First a little about me: IT Manager, specializing in networks and PC troubleshooting for over 15 yrs, Plex user since its inception, Plex Pass holder for several years.
I'd like to start a discussion on the new My Passport Wireless Pro. I purchased this immediately on the reputations of both Western Digital and even more so, on Plex. I think this is a phenomenal idea and so far the drive has been able to do everything it was advertised to do (after much tinkering). However, I think Plex and even Western Digital have some serious work to do with firmware (western digital) and server updates (Plex). The drive is very inconsistent and extremely cumbersome to work with and setup. I am an IT professional and am not easily frustrated with technology even if it is more complex than what an average user could easily figure out. However, thinking about how I want to use this drive, this technology, and how it will be used in every day life has me frustrated. Here is a list of a few issues, and I'd like to start discussions on these to see how everyone else has handled things.
Out of the box. Connecting the drive. USB - works flawlessly, as any WD external drive should and does, but we all did not buy this drive for its quick USB file storage, we got it for at the very least, wireless connectivity to our files. Connected USB, the wireless part of the drive is disabled. Connected USB, you can not get to the management interface of the drive.
So lets connect the drive to Wifi. The only way to do this is a direct adhoc connection from a laptop(or other wifi device) direct to the drive. The drive has no interface of any kind before this connection which leads us to the next issue.
So the ONLY way to setup the plex server or anything else with the wireless of the drive is to connect it to wireless. But wait, doing that say on a laptop, uses your wireless adapter to connect to the drive, so this immediately takes you off the internet. No way to firmware update, no way to download the plex server. I got around this by using a second USB wireless device and connecting the drive direct to it, freeing up my laptops adapter to get the internet. However if you know anything about trying to use multiple wifi adapters you know this has its own issues. With much work I got it to work was able to get plex downloaded and started.
Plex Server Setup - Lets talk about this later once we deal with 1-3.
- Plex Server Use - Same, lets revisit.
- Getting media to the drive for Plex - If using this for Plex then we all already have an existing Plex library on a PC somewhere, interaction of this drive's server with another server existing on the same network has some very strange problems. We can return to this as well.
- Using this drive as Wireless storage with it on your home wifi.
- Using this drive as wireless storage on the road.
Sorry for place holders, but I didn't want this initial post to be as long as it could be. Needless to say I have put this device through its paces, have found work arounds for most of the issues, but I know that there are many users who will have given up way before realizing the awesome potential of this device.
What are everyone's thoughts.