Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - Hewlett Packard EX475 1TB MediaSmart Server
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List Price:
Our Price: £448.99
Your Save: £ ( % )
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: hp
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Electronics
Brand: Hewlett Packard
EAN: 0883585265077
Label: hp
Manufacturer: hp
Model: EX475
Publisher: hp
Release Date: 2007-11-06
Studio: hp
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A nice item fom HP (if you really need it)
Comment: Considering for the price of nearly £500 you can buy a complete PC, this item takes a bit of justification. In my case a failed 500GB external hard drive from Western Digital didn't quite cut it, but I bought one anyway.
Like all hardware from HP this Home server comes with an easy to follow setup poster. Installation, whilst not a complete nightmare, was not a walk in the park either. I spent a fair bit of time tweaking my firewall settings in order for the unit to be found on my system. I wished i'd known too, that the CD-Key sticker was on the base of the unit - quite tricky to read this without pulling out the power lead.
Getting my router correctly configured for remote access was another minor challenge, allthough having a linksys router (an 8 port cabled BEFSR81 in my case) did help as it was for the most part automated.
I find the HP Media Smart Home Server easy to use now I am familiar with it. I have come to terms with being forced to logging on to my PC with a password (user accounts are essential for remote access)
With hindsight I am glad I bought the unit rather than getting another external hard drive. It is very usefull and I am filling up the storage space fast. Just as well it is easily expandable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great package but not gone the full distance
Comment: i have had this great, silent and lovely looking box now for a week. had a great demo at PC world from the HP chap who sold me on the idea after about an hour of show and tell.
when i got home and plugged it all up, installed the server software on the PC, things just worked.
it makes very little noise, if not being totally silent stood next to my work server, network printer and sundries.
for what it is and what it offers, there is no heat to speak of.
as for not getting that elusive 5th star....
although its a windows home server (Microsoft) i was hoping that there would have been a MAC version of the PC software that lets me into the guts of the programming and set-up. so set-up and servicing all have to be done from a PC with the software installed... not great if you are mainly a MAC user.
the web login is great for accessing your files, but not having set-up rights from the MAC just puts it out there as a bit of a dud.
now back to the web login!
what a great little bit this is...
once the server is all set up and working, you can get it to let you in via a 'normal' https website, giving you secure reign over you files while you are away or want to let a friend or family look at your pics or even upload pics while you are on holiday.
a simple step by step system shows you the way to getting it up and running and needs little to no prior knowledge of servers or networking or even ip's and routers.
HOWEVER, should your router NOT support uPNP (universal Plug and Play) then you will have to read the handbook or the built-in help files to show you how to set up the 3 ports to make this work.
all in all, not rocket science and i know my technophobe mother could work it where her mobile texting skills fail her.
this thing is great... there is little doubting it!
the simple lack of care for the Mac user somewhat does my nut. (not that im a big MAC freak) im a basic novice Mac-ist and have a couple of PC's for most of my work, but i just love the relative simplicity and security of Macs.
so to conclude, a VERY solid, stable and well thought out piece of kit with a decent software package.
NOT needing or even allowing for a monitor, keyboard and mouse on it is a great thing... keeps cost down and makes it more of a setup and go machine, while removing the temptation for turning it into a PC.
while you can use it with Macs over the internet and networks, you can't control it, but granted its a Microsoft unit.
well done to Microsoft and HP
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