Western Digital My Book World Edition review
Verdict
With a low price and some handy features, it's just a few teething troubles that disappoint.
Review Date: 17 May 2007
Reviewed By: Jim Martin
Price when reviewed: (£128 inc VAT)
With the new World Edition of the My Book, Western Digital is finally moving away from its NetCenter NAS range. Although the drive has an Ethernet port and you can access the World Edition's files from any internet-connected PC, Western Digital is keen to point out that it isn't just a NAS drive.
This is because the World Edition comes with MioNet's software, which makes it far easier to access your files than via FTP. While FTP is fine for power users, not everyone wants or needs the complexity of a NAS drive such as the Synology. You can create user accounts and password-protected shared folders either via a browser or the MioNet software, which is easier to use. It's a cut-down affair, but for an annual fee of £30 you can upgrade to the full version, which offers access to all shared disks on your network. It also allows you to remotely control your PC.
It's possible to access the My Book through firewalls because it simply transfers everything over secure http (as most ADSL connections have a limited upstream speed of around 0.5Mb/sec, though, you won't want to upload large files from the My Book to a remote PC). During testing, we found our drive often failed to obtain an IP address from the router, so wasn't accessible. Western Digital is investigating this problem, and when we have a definitive answer we'll print an update on www.pcpro.co.uk.
There are two capacities: 320GB and 500GB, plus a World Edition II with two 500GB disks and RAID1 support. It's a shame the PSU isn't built in and that the USB port is for adding extra storage rather than local access. Performance over the Gigabit Ethernet connection was also slower than we'd expected, at 4.7MB/sec for writing and 6.9MB/sec for reading. The 500GB version runs quietly, though: the 1TB model has a noisy fan that kicks in when temperatures rise.
The My Book World Edition is good value, but until Western Digital can fix the IP address issue we can't recommend it.
Author: Jim Martin
From around the web
advertisement
- Google legal chief: privacy laws too hard on SMBs
- No free Visual Studio for Windows 8 desktop developers
- Facebook spends $1bn on Instagram... then launches its own Camera app
- Who sends Google the most takedown notices? Microsoft
- Microsoft wins text patent battle against Motorola
- Watchdog fines firm £50,000 over Android malware
- Intel to test smartcity future on London
- June decision on Microsoft's billion-dollar EU fine
- Yahoo browser launch marred by security flaw
- Autonomy management walk out over HP bureaucracy
- Laptop bag reviews: nine tested
- Sony VAIO T Series Ultrabook review: first look
- Revealed: the military standards and robots HP uses to test its laptops
- Windows 8: multi-monitors and double standards?
- Why is TalkTalk's year-old porn filter suddenly big news?
- Why are laptop screens so far behind mobiles?
- HP EliteBook Folio review: first look
- The shoebox-sized all-in-one printer
- Forget the Ultrabook: here comes the HP Sleekbook
- HP Spectre XT review: first look
- Can you buy technology with a clean conscience?
- The death of email
- How to use Windows 8 Metro
- 30 best features of Windows 8
- How to become a cyberspy
- Create your own smart home
- Install a custom ROM on your smartphone
- Can the Raspberry Pi save computing?
- Google: the pirates' best friend?
- Backups: ten tips to keep your data safe
- Why you have to be left in the dark on OS patches
- Is Microsoft mismanaging Windows on ARM?
- Dealing with spam surrogates
- Why 3G broadband can be better and cheaper than ADSL
- Is Twitter bad for business?
- Publishing your email address isn't a security disaster
- Why you'll need a fax machine to develop iOS apps
- Learning to adapt to the mobile web
- Why you shouldn't use WPS on your Wi-Fi network
- Disabled users suffer when software breaks the rules
advertisement






