Others say...

"folder-level security is a problem"
I like the device very much, but it's lacking in a couple areas.

First, the administrator cannot access folders using a separate folder-specific login. If you are the administrator, you cannot access folders to which security has been applied unless you remove the security. I wanted to create a folder for each member of my household, including myself, and use folder-level security to make each folder accessible to just that household member. Folder-level security works on computers other than the administrator's, but the administrator login overrides all other logins, so if you are administrator, you cannot use a separate login to access one or more folders on this device. When I attempt to log in to a folder to which security has been applied, I get an error message. There's another problem related to this problem but involving the backup software, which also uses a login.

Second, the service has not been stellar. I only learned about the problem above by communicating with other users. When I called for phone support, I got shuffled around from group to group (it's not really a server, but it's not just a hard drive) and never really got an answer.

I eventually gave up and accepted it for what it is, which is still pretty good.

"Satisfied Media Vault Customer"
I've been using the media vault for a month or so now and I'm very satisfied with it. So far it's been up and available 7/24 without hitch. I did have a worrisome moment or two when I first hooked it up on my network and it did not appear, but that's not an unusual initial situation for a network product. As I was reading the trouble shooting guide the vault finally appeared on the network. When I moved to a second workstation the vault appeared as soon as I installed the client software. When I moved on to my laptop, the vault appeared without my even having to install the software.

That said, the bundled software could use some improvement, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. The vault comes with the Firefly media server installed on it. On setup you can use the bundled client software to download your music files and any playlists to the Media Vault. You can also set how often your computer is checked for new songs and playlists. This seemed to work fairly well for my laptop, which doesn't have many mp3s on it. But my main PC, which houses my entire mp3 collection, the copy seemed to stop in mid stride and no matter how I configured the update option, I was not able to get the software to finish copying my music, or to update my playlists. At the very least the software migh have a button that allows the user to select update now. This was not a major issue for me as I was able to download some open source software and modify it to perform this function for me. Still, it was a bit of an irritant.

On the whole I'm very satisfied. It performes the primary funtion I bought it for, to allow me to share files and back them up flawlessly. It also performs as an always available music server both for itunes and windows media player. So, 4.5 stars.

"so so"
It took me about 2 days before I can use remote access control with my linksys wireless router. Automatic setting did not work well for my router. I have to set it manually.

My Web shared is so so. It worked well on IE, but not firefox. With IE, you can upload and downloaded easily.With firefox, you have to upload one picture at the time.

For remote access control, it was disappointed for me. it worked but quite slow. You can upload or download only one file at the time -_-" so wasting my time.


Overall, it might good for only home user, who normally do not want to access files remotely.


"Great for streaming to Xbox 360 (long)"
First off, I just want to say that I am not a gadget freak, or an expert when it comes to gadgets. Nor do i have time or money to spend money on gadgets to explore dfferences between different products. With that said, I did alot of research when it came to buying the Hp MediaVault 2120.
I also want to state that my main reason for wanting to purchase the MV2120 was of course for space. I have a fairly old computer with only a 80 GB HDD, and I love movies, so naturally 80 Gb is definitely not enough space. The second reason, and probably just as important as space, for wanting to get a NAS storage device was so that I could connect it to my network and stream movies, music and photos to my different devices on my network, mainly my XBOX 360's (yes, I have two).
If i had to sum this product up in one word, it would be WOWTASTIC!!!! I honestly purchased this unit a little confused as to the streaming capabilities were concerned. I looked on many different websites, but none of them were very clear when it came to streaming. But regardless of the lack of information on the webstes, and several calls to HP Customer Care, I went ahead and purchased the unit.
Setup was a breeze. You simply install the software on your computers, which at this time is incompatible with Mac computers, and you are good to go. The NAS Interface is a little clunky and slow, and when the hard drive goes into sleep mode, it does take more than normal times to speed up the drive, but it works like a charm. My biggest concern was actually streaming to my Xbox's. Just so you know how it went, I simply plugged up my NAS to my network, set up the software on the computer, and went into the settings and set up the Media Vault just like I wanted. Then i turned on my 360's, and the Media Vault automatically came up on the selection screen. It was litterally as simple as connecting the cable and turning on the Xbox. From there, I was able to stream all music, photos, and videos that I have in my collection. Of course, remember that the files have to be a certain format for the 360 to be able to read it, but if they are, then it will work without flaws.
I was curious as to how i could stream video, and I decided to put the MV2120 to the test. The tet was simple. To find out how many multiple streams it could do. So what I did was I turned on both of my Xbox 360's and played two seperate movies from the MV2120, and fast-forwarded them, jsut to test out the capabilities, and believe me when i tell you, there was absolutely no difference when i ran the two movies on the seperate 360's. I do want to let you know, I tried it with three devices (2 Xbox 360's, and one laptop) and it didnt work so well. So if you just so happen that you have 3 Xbox's, be warned that it may not work as well.
To be honest, I havent tried the remote desktop feature, or the photoshare, which to me are added features, that I was not that interested with in the first place, so I am unable to comment on those features. And for that, I do apologize.
To conclude, my main reason for purchasing the Media Vault was to add more storage to my current configuration, and have a central location for streaming my media files over to my HDTV's via my Xbox 360's. All I can say is that it blew away my expectations, and If you are looking to do the same thing that I have attempted for a much lower price than the "Microsoft branded Servers" then you will definitely be pleased with this unit. Thank you HP.

"Neat concept and good product"
I've gotten heavily into photography and started to run into the problem many other photogs and other multimedia folks run into - running out of space. So I started searching and decided to try this unit out. I mainly just wanted a NAS storage, but the multimedia and remote options were gravy. Set up went fairly well. Initially it had a hard time finding the NAS but finally did. That was about the only difficulty on setup.

As a storage unit, it seems to work great. Created and ran a few backup jobs and considering teh amount of data being moved, it did a decent job, speed wise.

My only complaint really is the software is a little clunky. It comes with a control manager that's easy to understand, but I've found certain operations sometimes didn't work (such as mapping the drive in windows explorer via the software). I think this may have been related to not being able to find the NAS, so i just manually did it in windows explorer. I also notice on startup that it'll ask if I want to start some backup jobs, then it prompts me for my username and password. I supply it but it always fails. I just cancel out and it seems to continue fine.

There is also a web-based control panel for the NAS. I like this, although its a little slow but its functional and not too bad. I want to try out the PhotoShare functionality but haven't gotten to that point yet. That looks pretty interesting. I'm wondering though if it'll allow other users to create albums from photos ON the NAS via the PhotoShare interface if the user has permission to view those folders. Again, I haven't played with this piece of functionality yet.

Now, the remote access is a neat concept. You can use your web browser if you are on teh go to access your photoshare OR your NAS itself. I like the idea, but not a fan of the delivery of it. The interface here is clunky and slow. I can imagine that it'd be a real pain to access files or browse them unless you really need them. In other words, casually browsing the NAS remotely wasn't a pleasant experience. It'd be great in an emergency type situation where you need some file, but other than that, I don't see myself casually looking unless i need something mainly b/c the interface is slow and clunky. It'd be awesome if you could remote mount the NAS in explorer. But again, this is gravy for my purposes, i wasn't really buying this unit for that functionality and it'd be great in a "must need" type situation.

One thing I didn't like about setting up the remote access is that it forced you to create a URL via a third party to locate your drive. Its not a huge deal, more of a pet peeve. I use DYNDNS and have been for years and have the URL I want so I can access my computers on the road even though i have dynamic DNS. I wish it let you account for people who might already have this. It doesn't interfere with the functionality though, its more of an added step, but it would have been nice if I could skip it. As I said, i didn't need another URL, I already had one. Of course, I can still use my DYNDNS url, its just a pet peeve that i had to create another URL via another 3rd party service.

For my purposes, so far so good. Setting up backup jobs was easy, we'll see how it works long term. I'm curious how well the photoshare will end up working and how easy managing users and visitors is.