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- First reviewNovember 9, 2013
- Last reviewNovember 9, 2013
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With a 2TB capacity and a Gigabit Ethernet interface, this WD My Cloud external network-attached storage device lets you easily save files via your existing Dropbox or other Cloud account and access them from devices connected to your home network.
Customer Rating
4
Nice price and good performing for a network drive
on November 9, 2013
Posted by: dpon
from Rochester, NY
Compatible with...:Mac
Verified Purchase:Yes
I have always felt that sometimes the software execution on WD products could be better, but there is no beating WD hardware for performance and reliability. I would say, the software and user interface are both still a bit weak with the WD My Cloud, but it is much better than previous WD products I have used in the past. The hardware features on My Cloud, which includes the hard drive, dual core processor, and a Gig Ethernet interface, are first rate.
I have been looking for a reasonably priced network drive for a couple of years. I almost purchased the My Book Studio Live last year, but read some terrible reviews. When I saw the price and features on the My Cloud, I decided to give this one a try.
So far, I am reasonably happy with my decision. The initial setup was a little harder than WD promises, and about half way through I did have to start over from step 1, for some unknown reason. Once operational, main features like backup, mobile access, and DLNA work pretty well. I still need to setup network shares for my family of mobile users and there are some other features I want to implement.
The user interface has two main elements, which is a bit confusing. There is a UI page that can be accessed via IP address on your browser. Although the UI screens are easy to navigate, there are too many preferences you can set, which lack detailed descriptions of their functionality. There is also the WD My Cloud desktop AP that is almost too simplistic. You need to setup the network 'shares' and users on the UI page, and use the desktop AP for basic file management.
The DLNA support is provided by WD proprietary Twonky software built into the My Cloud. It works reasonably well between the drive and my SONY smart TV. Compared to Plex Media DLNA Server software on my MAC there are pluses and minuses. I have two problems with Plex DLNA. The first is that my video files are a bit jerky, as they are stored on an external hard drive to my MAC. The second problem was that some of my video files would stop playing on my Sony TV about 20 minutes into the playback. The My Cloud has extremely smooth playback, especially when both the TV and My Cloud are using Gig Ethernet. The 20-minute problem did not go away with My Cloud/Twonky, which indicates the issue is on the client side, i.e. on the Sony TV. I do prefer the way Plex Media cataloged my media files and presented better category selections on the client side vs. Twonky. But hopefully, future upgrades to the Twonky server will provide better functionality. Again, for now, it runs reasonably well.
I have used the My Cloud Mobile App on both an iPhone and Android devices. I would give the mobile apps about a B- rating, but I would expect to see some better improvement with future releases here as well.
I have seen complaints about slow network performance on My Cloud. Initially, I felt the same way, but I upgraded all my important Ethernet connections to Gig Ethernet and there was a vast improvement. Make sure your router and any hub ports support Gig E to take advantage of the Gig E on the My Cloud.
Overall, I think WD did a pretty good job on designing a reasonably priced product that provides a lot of features that users looking for Network Attached Storage will appreciate. The My Cloud is also a nice looking product and I think WD put a lot of time developing this platform. My hope is that WD My Cloud has a longer product lifecycle than Studio Live did. And, that future software and firmware upgrades will improve the software functionality on an all ready very good hardware product.
My Best Buy number: 2367642909
My Best Buy number: 2367642909
What's great about it: Lots of features in reasonably priced package
What's not so great: User Interface could be better.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Ease of Use
4
Performance
4
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