Seagate FreeAgent DockStar NAS Device Review

Name: Seagate FreeAgent DockStar NAS Device Review - Page 3
Brand: Seagate

by Daniel A. Begun — Friday, October 23, 2009, 10:00 AM EDT

Remote Access

If you are on the road and want to access the DockStar remotely over the Internet, doing so is no different than as if you were accessing the device over your home network. If the Pogoplug app is installed and running on your system, the device's attached drives will still show up as locally-attached drives. You can also connect to the device via the Web interface (dockstar.pogoplug.com or my.pogoplug.com). The only real difference you are likely to encounter is that the remote connection will probably be slower than when connecting over your local network.

Pogoplug Web interface.

The Web interface is a very simple affair with all of the available drives listed on the left side of the window. Each drive listing includes a set of preset searches, such as files added or changed today, last week, and last month; other search options let you search for photos, music, and movies, as well as doing a custom search. The left side of the window also allows you to view any files that other DockStar or Pogoplug users have shared with you, and view any files that you have shared with other users (more on this on the next page). You can view files using a list view, or by small, medium, or large thumbnails. You can sort the view by file name, size, date, or type.

Browsing and playing audio files (left); viewing photos as a slideshow (right).

If you mouse over a file, action items appear, such as download, rename, or delete. Mousing over a folder adds the additional option to share the folder. If the file you mouse over is a photo, video, or audio file (assuming that the file format is supported by the Web interface), you also have the option to preview the file either by selecting the preview item in the Actions section or more simply, just by clicking on the file. Photos and videos open up in a window that overlays the page; audio files play in a small player that appears in the lower-right-hand corner of the window. You can also view photos as a slideshow. We didn't throw every type of media file possible at the flash-based Web interface, but we did have luck viewing BMP, GIF, JPG, and PNG image files; M4V, MOV, and MP4 video files; and M4A and MP3 audio files. (We couldn't get the Web interface to view or play TIF, PDF, WMV, FLC, FLV, 3GP, 3G2, AAC, AIFF, or WAV files.)

Browsing video files (left); playing a video (right).

The Pogoplug iPod app in action.

If you own an iPhone or iPod touch, you can also connect to the DockStar locally or remotely with the free iPhone Pogoplug app. With the iPhone app you can navigate through the folders on all the drives attached to the DockStar, as well as files shared with you. (You are supposed to also be able to see files you share with others, but there is currently a bug with this feature--see the next page for information about the bug.) You can upload photos from your iPhone, as well as view or play media files from DockStar-attached drives. We were able to view GIF, JPG, PDF, and PNG image files (interestingly, we could view PDFs on the iPhone, but not using the Web interface); M4V, MOV, and MP4 video files; and M4A and MP3 audio files. When we selected a BMP file, the app attempted to show the image, but instead displayed a blank window; with our test WAV file, the app played less than the first second of the song, before the app crashed and dumped us back out to the main iPhone screen. The app also crashed on us a few times when trying to upload photos. If you don't renew your yearly DockStar subscription, the iPhone Pogoplug app will still be able to access the DockStar over your local network, but it will no longer be able to connect to the DockStar remotely.