Fast Drive, Fairly Dependable, but AWFUL Software
We purchased this to back up our 3 computers at work. Drive and software installed pretty easily, though the software set up is a bit confusing, unnecessarily. Unfortunately, within a couple of hours, the drive developed a "boot error." Technical support was excellent, but it was quickly determined that the drive was defective and needed to be replaced. Setting up the replacement drive involved uninstalling and reinstalling the software. The software continually reports failed backups and a nebulous "internal error 2" on 2 of our machines. It seems that it does not really accept one's changes to the backup settings without a manual deletion of the configuration file (see Seagate forum). I am happy with the quietness and speed of the drive, but plan on finding better backup software. Seagate could have been (and still has the opportunity to be) more generous with decent backup software, since this is the main purpose of the device!

Network Storage Needs Better Software
I use the Seagate 500MB storage as a network mass storage resource. The software it came with made network setup almost impossible. Bought Network Magic software and suddenly my Seagate product became very useful

Does exactly what I need it to
I'm not too interested in some of the media capabilities this drive has so I can't comment on how well the streaming works. I was in the market for an external hard drive to attach to a pc on my network that could act as a "network share" in order to keep all of my files centralized. I discovered this drive which plugs into ethernet and can also act as a print server. At first I thought it was too good to be true.

I've had it for about a month now and I am amazed at how flawlessly it has integrated into my network. The drive runs so quiet you won't even know it is running. Even when transferring files, I hear nothing. Also, it runs amazingly cool. It doesn't even get warm. Heat was one of the things I had worred about when I first heard about this device. I have a couple hard drives in external enclosures and they get so hot that I always turn them off when not in use. I worried that this drive being on all the time would be a nightmare waiting to happen. It's not.

The interface is a bit clunky, but really you don't need it that much. I hit one snag during setup. When it prompted me to created my admin account password, it took a long time and then finally popped up some xml error. Turns out the password was saved anyway. The management software seemed to really slow down one of my computers, though it could've been that computer. I uninstalled the software, problem fixed, and put the software on a different computer and no problems there. So maybe it was a conflict with something running on the first pc.

A few days after installing it I had a power outage for a few hours. When the power came back on, all my computers could still access the drive. On the computer running the management software, it showed the drive as disconnected, but that is only for the management features I suppose. Even when it shows as disconnected there, the drive is still on the network and files can still be transferred and read.

Transfer speeds are great. I'm only on a 100mb network and I'm pretty happy with transfers. Also, no problems so far in transferring large files. I've sent files that were 4gb and no dropped connections. I've sent batches of 20gb worth of files at once and not a single problem.

I am very happy with this purchase.

Poor backup software and support for Visa
RECOMMENDATION:
Do not purchase this product to backup your computer(s). The initial low cost of the device will be offset by the need to purchase additional backup software.

MY EXPERIENCE:
Setup was quick and easy. I initially used the drive without installing the EasyManage software and it worked great. I then installed the EasyManage software so I could configure my backups.

I immediately noticed some bugs in the EasyManage software. For example if I clicked on the title bar the software would disappear forcing me to kill the app through TaskManager. I went to the Seagate support site (who recently purchased Maxtor) and was excited to see they had a Vista specific update v4.1.0.15. Unfortunately the updated version of EasyManage had even more bugs than the v4.1.0.10 version that shipped with the product. The newer version now forces the user to select user security control warnings and app still disappears when you click the title bar. I was able to get around these software bugs by carefully avoiding the title bar and accepting the annoying popup messages.

The real problems came after my first attempt to backup my outlook data. I started to get backup errors and after reading the Maxtor documentation on their support site I realized they block the backup of .pst files and any other system or hidden files. I contacted the Maxtor technical support via chat and the tech support person informed me that they do not recommend using the backup utility for "application data"

I purchased a network storage device to backup critical files on multiple machines. The Maxtor EasyManage software is crippled by design. There are a number of software products on the market for backing up to the drive but they cost - per machine. I decided that I would be better off buying a competing product for slightly more to avoid spending an additional 0 on backup software.

Functionably Sound with nice features
This product works very well, I have owned it for about 2 months and have had no problems with it. Its about half full and seems to have no performance issues. Easy to setup just plug in and install software. All my home computers have a drive mapped to its root for easy access. I am going to to buy a simple 500 GB external drive that I can attach to the NAS for autobackups at night. GREAT PRODUCT!!!