The Mirra Personal Server - Utility Superstar excels at Backup, Sharing, Remote Access and Syncing
Written: Dec 17 '04 (Updated Apr 12 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Customer Support: |
 |
|
| Reliability: |
|
|
| Ease of Opening Box: |
|
|
|
Pros: Ultrareliable, Intuitive, two-way (up/download) remote access/sharing of data, effective file syncing between PC's
Cons: Password Privacy protection has limitations.
The Bottom Line: Anyone wanting a reliable "set it and forget" backup system, or that needs to access/update their data remotely should consider the Mirra Server.
|
|
|
| nc10's Full Review: Mirra M-120 (895710000026) Server |
The Mirra M-120 Personal Server is a standalone backup/file sharing/remote access service for home and small business networked computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000. This list price of this 120gb model, which now allows two way file sharing locally as well as remotely, is $499. Mirra developed this product for PC users who recognize that the data they store on their PC is more valuable than the PC itself, and want an ultrareliable way to backup their data and use that data even when they are away from their PC. Version 2 of their software has taken the Mirra’s feature set past this original goal, allowing users to synchronize files between PC’s and to upload files to their PC’s remotely via the internet. The Mirra Personal Server “Solution” , as Mirra calls it, has three parts, the hardware component, the software to be installed on each PC backed up by the server, and Mirra's web interface for file sharing and remote access.
The Mirra M-120 hardware is a small, quiet “small form factor” PC containing a single 120gb hard drive (80gb and 250gb versions are also available) with Linux operating system (stable and virus resistant). The Mirra server is attached to your network (and internet connection) via an ethernet cable, and a copy of the Mirra software is installed on each networked PC where files needing to be backed up exist. Once installed, the Mirra doesn’t just backup files, it saves the 8 most previous versions of each file, and will optionally sync files between two or more PC's. After the software is installed on a PC, you'll want to register for an account on the Mirra website, through which you'll be able to chose which files you want to share with others via a password protected account on the internet, and to be able to access your files, or even add to and update your files, when you are away from your PC.
Mirra designed in the following features into their product….
Automatic, continuous backup without user intervention
Backs up multiple networked PC’s
Keeps up to 8 previous versions of files
Share and synchronize files between locally networked PC’s
Share media and data files over the ‘net
Easy setup
Upload to and download from your Mirra server from anywhere on the internet
128 SSL encryption and password protection
"In the box" you'll find the Mirra server hardware, a 12” X 4” X 10” PC case that can be stored vertically (tower) or horizontally (desktop). Also included is a software cd, an excellent quick start guide, a glossy card summarizing support options, an 8 page "30 Minute Guide to Using Mirra", a set of release notes, and cables. The “hardware” is a space saving PC with 120gb hard drive which has the standard PC connections on back, sound, USB, video port, etc on back, though you will only be using the power connection and ethernet connection. The Mirra power supply has a fan, but it is fairly quiet, and makes much less noise than my desktop's fans.
Setup
This past summer loaned me one of M-80 personal servers for several months. After about 3 months, I posted a review based on that experience. Not long after I returned the M-80, Mirra asked me if I’d like to try out their new software upgrade, version 2, for the Mirra. After a quick yes, an M-120 (which I later purchased) was promptly shipped to my home. Setup, as with the nearly identical M-80, was very easy. I installed the Mirra software on 3 PC's connected to the network in my home, all running Win XP. Two are connected to the network via ethernet cable, the third is connected by a 802.11b wireless connection. The install process was….:
1. Plug in the electrical outlet, and connect the server to your network with the included ethernet and power cables. The server can be connected to a router (wired or wifi) or hub.
2. Turn on the server, takes a couple of minutes for it "boot up", at which time a green and yellow led next to the on/off button glow steady.
3. Install the software on each PC that you want to tie into the Mirra Server for back ups. Installation requires a license key. This key must be accepted/approved by the Mirra website, which proceeded smoothly.
4. During the installation you’ll also supply an email address for your Mirra web account. I used the same email address for each of my networked PC’s during the installation. That way, I would be able to access the backed up files from all three PC’s via my Mirra web account.
Unfortunately this caused a problem when I tried to test the “privacy password” feature to password protect the directories on one of the PC’s, ie, password protection didn't work. After trading a couple of emails with Mirra, I learned that privacy passwords don;t work if you used the same email during the installation process for each PC. Mirra tells me they are working on a fix, and that you should set up different accounts for each PC if you want to keep the files on each PC password protected from the users of other PC's on your Mirra network. Hopefully this bug won’t affect too many users, as I’d expect anyone who wanted to ensure that the directory backups from one networked PC could not be seen by the user of another PC with the Mirra software would also set up different Mirra web accounts for each PC during the installation process, and use different email addresses/user names for each web account.
At this point you're ready to choose which directories to back up to the Mirra Server. Mirra backs up data on a directory by directory basis, you can't choose to back up a single file. You can recover individual files.
Using the Mirra Software and Server to Backup, Share and Sync Data
The Mirra software runs continuously in the background on each PC, and is launched from the system tray. Launching brings up a tabbed window, with the following tabs:
Status – This window provides and text and graphic view of your server, telling you how many computers and files are backed up, how much disk space is still available, the status of your connection and Mirra account, and how many folders you have made available for remote sharing. This view provides a terrific snapshot of your server’s status.
The option to set password protection for your backups from each individual PC is also on this tab. This feature, called “privacy protection” keeps any other PC on the Mirra network from seeing the password protected files on the Mirra server. Note that as I write this, this feature is not available if you use the same web account to access the backups from each PC attached to the Mirra server. If you want to use this feature, you’ll need to supply a separate email address during the installation, which will be associated with a separate Mirra web account.
Backup and Restore - The tab which will be most frequent is Backup and Restore. The Mirra user interface is terrific, intuitive and clean. Here you select which folders to back up (or drop from your back up list and remove from the server). To get you started, the Mirra software recommends some specific folders to backup (like Outlook and Outlook Express data files, My Documents, etc). From this tab, Selecting the “new backup” allows to navigate to any other folder on your hard drive to select it for backup. Note that only folders and directories can be backed up or shared, individual files can not be selected for backup. Once a directory is selected and confirmed, its copied to the Mirra Server. It can take a little while to transfer files to the server, a few mb is copied in a few seconds, a gigabyte might take 20 minutes or so. From then on, whenever you add or modify a file, a copy is instantly saved to the Mirra server. If a file is modified, the latest version is saved on the Mirra server along with up to 7 previous versions, any of which you can easily restore to anywhere on your PC.
All of the folders and directories that you’ve backed up can be enabled for access through a password protected account on Mirra’s website. ( I’ve enabled all of my folders for web access.) One of the great features added to Version 2 of the Mirra software is that can add files to your folder backups from anywhere you can find an internet connection. From there, the Mirra software “syncs” the backup folder with your PC, and moves that file to your PC. Makes it easy to send a spreadsheet or Powerpoint presentation home to work on at night, or if you’re on vacation with a digital camera and laptop, you can upload images to your home PC.
There are a few other things you can do from this tab.
- You can launch any file in Windows from the Mirra server
You can delete or “purge” older versions of files or purge files from the server that have been deleted from your hard disk.
- You can restore files or older versions of files to your PC. Perhaps you want to bring back the version of a spreadsheet that you saved up to 7 versions ago, or you find you deleted a paragraph or page from a report or presentation by mistake yesterday, and now want it back.
- You can stop backing up folders and remove those old folders from the Mirra server
- You can “share” a folder with anyone who has internet access, ie you can send an email to anyone else allowing them to “share” your folder via the Mirra website, once they open a password protected account
Web Access From this view choose which folders to share via the Mirra website.
Sharing a folder in version 2 of the Mirra software a folder makes it available to be shared with anyone who has an internet connection, optionally giving those users both read and write access. Selecting this option brings up a dialog which sends an email to the person you want to share the folder with. This email includes a link to folder which the recipient can access the folder for 7 days, once he opens a free Mirra account by providing a user name and password.
For most home users, sharing files over the internet won’t be nearly so fast as sharing files over a network, since most internet service providers cap how fast you can upload files over the internet. In my case file upload speeds from my Mirra server to the internet are limited to about 28mb/hour by my ISP, Cox. So, anyone I ask to share my digital images or spreadsheets or other files will need to wait a few seconds to a couple of minutes for the images to be transferred for viewing. On the plus side, anyone viewing digital images on a mirra shared folder can see thumbnails just as if they were using windows explorer, making it easy to select an image to view. The Mirra connection employs 128bit SSL encryption, access is password protected, and the files are only stored on the Mirra server in your home or office and not on the web site, making the file access reasonably secure and private. In practice I’ve found this feature to work well with small and medium size files, up to a few megabytes worth of data, but my internet upload cap is too slow to comfortably share or access large video files containing tens or hundreds of mb of data. Your experience will be better if your ISP offers more upload bandwidth.
With version 2, Sharing becomes a two way share. Anyone you chose to share a directory with can not only see and use the files in that directory, but can also be given access to upload files to that directory, and those files will, optionally, be sync’d with the same directory on your PC. When I want to “bring home” a spreadsheet or powerpoint presentation to work on from work, I just upload it to my Mirra Account, and it will be on my PC a few seconds after I upload the file to my Mirra server. If someone wants to send me a few pictures from a recent vacation, I can give them access to an image directory on my Mirra server, instead of them trying to email a few gb of jpg’s and bumping against the file size limits of many mail servers. The Mirra interface only allows uploading 3 files at a time, making sending a large number of files tedious.
Sharing has another new feature in version 2, ie you can choose to sync files between PC’s on a local network. This means everyone can have the same digital images on their PC’s once they’ve been uploaded to one PC. Or, a single data file can be worked on from any PC on your network, transparently. In my case, I’ve sync’d our Quicken files between my PC and my wife’s PC. When she updates Quicken files, they’re uploaded to my PC a minute or two after saving. If I work on Quicken, once I save the files are uploaded to her PC, even though neither of us have “shared” their Quicken data folders on their PC. Syncing can also help you keep files on your notebook and Desktop sync’d, just share those folders, mark them to be sync’d, and everytime you plug your laptop into the network, both will end up with the latest version of the files.
What happens if I and my wife want to work on Quicken at the same time? If we both have Quicken open, and then save our files, the last one saved would become the latest version on both PC’s, potentially losing the changes from the next most recent version. Though the system is not foolproof, the Mirra server protects against data lost due to coincidental file changes in two ways. (1) When my wife updates the quicken file on the Mirra Server, I receive a popup notification on my PC, so we’ll know if we’re both using files at the same time. ….and….. (2) the Mirra server saves the 8 most recent versions of a file. So if we both do save a file at the same time, both version will be on the Mirra server. The popup notifications warn me when another user is using the same file that I want to use, which should keep me from using the file at that time. But if I do overwrite another version of the file, I can recover any data that might have been lost by looking at the next most recent version(s) on the Mirra server. In practice, we rarely work on Quicken at the same time, and the popup notification is effective in keeping me from overwriting recently saved files from another PC.
The Address Book tab is where you can store email addresses of those you want to share directories with via a Mirra web account.
The Activity Log, as the name suggests, is a record of every activity the Mirra server takes part in.
Support and Documentation
Mirra’s email technical support is timely and actually works. I submitted a question about the privacy password feature one Sunday evening. I received a reply mid afternoon the next day, requesting more specifics about my installation, which I answered that evening. The following day (Tuesday), I received an answer which explained a bug prevented the password feature from working on my installation, but they were aware of the specific problem and were working on a fix.
The included documentation is well designed, easy to read and accurate. There are FAQ’s and other information on the Mirra website. Updates are also available for download.
Summary
The Mirra Server Provides instant and reliable backup of selected folders on networked PC’s, and up to 8 previous versions of files are saved. The Mirra Server does not make “image” backups of your PC, ie you wouldn’t be able to use to reinstall Windows with all the settings intact. The Mirra software lets you choose what to backup on a directory by directory basis, not a file by file, or drive by drive basis.
You can access your backups from anywhere you have an internet connection, via a password protected account on Mirra’s website. Files can be downloaded from or uploaded to your Mirra server via this account. You can allow allow others to “share” your directories via a Mirra web account. The files are not stored on Mirra's website, only on your Mirra server.
Files on your Mirra Server can be (optionally) accessed remotely via your Mirra website account, which is password protected and encrypted. Unlike other services which allow you to access your PC over the internet, there are no monthly fees. (Mirra has mentioned the possibility of that some premium "fee" services are being considered and which may be launched in the future)
The Mirra server will keep files “sync’d between two or more PC’s. However, the Mirra Server is not the same as a local file sharing hard disk for your home network. To access files, you’ll need to use the Mirra software or website.
The Mirra servers, with the Linux operating system, are reliable and not nearly so susceptible to virus attacks as PC’s running Windows. The software is very easy to use and is intuitive.
The Mirra software only works with systems running Windows XP/2000, and an “always on” broadband connection is strongly recommended.
Mirra Servers now enjoy a fairly wide distribution, and are available from Amazon, BestBuy, CompUSA, Dell, and RitzCamera, as well as Mirra.
Mirra has developed a unique backup system that not only is reliable, but also provides additional features that really enhance how effectively you can use your PC’s and internet connection. If you need a “set in and forget” ultra reliable backup system for one or more networked PC’s, or if you want more effectively share your files between users, or need to access and/or add to your files from remote locations, the Mirra Server is a option that should be on the top of your list.
Website: http://www.mirra.com/
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.