Linksys Media Hub NMH305

If you happen to have several computers in your home, a network hard disk such as the Linksys NMH305 can share the files it contains with all of them at the same time. It can also make those files available remotely over the internet should you wish to access them while away from home.

Another reason to have such a device is to keep all those files backed up.

The Media Hub NMH305 is roughly the size of a supermarket wine box. It comes with some easy-to-follow setup instructions, a disc and network and power cables.

Installation should have been simple: put the disc in the computer and follow the wizard. In reality networking can be a struggle to get right if one element of your hardware isn’t playing ball.

Our Windows XP test computer wouldn't talk properly to the NMH305 at all. We found ready help available from the Linksys website and a phone number for technical help, but neither were able to get the product to talk.

On our Vista computer, though, there were no such problems and setup was trouble-free, taking about 10 minutes in all. The included backup software allowed us to select which files to make scheduled copies of and the neat browser-based interface, accessed through a handy desktop shortcut, meant we could easily see what was stored on the Media Hub.

Copying files to the NMH305 was relatively quick: we got steady transfer speeds of 9Mbytes/sec, and 1.6GB of images and videos were backed up in around three minutes. It had no trouble streaming content over our network, and playback of video on PC and Xbox 360 games console was smooth.

As a media-sharing device the NMH305, the entry-level model in the range, works well. The included 500GB is adequate for most needs and there’s also the option to slot in a second hard disk. Backup is also kept simple with its automated tasks and is something that all of us should be doing with our digital files.

The button on the front of the device can be used to initiate backups from PCs, but we're not convinced that the convenience of this justifies the NMH305's fairly high price.