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Personal File Server For The Masses

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-lot-per-gb dept.

prostoalex writes "California-based Inspiri is coming to the market with Mirra - a personal file-server with simple backup solutiion, remote access as well as file-sharing capabilities. The $399 device comes with 120 GB hard drive, front-mounted USB ports and Ethernet interface. There are some pictures of Mirra on the corporate Web site. The founder of Inspiri, Tim Bucher, according to the corporate documents, had an interesting career, having worked at both Apple and Microsoft, while the VP of Engineering in this company used to work as acting CEO of Apple's Newton business group."

8 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Replacement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bet that this can be replaced with a pentium 1 + ethernet card + Linux/BSD. It doesn't take a whole lot to be a file server.

  2. Just for clarification by iomud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this an Ad or an article?

  3. $400? by dildatron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    $400 is a bit steep. I just built a computer for one of my relatives. Pentium 4 Celery, 1.7GHz, 256MB DDR RAM, 30G hard drive, keyboard, optical mouse, nice small form factor IWILL case. Total cost was $369 with shipping from newegg.com. A larger hard drive would not have cost much more, and I got a whole computer minus monitor.

    So the question is, how much will people pay for a convenience? It just seems most people interested in having their own file server would be the crowd of people that would just make their own.

    Your average home user would probably not need or even know exactly what a fileserver/backup solution would do for them.

    Still though, we will see what happens. I think at $300 it would be a much more attractive solution.

    --


    If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
  4. Re:i must be missing something... by EddyMerckx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But its not for someone who could set up a Linux box.

    Its for people who click on any atachment in Outlook and corrupt their machine on a regular basis.

    People like my dad and grandmother.

  5. Re:Get a bigger hard drive by AnyoneEB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In case you hadn't noticed, "the masses" don't tend to throw parts together and configure Linux installs.

    --
    Centralization breaks the internet.
  6. Why? by joel8x · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Mirra appliance is expandable through its four USB 1.1 ports, and Ispiri plans to release hard disks and other devices for the server in 2004, Mandeberg says.

    The image make it look like the size of a tower which could take internal IDE hard drives. It seems like the wording of this may be misleading, because who in their right mind would use a USB 1.1 external hard drive on a file server? If that is the case, who are they marketing this too?

    --
    Sound waves should be free!
  7. The point... by djrogers · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You're all asking what the point of this is. Talking about how you could build a cheaper, better, faster one with a bigger pen^H^H^H hard drive in it, but you've missed the point. This isn't for YOU, it's for your neighbor. Or your uncle, your Mom, or anyone else who DOESN'T have a closet full of overclocked Celeron 366 motherboards, and a working knowledge of Linux. It's also for the people who don't have static IP addresses at home, but want to access their backed up files from anywhere:
    Mirra's installation assumes that its location has an "always on" broadband connection, and uses it to reach out and touch the Ispiri corporate service. Most of the time, this is a simple "ping" every couple of seconds, although it also provides an opportunity for unattended software updates and fixes. If an off-site user has properly authenticated to the Mirra service at the Ispiri host, and requests a file, the service makes the request when the Mirra next touches base. The advantage of this approach is that the connection is initiated by the Mirra server inside the user's router or firewall.
    Sounds like a handy little box to me if it does all it says: Automatic background backups Automatic background file synchronization Remote access that works behind a NAT-box Expandable I'm not gonna buy one, mostly because I don't need one, but when my Dad asks me about backing up his important info I just might tell him to get one....
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    Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
  8. Re:The service is the killer app by lakeland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, I would be tempted. A secure, reliable backup 'appliance' would be pretty conveniant. Sure, I could save money by putting it together myself but not much, and while the end result would be more flexible, it would take a lot more time, and be less reliable.

    If I went second hand I'd have to go to about 500MHz in order for the MB to support 120GB properly. That would cost say $200 for the machine (cheaper if I shopped around, but I'm busy), and $100 for the new drive. So I save $100, and get a louder, clunkier and less reliable server.

    If I went new then the mini-itx would be hard to squeeze under $400 with a 120GB drive, and that excludes installation. $75 case, $100 MB+CPU, $50 RAM, $100 drive, $50 CD (RW) for installation and offline backup.

    Either way, I'd have to install an OS on it (knx-hdinstall probably). BSD would be better, but I'm lazy :-). Then I'd have to configure IP tables, install coda/NFS/whatever. etc, etc, etc. Lotsa work.

    Of course, if your needs go beyond just a backup appliance, then the extra flexability of the ITX or xbox approach has got to make it the best option.