I've tried an Apple Time Capsule before, and I like the device for the NAS part of things. My biggest problem with it is the cost ($299 for 1 terabyte), and that stems from the fact that it's got a built in wireless access point. My issue with that is that I already have wireless setup and configured. Granted, the Time Capsule supports the faster 802.11n speeds, but at home, I only have one computer that can support that - so it's not worth the investment right now, especially since the 802.11g that I have does the job very nicely for what I need: getting online. I'll save the discussion for bandwidth bottlenecks for another day.

So, for a device that's just going to sit on my network at home, I don't need bells and whistles. The Time Capsule has some, and I just don't like paying for features I'm not going to use.

This Iomega drive, however, is just what I need for home use: a NAS drive that just works out of the box. Well, sort of. The issue I had is that the drive ships with version 1.029 of the firmware, and yet their website has version 2.040 available. While the upgrade process was seemless, it didn't mention that I also needed to upgrade the Home Storage Manager software, which lives on your computer. In the case of the 2.040 firmware, it also lets your Mac treat the drive like a Time Capsule in that you can use Time Machine to backup your computer across the network. That right there is worth ALL of the frustration I put up with (only about 20 minutes though).

Tonights task was to get the drive up and running, then setup backups from one Mac Mini and two PC's (one with XP, one with Vista). Once I got the firmware issue straightened out, I got the Mac going - as usual, watching a machine start to back itself up makes me feel all warm inside for some reason. Yeah, I'm a little weird that way.

One the PC with Windows XP, I put the included CD into the machine and the installer auto-started (which, let's be honest, isn't that good an idea - isn't that how Sony inserted some kind of rootkit on a bunch of machines at one point?) and offered to install Retrospect Express HD. Clickity-clickity, and we're off and running. I mapped the NAS as drive Z, then configured Retrospect to backup the whole drive every day at 8:00 am. Simple, straightforward, and done. Well, I had to click the button to start the first backup, but that's the one that takes the longest, so that's not a surprise.

The second PC is a super-whiz bang fast fast fast Dell machine with gobs of RAM, Windows Vista, and even more drive space. I was a little worried about this one, mostly because I wasn't sure how much data was on the machine - turns out I was right to be worried, because in just a few months, there's 192 gigabytes of data. This is for a user who mostly browses the web and downloads PDF files for his Masters. I guess those PDF's really pack a punch!

Installation here was a little harder, since the CD didn't want to install Retrospect at all. Once I manually started the process, I thought I'd be home free, but apparently part of the automated install is the installation of a serial number. Which I couldn't find. Crap. Fortunately, Iomega's site had the answer: a tech chat (purely web based, unlike other companies) and a tech who could just generate a new serial number for me. It took like 20 minutes, but I can't complain - I got what I wanted and didn't have to sit on hold for 2 hours to get it! Configuration for the Vista machine was along the same lines, and just started humming along soon after.

The NAS also offers integration with iTunes and DNLA, which means that if you have a device that integrates with your TV (or a DNLA compliant TV) you can plug it into the network and have it play your content right from the drive. So home movies can be put on the big screen, or you can rip your whole DVD collection to the device (for backup purposes, of course) and watch them that way, instead of having to get the DVD out. For iTunes, you put the content on the drive and it will show up as a shared resource on any computer with iTunes - so you can play your music from any computer at home/work without having to have copies on every computer. Nice.

My favorite part about this product was the price: $149.99 or so for the 1 terabyte model and $125 for the 500 gigabyte model. You can't go wrong with either one, especially for a device that you can basically setup and then forget about! It's especially nice that you can setup the backups and not worry about them (for Time Machine in Mac OS X anyway) since my kids all share a computer. I back it up sometimes, but not frequently - and they have been known to do some very weird things to it, including crashing it and then walking away and not telling anyone. For two days. Right now, I'm using another NAS drive to backup the computers at home, as well as using it as a way point for sharing the family iPhoto collection with my wife. It's nice knowing that there's two backups of all those photos - 11 years worth at this point, and growing. Good thing most of these NAS drives have the option to plug in another hard drive to share two of them on the network!