Dane-Elec Myditto review

Dane-Elec’s Myditto is a truly innovative product.

It is a network hard disk (also called network-attached storage or Nas), but it has significant advantages over many of its rivals that mark it out as particularly easy to use for those who are not technically minded.

The biggest advantage of the Myditto is how simple it is to set up: plug it into your router and the mains, then plug the provided USB key into a computer on your home network the first time you use it – that’s it.

The cornerstone of Myditto’s simplicity is its innovative use of USB keys that contain the technology to allow an internet-connected computer (with the key plugged in) to access the Myditto directly.

This approach means the usual process of an administrator configuring network settings for each computer to access a Nas device is not required here: plug in the key, enter the user’s password and access your files. This is a great, hassle-free way for both home and small-business users to access files remotely.

Up to 30 of the keys can be authenticated for use with any Myditto, with 10 being able to access the device at once. These keys also carry a well-thought-out application for navigating and managing folders and files on the device.

The result is a direct, secure and easy way to remotely access, transfer, manage and share files from anywhere in the world. Over a full-strength 3G mobile connection, using a laptop and a smartphone, we were pleased with 5MB file transfer times of between 90 and 120 seconds, which tumbled to 20-30 seconds when using a wireless network. What we particularly liked was the download status bar on the Myditto program, which removes the frustration of wondering how long a file transfer will take.

It is also a quick home network server for multimedia files. It is a DLNA-certified device, meaning it will stream media files across a local network to compatible hardware such as an Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC with Windows Media Player or a digital photo frame. It can also be used as an iTunes server.

The single or dual-slot hard disk configurations for standard 3.5in hard disks offer up to 2TB and 4TB of storage respectively. Usefully, the dual-slot version can be arranged using Raid technology, which mean that files are not lost should one of the drives fail.

Myditto supports several operating systems, including Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as Mac OS X and Linux distributions Fedora and Ubuntu. Smartphone users are catered for too, with Apple’s iPhone and Windows Mobile 6.1 currently supported and Android and Blackberry support on the way: for these devices, the USB key is replaced with a typed key code.

Accessing files stored on a home network over the internet is usually a hassle involving setting up the router in a specific way, but Myditto’s clever technology has got around all that, which makes it an excellent choice for anyone wanting to get to their own files when they’re away from home.