Customer Reviews

Seagate FreeAgent DockStar Network Adapter STDSA10G-RK (White)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

You can use this as a home network server for windows without signing up with pogoplug or installing any software.

Plug your USB drive into your computer, format it (preferably with NTFS) and create a file on it named .ceid

Using notepad, or your favorite text editor, put these lines in the file (replacing yoursharename with a name of your own choosing). Note the mode=rw allows reading and writing.

servicename=yoursharename
xcode.metadata=never
xcode.thumbnail=never
xcode.stream=never
cifs.mode=rw

Plug the usb drive into the Dockstar, and you're all set. The drive will be available as
\\fadsMMMMMM\yoursharename (where MMMMMM are the last 6 letters and numbers of the Dockstar's mac address, which is on the label on the bottom).

Note you can plug up to 3 regular usb drives and one Seagate Go drive into this. You do not need a go drive.

For maximum security, I recommend using your internet router's firewall to block all internet access from whatever ip address gets assigned to the dockstar.

I bought the Dockstar and a GO drive for use with my home network. I liked the idea of using it as a portable USB drive when away from home, and also sharing it with the computers on my home network without needing a host computer always on. The ability to access it over the internet was not important to me.

Like many of the other reviewers, I was surprised that there was virtually no documentation. It was very easy to setup and it worked right out of the box. However, I was surprised that I had to go to the Pogoplug website to activate and configure it. Like others, I am concerned about how secure this arrangement is. Even though I don't intend to access my drive from the internet, it seems that the only way to configure it is to do it from this website. I would feel better if there was a way to configure it without accessing it from the internet. Also, a note of caution: make sure you type https when typing in the web address. If you don't, you'll be typing in your password over a non-secured connection! I can't believe their web site allows this.

The Pogoplug service is free for the first year, but there is a charge after that. However, it appears that you can still configure the Dockstar from the website even if you don't pay for the Pogoplug service. Here's how to use the device on your private network without using the Pogoplug service and software:

1. Register the Dockstar with the strongest password you can come up with. Remember that during the first year, your files are accessible on the internet if someone can crack your password.

2. Log into the Pogoplug site and click on Settings in the upper right corner. Then click on the WFS (Windows File Sharing) link on the left side. Click the "Change workgroup" link, and enter the workgroup name that you use on your network. Then set the drive to "Read and write" and sign out.

3. On your computer, click on your network and refresh the list to display all the devices on your internal network. You should find a new device with a nonsense name. This will be your Dockstar drive. You can map it to a drive letter if you like. Now you can use your drive like any other shared drive on the network, without installing the special Pogoplug software. The only time you should have to log back into the website is if you change your workgroup name (so don't lose that password!)

Note that there is no way to restrict the drive to certain users on your network. It will be available to everyone. If you want to store anything private, download TrueCrypt and learn how to use it (probably not a bad idea anyway, since the drive is portable!)

For my purpose the device works fine and I am happy with it. Before you buy the device, you should evaluate whether it will meet the purpose you have in mind.

UPDATE: After writing my review, I ended up returning the Dockstar. I learned that you cannot even eject the drive from the Dockstar without logging into the website and doing it from there. Also, I learned that there are now routers that have a USB port and allow you to share a drive on your home network that way. That approach seems closer to what I want to do, without the hassle and security concerns.

First I was also not happy with it as it needs pogoplug service. But after finding more & knowing how it works, I am very happy with it.

* You can use it as NAS without installing any software on computers in home network or using pogoplug. Dockstar get netbios name as FADS<Last six digits of MAC address>. But instead of this, assign static IP using router & use that IP as thats much easier.

1. Before connecting any usb drive to dockstar, create file named ".ceid" in root directory of each partition with following entries. You need to create this file on unix as files created on windows have ^M as end-of-line character which may cause issue (not sure about that).
servicename=yoursharename
xcode.metadata=never
xcode.thumbnail=never
xcode.stream=never
cifs.mode=rw

2. connect usb drive to docstar

3. mount any drive/partion as local disk using on home computer using
net use x: \\\<your share name>

e.g.
C:\Users\home>net use r: \\192.168.0.99\desk1
The command completed successfully.

Or in windows explorer, simply type following in address bar to see all available shares
\\192.168.0.99

* It can be used without pogoplug service as described above. So people having concerns about sharing content over internet can simply disable pogoplug by any of following method
1. Assign static IP to docstar and Add following rule in home router to block traffic to internet
Action Name Source Destination Protocol
Deny docstar LAN, WAN,* *,*
2. Login using ssh & create /etc/hosts file with following entry,
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost pogoplug pogoplug.com my.pogoplug.com www.pogoplug.com service.pogoplug.com upgrade.pogoplug.com service.cloudengines.com upgrade.cloudengines.com schema.cloudengines.com

* Since it supports SMB (samba), sharing files as WFS (Windows File Sharing) is very easy. Dockstar might need restart when configuration changes are done using pogoplug, so just keep that in mind.

The samba configuration is stored in /tmp directory as follows,
-bash-3.2# ls -al /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 4 root root 200 Jan 1 00:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 100 Jan 1 00:00 .cemnt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 448 Jan 1 00:00 hbplug.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21 Jan 1 00:00 resolv.conf
-rw------- 1 root root 24576 Jan 1 00:00 secrets.tdb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 320 Jan 1 00:00 smb.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 151 Jan 1 00:00 smb.conf.xce_efeDGBvRB3d6nwwMERA4TEf
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Jan 1 00:00 smbpasswd

For each partition, unique id is assigned e.g. efeDGBvRB3d6nwwMERA4TEf. And it creates file named, /tbp/smb.conf.xce_<unique_id> e.g. smb.conf.xce_efeDGBvRB3d6nwwMERA4TEf. All these files are then included in main "smb.conf"
It also create file named ".ceid" in each partition

You can create advance permissions using configuration file, refer to [...]


* Supports various file systems FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT, EXT2 etc

* Extensible, add more services/utilities like sftpd for file transfers over WAN/internet
refer [...]

We bought this device because we had some USB drives we wanted to share on our home network (but had no interest in being able to access these drive outside or home).

The DockStar setup was easy enough, and in minutes we were accessing our drives. But when we started considering the ramifications of depending on the PogoPlug software for drive access, we were concerned, so we consulted Seagate's tech support website.

#1. There is nothing about the DockStar on their support website, beyond a couple of well-hidden FAQs (I only found them through a helpful user on the community forum).

[...]

#2. You CAN access the device even if your internet connection (to the world) is fubarred. You have to use the 'web interface' (rather than the pogoplug software) to do this ( this is stated in one of the FAQs). Unfortunately, I can't find any instructions on how to actually access the web interface. Downside: you lose drive letter access to the connected USB drives (see my next point).

#3. Pogoplug software is free for the 1st year. After that it's $[...] a year. If you don't subscribe, you can't access the attached USB drives as drive letters -- only the web interface is available (and don't forget - the instructions for doing this have proved elusive, for me at least). That means you can't use the device for anything requires a drive letter/directory setting (e.g. iTunes).

#4. When the pogoplug software is working, performance is flaky depending on what you're doing with the files on the drive. For example, previewing photos or working with documents, on the pogoplug drives seems to work OK. But when I tried viewing video (even small files of a couple minutes of video), the player ground to a halt (I'm assuming because the file was being sent from Dockstar to pogoplug and back to my machine - quite the lengthy round trip).

We are sending our device back, and this has left a bad enough taste in my mouth, that I'll probably never buy another Seagate product again.

Seagate FreeAgent DockStar Network Adapter STDSA10G-RK (White)

One of the negatives reviewers have pointed out is that the PogoPlug service is only free the first year. This is no longer the case, it is now free for life. I can't really review this device yet, I am waiting for mine to arrive! For the people who sent it back only because of the service fee...you might want to reconsider.

DockStar transmits files without any encryption which I think should make it worthless to anyone who cares about the privacy of their data

I will start by saying this device is very well designed hardware/software/networking wise, almost nothing to configure. I had fun playing with it. However there is one HUGE HUGE flaw with this device, it transmits files without any encryption which I think should make it worthless to anyone who cares about the privacy of their data (in today's word this should be everyone). It's not that hard to encrypt data so I don't understand why they are transmitting files in the clear. I became suspicious when they barely mentioned anything about security in the documentation/FAQ, funny because you know everyone is wondering how safe this thing is when they are buying it, apparently they didn't mention much about security because it's not safe at all.

I was shocked to see no one else mentioning this anywhere on the web. I welcome people verifying this, I want to get the word out.

Here's the deal...

Accessing your drive through the pogoplug website:

When you go to the pogoplug website to access your hard drive, you'll notice a link below the log in panel that says "click here for secure sign-in". First off why isn't this the default? The file transfer process works like this: when you access a file through the pogoplug website it goes from your DockStar drive, to their web server, to your web browser. The connection between your web browser and their web server is secure (even downloading files) assuming you do the "secure sign-in" with SSL encryption. However, the connection between the DockStar and their web-server is not secure so files are transmitted in the clear without any encryption. I created a sample text file on my DockStar drive and received it from their website logged in with SSL. Using a laptop, wireshark, and hub I could read my file in the clear being transmitted out of the DockStar going to their web server. Pogoplug is only encrypting the second half of the trip between their web server and your web browser, what about the first half of the trip? To me that's just not safe. Anyone with access to the data between your DockStar and their web server can read the data. Of course if you forget to "click for secure sign-in" there's no encryption at all on either half of the trip.
Summary: DockStar <---(unsecure)--> Pogoplug Web Server <---(secure with SSL)---> Web Browser

Accessing your drive using their "Drive mapping software"

I think this is the more useful part of pogoplug. The pogoplug software maps a windows drive (just like another hard drive) to your connected DockStar drives for use even when you are working remotely outside your network at home. It uses the same technique as above by using their web server as an intermediary for transferring files between the DockStar and the mapped drive. However when accessing files using this method I NEVER saw any encryption when working with files. I saw all my files transmitted in the clear. I don't see any settings to change this either and encrypt the data. In other words if you were in a coffee shop and accessed files on your DockStar drive using this method people could read all your files, look at pictures, etc as you send and receive them.
Summary: DockStar <---(unsecure)--> Pogoplug Web Server <---(unsecure)---> Mapped Drive

To try this on your own make a text file on your DockStar drive, download wireshark and see if you can read the file contents without encryption when you access it. In the mean time I don't recommend doing anything with data you are sensitive about on this device, DockStar just seems like a toy for now. And even if they do fix this and add some sort of end to end encryption I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone figures out how to hack into their pogoplug servers and gain access to all our drives. Call me paranoid but a company that releases a product with such poor security to start with probably won't know or care much about how to do security right down the road. Send it back!

Other negatives:
-Dependency on external website for configuring
-Potential subscription fees down the road
-Slower than expected when accessing files remotely

For the "target audience" - as a drive docking station with the default firmware, this may indeed be a bit questionable... (especially considering the generally low quality of Chinese-made Seagate drives!)

... but for a Linux tinkerer looking for a replacement for their old Linksys NSLU2, or someone who just wants to play with ARM Linux, this is a *fantastic* deal now. It runs an ssh server (root pw "stxadmin") and you can jump right in, disable the Pogoplug software and then you've got a nice ARM Linux device that you can set up with Debian, Gentoo, or something you compile yourself.

This is a cut-down version of the Marvell Sheevaplug (a $100 device!) - 128mb ram, 256mb flash (224 free) w/o debug ports and an added USB hub - and the gigabit ethernet port. If you appreciate what that means, and have a use for it, this is for you!

This product does exactly what it's supposed to do -- it allows you to access stored files through your home network or across the Internet from virtually any PC that has an Internet connection. Unfortunately, that access comes at a price. Additionally, although the device can be used "out-of-the-box" with little-to-no networking knowledge, enabling it as a more flexible device is a bit more challenging.

The device is easy to setup. Connect it via an ethernet cable to your router, plug it in, and it's ready to go in minutes. You need to access a special website to "activate" it. Here, I had trouble. For me, the registration process failed. However, I contacted customer support via email and received a response within minutes -- yes, minutes! The problem was solved -- all via email -- within 30 minutes and I was ready to go.

You can plug in any USB-enabled storage devices or the proprietary Seagate drives as storage solutions. When you navigate to the webpage and login, you can see all of the files that are stored on the devices. From this webpage, you can also manage permissions -- which include who can download and upload files, in addition to sending invitations to people so that they can do the same. This feature-set is quite rich -- for example, you can provide access to somebody to download files, but they will be unable to change and upload files.

It's important to point out that my home ISP is an extremely fast fiber connection, with an incredibly fast upload speed. So, in my experience, uploads and downloads were extremely quick. I've never experienced any delays with the upload or download. However, download performance will vary based on the speed of your Internet connection at home, combined with the speed of the Internet connection at the PC you are using.

Problems? In one instance after a power failure, the device could not be accessed from the Internet. I had to manually restart the device in order to clear this issue. Therefore, I'd be hesitant to rely on this because, quite honestly, there are numerous networking issues that could cause the device to become disconnected from the Internet. And if you're remote, you're basically "out of luck" and can't access your data.

There is an annual fee to maintain the Internet service after the first year following activation.

From within your home network, you can actually access the device without using the webpage. However, this requires you to first register the device, then go to the webpage, and then change the "home group" so that it matches your network name that is shared among all PCs on your home network. Once I did this, I was able to access the drive through the "My Network Places" icon on the Windows desktop. Since we have multiple PCs in my home, this functionality provides us with a common location to store files, without having to leave a PC running all the time (in the case of a "shared" PC drive), while also bypassing the manufacturer's special webpage. However, enabling this feature is not documented.

The remaining issue I have is with security. Since you are accessing this device through a website -- a third-party service -- I suspect that your data is passing from the device, to the third party, to your PC (when using the webpage on the Internet). I would not store personal/confidential information on this device. Additionally, the device is visible to the Internet. It's possible that it is creating a secure connection to the service provider, but again, there's no documentation explaining this. I'm also slightly concerned that the service provider can access the device remotely. Call me paranoid -- yes -- but without fully understanding exactly how this device works, I won't be storing any confidential information on it without encrypting it myself.

However, all of these technical issues aside -- the device actually works perfectly. If you're looking for an easy-to-use, always-on, network storage device, this is a great alternative to higher-priced devices. It's a great storage solution for inside your home network, and quite handy to have if you want to access files remotely.

I must admit that I had no interest in this device for its intended purpose; however, it looked like it would make a nice replacement for an old 400MHz Pentium II server that has been running Linux for many years (props to the old Compaq DeskPro line).

After plugging in an 8GB USB drive and connecting the Dockstar directly to the ethernet port of another Linux box, I was able to use nmap to find the local IP address of the unit, ssh in and turn off the "phone home" software. (Don't connect to the internet before you disable that bit.)

The command to find the local IP is "nmap -e eth0 -sP 169.254.185.0/16" (this may vary according to your environment). Then "ssh root@<found ip address>" with password "stxadmin". Remount the local file system so that it is writable: "mount -o remount,rw /". Then use vi to edit the file /etc/init.d/rcS and comment out the line running the "phone home" software so that it looks like "#/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start" (or just remove it).

I then connected it to my LAN, power cycled the Dockstar and followed the excellent directions available at [...] .

This device is successfully running MySQL, PHP5, Apache2, Bind9 etc. as a DNS and low-volume web server. I figure it will quickly pay for itself in decreased power consumption.

Once that server was up and running, I set up a second one as a stand-alone WordPress server. The response time for serving pages is pretty quick, but the admin pages take quite a while to load. This serves my purposes just fine.

If your server needs are not great, and you are comfortable with working from the command line, this may be a good choice for you. It may also be an affordable way to learn Linux system administration.

negative:

only Windows share is possible
only online configuration via [...]
system must be online when starting up

positive:

easy configuration

it is hackable -> nice NAS with media streaming, nfs etc. can be installed -> look arround (openpogo, plugapps)
(not supported by seagate and you do it at your own risk. ;) )