GoFlex Home is available with one or two Terabyte storage, which is big enough to be a media server for network-enabled home theater components, and provide central backup for all of your computers.
A simple browser-based interface lets you easily upload, access, and share media library files. The Seagate Share Pro premium service lets you access your media remotely and share your media via email and online.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The user interface (menus) are easy to follow and written in plain English.
- It uploads files 10% to 20% faster than other manufacturer's models.
- Use drag and drop to easily upload files fast.
- You can access files remotely and share with family/friends.
- Share photos directly from the NAS to Flickr and Facebook.
- Set up integrated RSS feeds for shared folders and subscribers will be notified when you add new media to the folder.
- Memeo software is included to automatically backup your computers.
- Sleek design is about the size of an external hard drive.
- A 2 TB model is available.
Cons
- Memeo backup software is limited to 3 computers. You must pay a premium to backup more computers.
- When emailing the share link, it was rejected by some email clients like sbcglobal.net.
- The NAS design does not allow for adding SATA hard drive memory.
- Could not add files to some share folders after they were initially created.
Easy, Fast and Reliable Access to Your Media Library
Drag and Drop media into folders that are easy to share with others.
Photo (c) Barb Gonzalez - Licensed to About.comFrom installation and set up to uploading, organizing and sharing files, Seagate's GoFlex Home is really simple to use. The Seagate Dashboard is available for PC users. Icons on the dashboard take the user to any task they want to accomplish. To further simplify the menu, you can click on "learn more" next to each icon for a plain English explanation.
For Mac Users, or when accessing the GoFlex Home remotely, the browser-based user interface, powered by HIPSERV, is clean, friendly and simple. The home page simply has three icons to navigate to your Seagate Shares media library, the Shares created by you or other users, or to preferences. "Seagate Shares" displays all of your uploaded files and backups. Here, you can drag and drop files to organize your media into subfolders that you create under the GoFlex Home Public or GoFlex Home Personal folders or the GoFlex Home Backups.
The drag and drop tool makes it easy to upload files. If your files add up to more than 2 GBs, you should drag and drop the files in Mac's Finder or Windows Explorer in the same way you would drag to any other external hard drive. The GoFlex Home uploads large numbers of files faster than other NAS drives. Under the same conditions it took 25 minutes to upload 7.5 GBs of video files instead of 30 to 45 minutes on other drives. When transferring large media libraries or high definition movies, you'll appreciate the faster upload speeds.
Sharing Files is Simple--But There Were Occasional Problems
The ease of sharing your media files with others is one of the best things about the GoFlex Home. Save files to a public folder for home network access by other computers and network media players.
If you want more than 5 users to access your files while away from home, you must upgrade to Seagate's premium service, "Seagate Share Pro." The price is $19.99 for a year, and seems well worth the upgrade.
To share a file, simply drag and drop selected media files into a share file, press the information button and all of the sharing options appear. Check the boxes for all the ways you want to share the folder. Options include emailing a link to friends and family, uploading to Flickr and Facebook, or creating an RSS feed for the folder that will notify others when new files are added.
There was a glitch with sharing files. I was not able to add files to some established shares. When I could add files, I was notified by the RSS feed.
I also had a problem with emailing from Seagate Share. When emailing a few people that use sbcglobal.net, their email client rejected the email with a message stating "connections not accepted from servers without a valid sender domain." The work around was to send an email to myself and forward it to the other person.
Otherwise, sharing worked beautifully for viewing photos or listening to music when viewed on a laptop. The Seagate Share player is flash-based, so I could not see the shares using the browser on an iPad or an iPhone.
The Bottom Line
While there were a few problems, there was never a time when I found myself frustrated or confused and unable to accomplish what I was trying to do. For a home network device, that says a lot. All of our computers could automatically discover the GoFlex Home. Playback on my network media players was smooth and relatively quick to load.
The GoFlex is rich with sharing features and is easy for a home networking beginner. The 1 TB model runs $159.99, 219.99 for the 2 TB model.