Iomega iConnect review: getting your printers, HDDs online has never been simpler
Iomega's iConnect managed to launch during the whirlwind that was CES 2010, so if you didn't quite catch it the first go 'round, here's hoping that you're paying attention today. In essence, the device is fairly simple. It's a small, port-filled slab that's designed to sit beneath or beside your current router or hub, and while we're certainly dumbing things down somewhat with this description, it's basically a variant of the Pogoplug. Equipped with four USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet jack and an internal 802.11b/g/n WiFi module, the iConnect is designed to put your existing thumb drives, external hard drives and / or printers online. We've had less-than-awesome experiences in the past with devices that turn localized storage into network accessible storage, so we went into this overview with fairly low expectations. Much to our surprise, we came away duly impressed with the package that Iomega has assembled, so be sure to read on if this one has been sitting on your maybe-must-have list.
Update: After a couple of months of use, we ran across some pretty intense issues with this device. Eventually, none of the PCs and Macs in our house would print to the networked printer, and our USB hard drives would only show up sporadically. Needless to say, our enthusiasm has been significantly tempered, and we wouldn't recommend this for homes where mixed platforms reside.
We unboxed the iConnect with a few goals in mind. For starters, we wanted to get our ancient USB-based HP printer online, enabling us to send print commands from a variety of computers (Macs and PCs) and from a variety of locations (Earth and Mars). Secondly, we wanted to get a couple of My Book HDDs online, enabling us to send and retrieve files to hard drives that have thus far remained tethered to our primary desktop. Oh, and we wanted no reduction in reliability and no uptick in complexity. With that in mind, we should note that setup couldn't have been easier. We connected the iConnect to our WLAN router via the included Ethernet cord, plugged the USB connectors from our two hard drives and one printer into the device and then popped the installation CD into our Windows 7 desktop.
Performance
We followed the on-screen instructions, and five minutes later our box was online and our two My Book drives were accessible. The web-based management portal -- while simplistic -- is decently laid out, and we had no issues setting up security boundaries and managing torrent downloads. In fact, we were shocked at just how quickly we had the HDDs online, and we were even more shocked to find that the drives simply popped up within My Computer on Win7 and within Finder on OS X without any fancy networking setup inside of the OS. We tested transfers and uploads via 802.11n (using our existing router, though the iConnect does feature it's own wireless for those who need it), and while it was certainly slower than having a hard USB 2.0 connection, the speeds weren't too awful. Downloads and uploads ranged between 2.3MB/sec and 3.4MB/sec over our wireless network, while a wired Ethernet connection saw those speeds increase to around 8MB/sec. Make no mistake -- this setup isn't for you if you're consistently shuffling around 10GB files, but for the average consumer who just needs to pull down a picture here and there, it's plenty capable.
Stress testing
We should also mention that performance over the internet (read: remote access from outside the home) will depend on your broadband connection; if you're stuck with a provider that caps your uploads at 40Kbps, you can bet that showing your friends in Guam that 800MB video you shot will be a painful experience. If you're jacked into a T1, you'll be able to snag those files in no time flat. We also went through a great deal of trouble to tax the system and find its breaking point, and we've good and bad news to share here. We started a 6GB upload from our MacBook Pro to one of our connected My Book drives, and while that was going on, we were consistently dragging and dropping smaller files (100MB or so) from the same HDD on another machine. Around 10 minutes into the madness, the 6GB connection dropped entirely; we fired it back up and let it upload with no extra activity going on elsewhere, and it finished sans a hitch an hour or so later. If this were an enterprise-class device, we'd say that this situation was simply intolerable, but given that it's a sub-$100 consumer product, we have to confess that we didn't actually expect it to survive such a gauntlet. Not that we enjoyed the failure, mind you, but we can't say we were shocked to see it finally cave when stressed so heavily.
Wireless printing
So, onto that printer we mentioned. Our Windows 7 rig had no issues whatsoever recognizing and installing our newly-networked DeskJet, and our OS X 10.5.8 machine picked it up via Bonjour without any hesitation. 'Course, finding the right driver was a separate pain, but that's certainly no fault of Iomega's. Put simply, we were printing over our wireless network within 5 or so minutes, and the setup has been working flawlessly day after day. Cutting the cord to your printer may be a minor victory in the grand scheme of life, but darn if it doesn't feel like something far greater in importance.
Wrap-up
At just under $90 on the street, it's really hard to knock Iomega's iConnect. Setup is exceedingly simple, and while it definitely doesn't boast the rock-solid reliability that we would like, we can't truthfully say that we expected as much from something so (comparatively) inexpensive. Our only major gripe on the design is the location of the USB ports; three are in the "front," while one is in the rear; regardless of how you spin it, you'll have USB sockets sticking out, making it impossible to conceal within your existing networking setup. We would've much preferred the USB ports all across the rear, as we don't exactly intend to remove these external hard drives from their NAS configuration anytime soon. If you've been looking for a dead-simple way to get your printer(s) and external hard drive(s) online, and you're not looking to transfer huge files on a daily or hourly basis, the iConnect is hard to pass over -- and yes, we were serious when we said that wireless printing would change your life.
Update: After a couple of months of use, we ran across some pretty intense issues with this device. Eventually, none of the PCs and Macs in our house would print to the networked printer, and our USB hard drives would only show up sporadically. Needless to say, our enthusiasm has been significantly tempered, and we wouldn't recommend this for homes where mixed platforms reside.
We unboxed the iConnect with a few goals in mind. For starters, we wanted to get our ancient USB-based HP printer online, enabling us to send print commands from a variety of computers (Macs and PCs) and from a variety of locations (Earth and Mars). Secondly, we wanted to get a couple of My Book HDDs online, enabling us to send and retrieve files to hard drives that have thus far remained tethered to our primary desktop. Oh, and we wanted no reduction in reliability and no uptick in complexity. With that in mind, we should note that setup couldn't have been easier. We connected the iConnect to our WLAN router via the included Ethernet cord, plugged the USB connectors from our two hard drives and one printer into the device and then popped the installation CD into our Windows 7 desktop.
Performance
We followed the on-screen instructions, and five minutes later our box was online and our two My Book drives were accessible. The web-based management portal -- while simplistic -- is decently laid out, and we had no issues setting up security boundaries and managing torrent downloads. In fact, we were shocked at just how quickly we had the HDDs online, and we were even more shocked to find that the drives simply popped up within My Computer on Win7 and within Finder on OS X without any fancy networking setup inside of the OS. We tested transfers and uploads via 802.11n (using our existing router, though the iConnect does feature it's own wireless for those who need it), and while it was certainly slower than having a hard USB 2.0 connection, the speeds weren't too awful. Downloads and uploads ranged between 2.3MB/sec and 3.4MB/sec over our wireless network, while a wired Ethernet connection saw those speeds increase to around 8MB/sec. Make no mistake -- this setup isn't for you if you're consistently shuffling around 10GB files, but for the average consumer who just needs to pull down a picture here and there, it's plenty capable.
Stress testing
We should also mention that performance over the internet (read: remote access from outside the home) will depend on your broadband connection; if you're stuck with a provider that caps your uploads at 40Kbps, you can bet that showing your friends in Guam that 800MB video you shot will be a painful experience. If you're jacked into a T1, you'll be able to snag those files in no time flat. We also went through a great deal of trouble to tax the system and find its breaking point, and we've good and bad news to share here. We started a 6GB upload from our MacBook Pro to one of our connected My Book drives, and while that was going on, we were consistently dragging and dropping smaller files (100MB or so) from the same HDD on another machine. Around 10 minutes into the madness, the 6GB connection dropped entirely; we fired it back up and let it upload with no extra activity going on elsewhere, and it finished sans a hitch an hour or so later. If this were an enterprise-class device, we'd say that this situation was simply intolerable, but given that it's a sub-$100 consumer product, we have to confess that we didn't actually expect it to survive such a gauntlet. Not that we enjoyed the failure, mind you, but we can't say we were shocked to see it finally cave when stressed so heavily.
Wireless printing
So, onto that printer we mentioned. Our Windows 7 rig had no issues whatsoever recognizing and installing our newly-networked DeskJet, and our OS X 10.5.8 machine picked it up via Bonjour without any hesitation. 'Course, finding the right driver was a separate pain, but that's certainly no fault of Iomega's. Put simply, we were printing over our wireless network within 5 or so minutes, and the setup has been working flawlessly day after day. Cutting the cord to your printer may be a minor victory in the grand scheme of life, but darn if it doesn't feel like something far greater in importance.
Wrap-up
At just under $90 on the street, it's really hard to knock Iomega's iConnect. Setup is exceedingly simple, and while it definitely doesn't boast the rock-solid reliability that we would like, we can't truthfully say that we expected as much from something so (comparatively) inexpensive. Our only major gripe on the design is the location of the USB ports; three are in the "front," while one is in the rear; regardless of how you spin it, you'll have USB sockets sticking out, making it impossible to conceal within your existing networking setup. We would've much preferred the USB ports all across the rear, as we don't exactly intend to remove these external hard drives from their NAS configuration anytime soon. If you've been looking for a dead-simple way to get your printer(s) and external hard drive(s) online, and you're not looking to transfer huge files on a daily or hourly basis, the iConnect is hard to pass over -- and yes, we were serious when we said that wireless printing would change your life.





















Hmm, think I'm going to pick one of these up.
Think this could work for a sudo Time Machine back up?
@Jaylittles531 Time Machine is supported out of the box.
What i'm after is something that'll just take a drive, let me dump media on it (in the right format), and the xbox and ps3 will read it.
So, does this support UPnP/DNLA?
@liam Yes it does. Rather surprised Engadget didn't mention that, built-in BitTorrent client, or built-in Time Machine support. Those are pretty big selling points for me.
I think I might actually pick one of these up this summer. Wireless printing and a few HDs to be able to access on all my computers is worth it. Though I do agree with @liam and wonder if it'll work with Xbox 360 or not.
I'm with you on the USB port locations.
Bad design is rude and inconsiderate. Neat cables are thing to be proud of. Make a.) work towards b.) please.
Does anyone know if this will print from outside my home network?
If not, does anyone have any ideas?
I have a HP OfficeJet 7310 that is connected via Ethernet to my home network.
Thanks.
Why wireless N, but no gigabit Ethernet? Given the wired speeds of around 8MB/s its running a 100Mb nic. So why Wireless N that would support speeds over 100Mb, but probably never sustain them and leave wired hanging at 100Mb? Even USB would be able to push well over 8MB from one drive let alone multiple drives on the same device.
@KAL326
Spec sheets are wonderful things, turns out this does have a Gigabit port.
@Darren:
Why would you only be able to pull 8MB/s over the hard wire connection, not using gigabit switch and nic in the testing?
http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/network-storage-desktop/wireless-data-station/network-hard-drive-iconnect/?partner=4760#tech_specsItem_tab
Okay, great, but how about USB devices other than printers, pendrives and HDDs?
I'm thinking, maybe a USB to Serial adapter, for what its worth, or how about a USB TV capture card? Or an RFID card reader so you could mount it behind your front door without trailing wires around. This could allow you, for instance, to wave a card over an area on the door and it releases a relay opening the door for you.
I'm thinking out loud.
@Heliosphan Its not built to do that. It handles USB Printers and storage devices. Functionality like that is not on par with a consumer level device. Its not wireless USB.
how about using a scanner?
Hmm interesting. Will this allow my XMBC to connect to the external hard drive I have on my main home PC? I have to leave the "big" PC on all the time, so would be nice to have this essentially running as a NAS. My XMBC (Acer Revo) takes up so little power I leave it on all the time
@thespacecowboy Normally, XBMC has no problems accessing contents from a NAS, hence I don't see why this would be a problem. In fact, I better get back to my movie now (playing from a NAS on appletv via xbmc)!
@thespacecowboy That would work. I'm thinking of getting this for the same setup you are talking about. You can use SMB or UPnP to stream your content.
@GumbyX
@ Marko
Thanks for the replies. Its really just a power balance - I don't mind having the "big" PC on all evening and during day sometimes, but I know it can eat through power. My OH doesn't really use the XBMC too much, apart from putting the odd movie on for the kids (now she knows the PC needs to be on for this!) I have a 1TB attached with some other stuff on, so that will work regardless of whether the big PC is on.
Heres a few areas where this device fails (ive been using it for 10 days)
I bought it for our small office to get 3 printers out of the way:
all in one printer (scanner fax printer)
11x17 epson printer
& a large format plotter
the device will not allow you to print anything if you do not have a storage device attached to it, so im down one 8gb usb stick and usb port.
it doesnt let you send back scans from the all in one machine for some reason.
theres no way you can connect a large format plotter because the driver is simply not supported by iomega.
@serkei99
It accepts PRINTERS, not All-In-Ones, Plotters, Scanners or Faxes, even though they are both considered printers are not what someone would consider a normal printer.
@Jaylittles531
a plotter is a large format printer, so unless you have actual feedback go wash the dishes.
@serkei99
If you would of actually read my comment to you, I didn't deny that it wasn't a printer I said it is not "what someone would consider a normal printer". Put your glasses on old man and learn to read.
Darn you Engadget! Your story on this thing made me go right over to Amazon and pre-order it.
Will there be a USB 3.0 version any time soon?
@Jaylittles531 even USB2.0 is much faster than ethernet and wireless, hence, it would be quite pointeless. However, for a device like this it is the system processor that limits the speed, not the USB, nor the speed of the network. (methinks)
this is very specific, but i was just wondering. I have a laptop and a desktop. my roommates both have laptops. all my media (movies and music) are on my personal external hard drive, and my iTunes library is linked to that drive. (it sucks to not technically be able to play music from the laptop, but hell i have my ipod with me everywhere anyway). so using this device with the external attached, would my library from home work the same way? or even if i was on campus? if so then will my roommates be able to use the same library? and what about adding tracks given this scenario? i know thats a lot, but this product (especially with the wireless printing) seems like something ive been unknowingly waiting on for a while.
@roboxj90 If you hook an external drive with songs on it up to this, get it online, and enable remote access, you can stream that music to any machine anywhere with a web connection. You can also upload new songs to it from anywhere just as if you were dragging & dropped files to a USB-connected external drive (though it'll transfer more slowly, of course).
If you have a drobo and want to connect it to the iConnect, it won't work (or at least it didn't work for me). It didn't even recognize it.
@bryanlyle Most likely because they want you to buy the Drobo network dock.
If you have a drobo and want to connect it to the iConnect, it won't work (or at least it didn't work for me). It didn't even recognize it.
Whats the release date on this?
256 MB of RAM and 512 MB of flash. Hmm... best candidate so far for PlugApps?
I'm intreagued by the discussion about the location of the USB ports. Surely the idea of this would be that you can add and take away devices like small disks, thumb drives, cameras etc. Wouldn't ports on the front be more helpful for that? Or in reality do you just connect and leave stuff there? What would be the ideal port configuration? Personally I think 4 ports isn't enough. Once you add a printer or 2, a couple of disks, there's no room for a flash drive and a camera every now and then.
Is wireless really useful? Stuff I've had before like this is usually a bitch to setup and too slow once working, so I end up going back and plugging it into my switch.
Does it work on Linux?
@aikiwolfie All the features can be configured through a web browser, so yes it is *nix compatible. Its on the product page on Iomega.
I recently purchased a Pogoplug to hook up one of my old desktop hard drives. How does this compare? Pogoplug can't do printer sharing, but does it offer any additional functionality? Same number of ports, but no need to install extra software to mount the drives straight to the OS (Pogoplug needs an annoying utility on Mac that stays quite visible in the dock).
So far I like Pogoplug for the mobile streaming (they have Android and iPhone apps).
supports hfs + read / write operation from macosx, I tested and the transfer seems faster than with a fat32 partition