Tech Olive

Sharing, syncing, and having remote access to files is more important than ever. We used to just carry flash drives or portable hard drives with us, and we still do to some extent, but simply storing files some place where we can access them anywhere has become a popular choice for most geeks today. Seagate sent us their GoFlex Net, which is a media sharing device that docks your GoFlex drive and allows you to remotely access it anywhere.

The GoFlex Net runs off of the popular media sharing service PogoPlug, which I’ve noticed is pretty much exactly like Dropbox, except for the fact that Dropbox only gives you a max of 200GB of storage and that’s if you pony up to the $10/month subscription. With the GoFlex Net, you’re only limited to the size of your hard drive that you connect to it, without a subscription fee.

After the GoFlex Net is connected to the router and powered up, all you need to do next is activate it and then create an account. Just like Dropbox, you can view all of your files either through the web interface, which is what you’ll have to use if you’re on a public computer — or you can download a small app that puts a folder on your desktop with quick access to your files.

Something that’s unique about the GoFlex Net and other GoFlex devices is that they ultimately use SATA connections instead of traditional USB, FireWire, or eSATA. So if I wanted to (which I did, as you can see in the photo to the right), I could connect any SATA laptop hard drive to the GoFlex Net. It doesn’t have to be a GoFlex drive. Any 2.5-inch SATA drive will fit right in, but 3.5-inch drives will not. Then again, the GoFlex Net has a USB port to plug in any other external drives that you happen to use.

To put it simply, I kind of like the GoFlex Net. PogoPlug is a cool service and the only reason I don’t use it is because of the required $130 initial purchase of the PogoPlug device, which is why I use Dropbox instead. It’s free and you can get a max of 10GB of storage without paying a subscription fee, which is enough for all my important files. However, if you’re wanting a very capacious network drive, the GoFlex Net along with an external hard drive is a great and cheaper way to get that done.

Score: 8 Olives