharing.
This S$163 NAS slab is possibly one of the thinnest out there, and comes with four USB ports (three in front and one behind) for hooking up USB drives and printers that can be shared among the users on your home network. While the iConnect looks sleek, the whole set-up doesn’t look that great once you have USB cables running all over the device.
At the back of the device lies a LAN port for you to connect the NAS slab to a router during initial set-up. Subsequently, the iConnect can be configured to hook up to your wireless network with its built-in Wi-Fi radio. There is also a file transfer button in front that lets you copy files from one USB drive to another for back-up.
Setting up the device was easy. After plugging a 320GB Iomega eGo USB drive and a Brother HL-2140 laser printer into the iConnect, I popped in the set-up CD to install the Iomega Storage Manager software which immediately detected the USB drive and made it available for use through My Computer in Windows. Network printing can also be easily set up in Windows by searching the network for available printers and installing the right printer driver from the default list in Windows, or from your printer’s installation disc.
If you have a Linux box hooked up to your network, USB drives on the iConnect will also show up automatically as one of your network drives if Samba Windows file sharing is installed. Using the networked Brother laser printer in Ubuntu Linux was fuss-free too. After searching for the printer on the network, just pick the right printer driver and I was ready to start printing over the network from Linux.
On a Mac, the contents of my shared USB drive shows up as a drive icon on the desktop once it’s located from the network through Finder. Network printing can also be set up through Bonjour in Mac OS X.
Remote access
Besides file and printing sharing over your local network, you can also set up the iConnect to provide remote access to the same USB drives.
First, you need to sign up for a dynamic DNS service from TZO DNS (though the iConnect admin interface) that will give you a URL for accessing your USB drives. It also requires users to understand the basics of port forwarding which needs to be configured on a router before remote access will work. While Iomega provides instructions on how to do this – right down to specific steps for various router brands – things might get confusing for newbies who will need to tinker with their routers for the first time.
Once remote access is set up, you can access and upload files from anywhere outside your home network However, users can only upload or download files one at a time through the iConnect Web interface. Perhaps Iomega could find a way to let users map their shared network drives on remote machines for who need to work with large number of files.
The bottom line is this: the Iomega iConnect performs as promised, offering an entry level NAS solution for home and SOHO users who wish to “network-enable” their USB drives and printers – but don’t expect its performance to match that of full-sized NAS servers in disk speeds. Also, be prepared to pay US$10 a year to retain your domain name for remote access after the first year.
Although it is billed as, among other things, a “print server,” the manufacturer told me pointblank that the device is NOT certified to work with “every printer out there.” In fact, the customer service rep concluded during our chat that my HP LaserJet 1022 is in fact NOT compatible with the print server “function” of this device. When I asked what printers WERE compatible, the rep told me that Iomega did not keep lists of compatible and incompatible printers, even though the device is BILLED AS A PRINT SERVER. When I pointed out that my LaserJet printer is one of the most popular models from one of the most popular printer manufacturers (HP), he replied that I couldn’t possibly expect them to test the device with every printer on the market. BUT IT’S A PRINT SERVER. That is its function. If you don’t test it to see whether it actually works with printers, then what is the point? Do NOT purchase this device with the intention of using it to share your printer over a home Windows network. The manufacturer has admitted that it has NO IDEA which printers do and do not work with the print server function of this device. My unit is going back to the store for a refund.