WD My Passport Wireless SSD Review: Network Storage On The Go
My Passport Wireless SSD: Desktop Experience
Unfortunately, file handling is less graceful on PC desktops. Transfer speeds are reasonably fast if the user sticks to a tethered USB connection. Accessing the My Passport Wireless SSD from a PC wirelessly, however, is another story.
Natively, there is no way to access the My Passport over the network out of the box. The drive only supports the SMBv1 protocol for network sharing. In fact, Windows 10 keeps SMBv1 disabled as a default. Readers may recognize this method as insecure.
Savvy users can enable the SMBv1 feature to make it work if desired. Only the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client option is needed, but we do recommend the Automatic Removal option to limit risks when the drive is not connected. Ultimately, our wireless transfer tests were rather slow and we would recommend saving wireless transfers for mobile devices.
As an alternative, the My Passport Wireless SSD supports Twonky and Plex Media Servers. The two options cannot be run side-by-side so users will need to choose which they prefer. File streaming works well, but neither solution makes file transfers particularly elegant.
Users can also install the WD Access software on their PC. This does not help handle file transfers, but it does provide easy access to the My Passport Wireless SSD’s built-in web browser. Like the My Cloud app, users can examine their status and configuration. Additionally, the browser menu allows users to restore factory settings, either with or without a disk wipe, and perform advanced support functions via diagnostics.
FTP is another possible solution for file transfers. While it does work, we want to throw up a large red flag here. The drive does not support any form of password protection and should really be reserved for emergency scenarios wherein nothing else works. The My Passport Wireless SSD FTP transfer speeds are also not any quicker than using Explorer.
We will also point out the SSH option here. Once connected - which does require a password to be set - it provides root access to the full Linux file system of the device. Have fun tinkering away, but please only mess with this if you are experienced and accept the consequences that may come along with it. Stored files are located at /DataVolume for your convenience.
With all the foundation out of the way, let’s run some real-world benchmarks...
Natively, there is no way to access the My Passport over the network out of the box. The drive only supports the SMBv1 protocol for network sharing. In fact, Windows 10 keeps SMBv1 disabled as a default. Readers may recognize this method as insecure.
Savvy users can enable the SMBv1 feature to make it work if desired. Only the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client option is needed, but we do recommend the Automatic Removal option to limit risks when the drive is not connected. Ultimately, our wireless transfer tests were rather slow and we would recommend saving wireless transfers for mobile devices.
As an alternative, the My Passport Wireless SSD supports Twonky and Plex Media Servers. The two options cannot be run side-by-side so users will need to choose which they prefer. File streaming works well, but neither solution makes file transfers particularly elegant.
Users can also install the WD Access software on their PC. This does not help handle file transfers, but it does provide easy access to the My Passport Wireless SSD’s built-in web browser. Like the My Cloud app, users can examine their status and configuration. Additionally, the browser menu allows users to restore factory settings, either with or without a disk wipe, and perform advanced support functions via diagnostics.
FTP is another possible solution for file transfers. While it does work, we want to throw up a large red flag here. The drive does not support any form of password protection and should really be reserved for emergency scenarios wherein nothing else works. The My Passport Wireless SSD FTP transfer speeds are also not any quicker than using Explorer.
We will also point out the SSH option here. Once connected - which does require a password to be set - it provides root access to the full Linux file system of the device. Have fun tinkering away, but please only mess with this if you are experienced and accept the consequences that may come along with it. Stored files are located at /DataVolume for your convenience.
With all the foundation out of the way, let’s run some real-world benchmarks...
