Seagate STAK100 FreeAgent GoFlex Net Media Sharing Device

by Seagate

• Share your photos, music, and movies over the Internet without uploading
• Access your digital files from any computer on your home network--PC or Mac--and from anywhere in the world
• Listen to your music, watch your movies and access your content from iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android mobile devices
• Works seamlessly with GoFlex ultra-portable drives and any USB storage device

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.7 x 3.7 x 1.4 inches ; 7.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B003IT6YFU
• Item model number: STAK100
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 26, 2010

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The GoFlex™ Net media sharing device allows you to share your digital life with anyone, anywhere. With two integrated GoFlex ultra-portable drive slots and one additional USB 2.0 port, you can pair GoFlex ultra-portable drives or any other USB 2.0 storage device with the GoFlex Net to store and access your content from any networked computer in the home. Following service activation, you can access your content remotely through a clean, web-based interface and invite friends to view your files or upload as well. Simply type in their email addresses and they will receive an email linked to the folders you chose to share with them.
 

Seagate® GoFlex™ Net Media Sharing PROTECT. STORE. DO MORE. Store and Share from anywhere Highlights Easy - Share your content with friends and family Compatible - Share files with both PC and Mac Flexible - Access content from your iPhone, iPad or other portable devices

Easy - Share your content with friends and family Gives you access to files on any external USB drive that's connected to your GoFlex Net from any computer on your network, and via Internet or smart phone. Delivers built-in Pogoplug functionality so you can access and share files anywhere in the world. Creates a private virtual space for sharing files with friends and family. Makes file sharing effortless - just enter an email address to send a link with access to the files or folders you choose to share. Provides one-click integration with your favorite social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, by automatically sharing your pictures and files.

Compatible - Works with both PC and Mac Connects to PC and Mac® computers right out of the box. No need to reformat your drive.

Flexible – Access content from your iPhone, iPad or other portable devices Access files from your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android phone, Palm Pre or other smart mobile device. Includes free iPhone, Blackberry and Android apps that let you listen to your music, view and upload your pictures and watch your movies. Upload pictures directly from your mobile phone. Lets you instantly connect two GoFlex ultra-portable drives via the integrated docking slots, and one additional USB storage device via the USB port for virtually unlimited storage.

The GoFlex™ Storage System One Drive. Interchangeable connection options.

Seagate® GoFlex™ Family Hard Drives
GoFlex™ Ultra-Portable Drive Store or back up photos, movies, music and documents Carry files with you while on the go Capacities: 320GB, 500GB, 1TB click here	GoFlex™ Pro™ Store or back up photos, movies, music and documents High performance 7200RPM drive delivers up to 40% faster file transfer speeds than the standard GoFlex drive Capacities: 500GB click here	GoFlex™ Desk External Drive Store or back up photos, movies, music and documents Offers both vertical and horizontal drive orientation Capacities: 1TB, 2TB click here

Backup

Easy Backup Software (pre-installed)

Easy backup software automatically protects files and folders on your computer

Media Connection Options

GoFlex™ TV HD Media Playing Device View photos, listen to music, and watch your digital movies on your TV.

GoFlex™ Net Media Sharing Securely share data over your network and connect to your drive over the internet.

GoFlex™ Net Specifications

System Requirements	Router with an available Ethernet port Internet connection for activation and Internet file sharing Internet Explorer® 7, Firefox® 3.x, Chrome 4.x, Safari® 3, or later web browser Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Windows® XP operating system or Max OS X 10.4.9 or later operating system Any USB storage device, GoFlex™ or GoFlex Pro ultra-portable drive
Product Dimensions	4.72in L x 3.74in W x 1.44in H (120mm x 95mm x 36.5mm)	Weight: 1.03lb (0.47kg)
Inside the Box	GoFlex™ Net media sharing device AC power adapter Ethernet cable 1-Year limited warranty

 

Product	Capacity	Model Number
FreeAgent GoFlex Net	N/A	STAK100

Product Description

The Seagate GoFlex Net Media Sharing Device allows you to securely share data over your network and connect to your drive over the internet.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 83 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It works, but this isn't for everyone... September 1, 2010

By D. Matheny TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is one of those products that is probably the reverse of most tech products. In this case, the average non-techie will probably love it - but people who know their way around computers are going to be baffled.

As with most products like this, I planned on just bypassing the Pogoplug service altogether and treating this like a networked docking station. That would have been something I could really use. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a major hassle to access this device without using either the Pogoplug website or their desktop access software - and I'm not interested in using either of those methods.

According to the full manual, which is downloadable from the Seagate website, the GoFlex Net CAN be accessed as a networked device. The network name is supposed to be the letters 'FADS' followed by part of the MAC address. In my case, that name never showed up - so I went to my DHCP server to verify that the name hadn't been registered, and it hadn't. I did find the IP address in use by the GoFlex Net through some experimentation, but couldn't use it to access the device through either Win7 Explorer or Internet Explorer (I figured http was a long-shot, but tried it anyway).

It is possible that other people will have better luck accessing this directly, but I couldn't get it to work in my environment.

After giving up on direct access, I gave in and activated the GoFlex Net using the Pogoplug service. The activation was easy; and, after playing with the interface for a bit, I can see that there probably is a specific class of users that will appreciate this device. It is easy to access data on the docked drives through the Pogoplug web interface, so you could have your data available from anywhere you have an Internet connection....

Overall, if you're looking for a dock that will work as a type of NAS device, you should steer clear of this. If you simply want some storage that is available from anywhere you are, then this is probably a reasonable solution. Read more ›

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless Device September 22, 2010

By Derek

Amazon Verified Purchase

First, you must understand that this is not a network storage device as it is marketed. IT is a media storage device. It is not designed well for doing backups of your own personal storage and your own personal data.

The product uses Pogoplug to manage the device. All configuration is done through the internet through the pogoplug website, not directly with the device. Therefore Pogoplug in some respect - owns the access to your data.

It is hard getting technical support because Pogoplug manages the software while Seagate manages the hardware support. To make matters worse, documentation, as mentioned by other posts, is absolutely terrible. Very little information online or through the software itself.

On to the review...

In order to use this device with windows or Mac, or even Linux, you need to install the pogoplug software - this will create a "pogoplug share" on drive "P" for your computer. This share is password protected. The problem comes if you have other computers or devices on which you cannot install this software on - for instance other media devices designed to connect to your network. Furthermore, software packages do not recognize this "pogoplug share" including Window's own Windows backup software that comes with Vista and Windows 7. Therefore it is impossible to backup to this device with Windows 7 backup software.

There is, however, another way to access the data. You can create a WFS share through the pogoplug website. You must know, however that this method does not have ANY security whatsoever. There is no username, and there is no password. You basically let all the data on the pogoplug completely open on your network.... Anyone who gets access to your network, even with a network cable, can see, modify, and destroy any of your data simply because there is no password whatsoever. For a more practical example, any of your children can accidentally delete everything on the device from their computer because EVERYONE with access to your network has 100% access to the data. This method does, however, allow all windows software to get access to the data.

Interestingly enough in the "security" tab has an option to use secure connections for all access to your data. This however, does not apply to the WFS share (which they don't tell you). The whole experience leaves me feeling a little bit duped.

Technical support specialists told me that if I really want secuirty I need to make sure I have a good internet router. This is a huge change from industry best practices.

So basically device security and interoperability with software and other devices is mutually exclusive. Simply put, you must decide whether you want security or access.

The device, does, however work well as a media device, like a media server on your network, and has methods of allowing you to access the data securely from anywhere in the world. This is it's one redeeming quality.

Yet, for a network Accessable storage device, look elsewhere. I bought two 1 tb drives along with the device - spending well over $400 - hoping to get a network accessable storage device, and today I am VERY sorry that I spent the money. Read more ›

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Does work as NAS with simple setup if you know how. June 8, 2011

By Robert Bruhn

I read the reviews, as well as performed searches online, before buying the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Net STAK100. Specifically, looking for a way to use it as a NAS and not fiddling around with Pogo.

A simple search on the net gave me this link:
[...]
Though titled for dockstar, this works for the Go Flex Net as well. The instructions are posted on the site in one comment, with some modifications I added. I'm on Windows 7.

1) Take a Seagate Go Flex harddrive and plug it into your computer.
2) Open Notepad and paste the following into a new document:

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

"yoursharename" for example can be "dockusb1" for one hard drive #1, "dockusb2" for hard drive #2, etc.

3) In Notepad, go to "save as" and save to your Seagate drive root as .ceid
(make sure to pick "all files" as the save as type from the drop down in the save dialog box)
4) Plug the Net STAK 100 into the router using the ethernet cable.
5) Take your Go Flex harddrive, plug it into the unit and power it up.
6) In Windows 7, Click Start/Windows icon -> Click Computer.
7) In the window that opens, click Map Network Drive.
8) Choose a Drive letter, then Browse, and navigate your network. You should see something like FADSXXXXXX, where XXXXXX are the last 6 numbers/letters of the MAC address on the back of the Net STAK 100.
9) Click to expand. You should see a folder with the same name you assigned as "yoursharename" in the .cied file, followed by an underscore (e.g. backup_).
10) Select that folder, click OK. Click Finish in the Map Network Drive window.
11) You should not see it in Windows Explorer.... If you want to name it something nice, right click on it and select "Rename."

As of right now, I'm doing a differential back up to my portable Seagate drive with a transfer rate of 450Mb/s.

So yes, it does work as a NAS. I did not want all the fancy web stuff or internet access. Simply a drive I can plug/unplug, and take with me when I need to travel. All backups are now going to be done automatically over my wireless network when I'm home.

Good luck. Read more ›