Filegear One Plus Review Create Your Own Personal Cloud

[William Harmon]

We test the Filegear One Plus personal / SMB cloud offering and find a refreshingly unique approach to providing a private cloud solution

The post Filegear One Plus Review Create Your Own Personal Cloud appeared first on ServeTheHome.

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[MiniKnight]

I can just see someone buying two powered USB 3 hubs hooking up a dozen 10TB drives and asking why that gives bad performance for this.

 

[William]

HAHAHA

 

[Patriot]

I thought those vents and bottom expansion looked familiar... The only question remains, is the which odm did HPinc use to manufacture the slice and is that the same firm Filegear got the designs from... Same vents, same expansion... didn't even change the color of the vents...

 

[PigLover]

It wasn't completely clear from the article - but it looks like you still access using a redirect from Filegear's cloud site. That still makes it a cloud service, dependent on Filegear's existence and their ToS - and allowing them to monitor and collect data/stats on usage.

Their stated goal was to free you from the cloud providers - but unless they are providing direct access (ala OwnCloud/NextCloud) then they've missed their mark.

Yes - I do know that 98+% of the users in the world can't figure out how to set up secure port-forward and dynamic DNS. And the ">2%" who can probably already do and would scoff at Filegear's product. So really there is no market for a truly "cloudless" storage solution. But what they've built isn't even really novel. Western Digital has been selling external drives with almost identical "cloud" connectivity for at least 5 years (WD myCloud drives). And as @Patriot points out its really just built on top of something off the shelf from the ODMs.

 

[MiniKnight]

I mean $300 for the HP Elite Slice is in-line with used ones but there's an Atom not a Core series there Used HP Elite Slice I3, 500gb HDD, 4 Gb Ram, with Keyboard and Mouse | eBay

I don't think the hardware is a bad value, especially with the software but you're right @PigLover on the cloud service through logon.

 

[ru me]

SAMTIME takes 10 % off

 

[William]

I just checked out the HP Elite Slice, I didn't know about it.
Seems its more of a mini PC and not a Cloud based system. It also costs a LOT more.
https://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/desk...e_slice_desktop/sticky-nav/buy#!&tab=features

As far as Filegear cloud service, can't say I know all the details but "I Think" it just provides a path that connects you to the Filegear unit, no files are stored by Filegear, they are on your box.

 

[Patriot]

I just checked out the HP Elite Slice, I didn't know about it.
Seems its more of a mini PC and not a Cloud based system. It also costs a LOT more.
https://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/desk...e_slice_desktop/sticky-nav/buy#!&tab=features

As far as Filegear cloud service, can't say I know all the details but "I Think" it just provides a path that connects you to the Filegear unit, no files are stored by Filegear, they are on your box.

Not saying the slice is a cloud storage device as designed... saying filegears ODM cloned the slice chassis and expansion method down to the modular stacking functionality.

It just looks like ODM IP theft. Filegear needs to look more closely at who they do business with... guessing they could find themselves with paying big on this one.

 

[PigLover]

...As far as Filegear cloud service, can't say I know all the details but "I Think" it just provides a path that connects you to the Filegear unit, no files are stored by Filegear, they are on your box.

Their cloud service is required to access anything. If, by chance, they had to shut it down you are SOL. They store and validate your login credentials. And every file transferred passes through their hands - with filenames, dates, other metadata, etc., etc. - for them to skim data off of. The don't have to store your files to have 100% of the problems of "traditional" cloud providers that they set out to solve.

 

[William]

I don't know much about IP theft and this product.
Filegear was kick started in 2016 and looks considerably different.
Filegear : World's fastest photos, music, and docs organizer
Compare Filegear to the Filegear One Plus and it does look like a HP Slice.

HP Slice came out around Sept 2016.

Saying it is IP thief when as far as we know Filegear may have purchased the cases from HP.
HP Slice is a Mini-PC and reviewed as such, Filegear is not and cannot run a Windows OS like HP Elite can.
HP Slice can stack different 3 modules, Filegear can only stack 1 and that's only for an extra storage bay.

I did note that the HDMI port was not currently active and may not ever be as then it could be used as Mini-PC platform, who knows.

 

[William]

That's true PigLover, if service goes off line you are screwed except for local network.
All what you said is true for Synology and QNAP products, same thing can happen. Much bigger companies so not much risk of that happening.

I just watched this video on the HP Elite Slice, it looks much bigger at 6.5" square.

Insides are way different.

 

[Patriot]

Not assuming Filegear is intentionally infringing on another's design.
Given when the slice came out vs filegear plus, kinda expecting the odm is borrowing IP.
Who is infringing comes down to who came up with the usb C and stackable design.

Vents and color of vents is identical, USB C in a corner with rim around it... I am aware the the guts are different...for all I know, no one patented that expansion mechanism. But if they did, patent would be on Method of modularity, not size of modules. (shrugs) Might be worth asking them about if they drew... inspirations from other designs.

Load windows into that msata from another box and see if it boots
They don't have the OS for the filegear on their website... make you enter serial and have a custom install tool... If they are using linux... they are in GPL violation for hiding source. Very well might be on FreeBSD for that reason.

 

[fake-name]

I don't understand why anyone would make something like this, and hobble it with a 2.5"-only hard drive slot.

 

[PigLover]

@Patriot - after being a major customer of HP for many years - I'd suggest its just as likely that the design was done by the ODM, likely patented by them, and HP purchased/licensed from them. The ODM woudl be free to sell to others, perhaps after some exclusivity period. Just saying...

Also - my comments about the cloud nature of this product wasn't meant to disparage cloud-based services. They are great and have a much larger market than truly "self hosted" platforms. But Filegear set out in life talking about the sins of cloud services and how they were going to eliminate those problems. Except they didn't. They suffer from all of them, except for the storage part - which actually simplifies things for them by casting the major capital investment back onto the customer (and giving themselves an opportunity to capture margin against that investment).

 

[NotMine999]

Interesting device, but is it worth the price? I wonder if a builder could collect the necessary parts at the same price or less and then add some FOSS. It would be a cost-benefit analysis that would be useful.

The use of a "cloud service" to sign into a device that promises to free you from cloud services is RICH. Just RICH. They must think their target consumers are Id1OTs.

The review, in general is well done, but a more thoughtful review might have analyzed the networking exchanges between the device and the Internet and the makers of the device. It would be nice to know how the files are shared over the Internet.

Having all of my files pass through the hands of some 3rd party that I do not know and have no reason to trust causes me great concern. It should bother any security-aware consumer.

After all, stuff like this is a product for the Id1OT generation that wants "ooo CLOUD !" and "Wi-Fi yeah !" and "access everywhere" while never considering their personal privacy and security.