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Hewie's Views and Reviews Welcome to this issue of Hewie's Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ . ++++ Review of LeCie Network Hard Drive for the Home October, 2008 ++++ Review of LeCie Network Hard Drive for the Home I watch for special deals daily. I saw a 500 Gigabyte drive for $100, which is not special anymore, except that this drive is a network drive. It contains a network card and software to plug directly into a router and become a location on my home network. The drive is a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini Home Edition. When I plugged it into my router, I could see it on my network. I had to run some included software to set up the drive and its connection to the router and the Internet. This software creates a portal name, user names, and passwords. While installing, I got an error message and couldn't complete the software installation. I tried but was stuck. I called their customer support and a man in Oregon spent about an hour, guiding me in restoring the new drive using built-in utilities. Then we did the install over and this time it was successful. I must say the tech support was excellent. It played nicely with my TrendNet router, but may not with all routers. Depending upon the brand and model, some routers may have to be manually setup or may not work at all. Luckily mine set up automatically. I set up a couple of accounts so that I could see what was protected and what was not. There is a My Family Library (don't forget that is the home edition) that is shared by all local network users. My Library is a section that only the logged in user can access. Other users on the same drive cannot see those files, but permissions for individual folders can be changed for either invited guests or be designated as public. I can connect to the drive from any computer on the network using Windows Explorer, but it is easier to use the included software, I can also use a browser from any computer, anywhere, and log into the drive. All of my files are available to me through the Internet. I can upload, download, or open files through a browser. This is a network drive and not attached to a computer. When I travel, I can turn off my computers, but leave the cable modem, router and the hard drive on, enabling me to get to any files on that drive. I can also upload files, like photos, so I can clear the memory card for more photos. One of the 3 software programs that came with the LaCie drive is the backup software. I am having an issue with it finding the LaCie. I also am having a problem with the sharing module sending an invite by email. After talking to Tech Support, we have concluded that it is problem with port forwarding of my router. The LaCie website lists the approved routers. Before purchasing this unit, I suggest making sure that you use one of the tested routers with UPnP, or you will surely have problems. There is also a Digital Media Server (DMS) component that allows you to access and play your digital media – photos, videos and music – on a broad range of digital media players (DMPs) at home and on the road. I probably won't use this feature, so I don't know how well it functions. As far as an additional hard drive on my network and available to me from anywhere that I have internet access, I am pleased with the drive. With the glitches that I am encountering, I don't recommend this drive to a novice, unless you have someone knowledgeable to set it up. I give it a 8 out of 10 for me, but if backing up or media sharing is your priority, then it might be a bit lower. ++++ Google Chrome Browser Very recently Google released its own PC Web browser. Because it got leaked, they released it prior to the MAC and Linux versions being ready. Those versions will be available soon. Although it doesn't say so, it is still Beta and the current version as of this writing is 0.2.plus. It claims to be faster than all of the other browsers. Whether it actually is or not, it is fast. However, to keep it fast, many of the bells and whistles, as well as settings are missing. Many of the plug-ins that you are familiar with in Internet Explorer or FireFox are still not available for Chrome. Due to the lack of settings, downloads are limited and by default start by themselves, which is a security risk. I also found myself closing all of the tabs when closing the program, without a warning that I get with the other browsers. I do click the x by habit and end up with the program closing instead of the "are you sure that you want to close all of the tabs?". Chrome just closes. I do like the ability of Chrome to separate each tab so if one of the tabs stops responding, you can close that tab and the others will not be affected. You can detach a tab or re-attach a tab by dragging and dropping. I had Chrome as my default browser for a couple of weeks, but many websites either require IE, FireFox, or some of the plug-ins. Some of the media clips were problematic with Chrome, but work fine in the other programs. I have gone back to IE as my default, but occasionally open Chrome.
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