Search Results for: "iconnect"

Resetting an Iomega iConnect to default settings.

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I recently tried some hacking of my Iomega iConnect.

The exercise was interesting but not very fruitful!

I presume that was the cause as the box died on me and transformed itself into a dead black box that was too light to even work as a doorstop.  Time to rebuild!

My first action was to download the Imager from the Iomega site.

Next, format a flash drive as FAT32.  Unzip the downloaded image file and copy the eight files onto the flash drive.

Now comes the fun part!

Disconnect all USB devices from the iConnect, and plug the flash drive into the rear USB port.

Holding down the little reset button on the back panel (I used a jeweller’s screwdriver), reset the power to the unit.,  The front indicator will burn blue for a short while and then turn red.  You can now release the reset button.  After a while all the front LEDS will burn solid blue.  At that point, remove the flash drive and repower the device.

The iConnect is now restored back to its factory settings which poses a problem – how do you access it?  It has reverted to a default IP address which will not be on your home network or home PC, therefore, even if you knew the address you still cannot access the device!

My solution –

First, to be on the safe side, I downloaded the Iomega Storage Manager and installed it (they do give a Linux version but it complains about missing libraries so I used the Windows version).  Select your OS here and then select the Iomega Storage Manager link under “Download Software & Drivers”.

Now connect your iConnect directly to your PC using a network cable.  If you have a wireless connection to your network, disable that.

You now need to change your PC’s network setting to the IP address 169.254.1.2, and a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0.  The Storage Manager should now indicate that it has found the iConnect.  In my case, each time the iConnect has an IP address of 169.254.1.211, but that may vary.

Now point your browser at the discovered IP address and you should have access to the iConnect.

Set the device’s IP to one on your own network and repower it.

At this point, you will need to reset your PC’s IP address to its normal values (or just enable wireless if applicable), disconnect the iConnect from your PC and connect it to the network.  You should now be able to access it from a browser using the IP address you allocated it.

Happy hunting!

Media streaming on an iConnect

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

Well over a year ago I bought an Iomega iConnect USB hub.

From day one it didn’t work and I documented some of my troubles on this site.

A couple of weeks ago to my amazement it started working properly.  I haven’t a clue why as I did nothing to it.  I didn’t upgrade software or anything.  It will have to remain a mystery.

One of the features of the iConnect is that it is a media streamer.  I had disabled this during “the troubles” so I re-enabled it and stared loading some music onto an attached drive.

I have no experience of media or uPnP so it was an interesting experience.

The first thing I learned was that the metadata on each and every track was critical for success, and also found that some of the tracks off my CDs had incorrect information in them.  A misspelled item on one track would isolate that track from the others which ended up in a messy setup. This meant I had to do a lot of editing.

I have a reasonable selection of CDs and the only method I could think of at first to edit metadata was to load each track into Audacity.  This was a very lengthy and very time consuming progress so it was clearly out of the question.  That’s when I found EasyTAG.  This is an excellent little program that did everything I wanted and did it quickly and efficiently.  It even batch processed a full CD (or rather a full directory of files).

Another problem I had was caused by a little quirk of the iConnect – it could categorise any track it found on the drive, but I was unable to play anything that was further than one directory from root.  If, for example I had a file /pop/Beatles/Abbey Road/Something.mp3 it would be listed in the Media stream but wouldn’t actually play.  Being a somewhat methodical sort of bloke I didn’t like the idea of dumping every single file into the one spot without ordering them in some sort of fashion.  I decided that changing the file names would work well.  However the idea of rewriting a thousand or two filenames didn’t appeal.  I installed Métamorphose and that proved perfect for the job. Now I could rename my files as, for example /pop/Beatles_Abbey_Something.mp3, simply by adding “Beatles_Abbey_” as a prefix to every filename.

My final problem was that several of the albums were in FLAC format which was fine but bulky.  I decided to convert all the files to MP3 format as it suited my needs better.  Here I came across SoundConverter which was a little slow but very happily ran batch jobs so it was just a question of pointing the program to the relevant directories and leaving it to it.

It was a lot of work, but worth it.  I can now play my entire collection on a Wifi portable or on the PC which save a lot of time and effort hunting for CDs!

Iomega iConnect solutions?

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

I have noticed quite a few people landing here as a result of a search for Iomega iConnect.

After a lot of tests, trials and tribulations, I finally got my iConnect to work.  In fairness to Iomega, their support was second to none, as between us, we tried just about everything in the book.  It was  Régis in Iomega who finally cracked it.  I sent him a few software dumps and he noticed that the device was rebooting itself on a regular basis. 

The solution, while not ideal, works.  All I had to do was disable the Media Server. That’s all.

It’s not quite the end of my problems, as at the moment anyway, I can’t access the management area of the hub.  I have tried connecting directly using my browser, but it just says “server not responding” or similar.  I can’t connect using the dedicated software either – it connects and displays the iConnect but claims that the “device is currently unavailable”.

However……

The iConnect has been running now for around 72 hours.  I can access the drives that are plugged into it and it seems to be stable.  Leastwise, I have been copying large numbers of files back and forward across the iConnect without a single failure.

Seeing as that is all I require of it, I am happy.

The Iomega iConnect saga

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

It has been a busy couple of weeks with my iConnect.

After a lot of emails back and forth between myself and Iomega, we decided the unit was faulty.  I returned it to the shop yesterday and got a replacement.  The difference is amazing.

By now, I am somewhat of an expert on the Iomega iConnect!  I hooked it up to the laptop and lashed through the setup.  This time it went smoothly and it is now sitting on a shelf in another room with all its wee blue lights in the right places.  (One of the symptoms of the previous unit’s problems was that a port light would remain lit long after a device had been removed from it).

One of the “features” of the iConnect is that it can be incredibly slow to do things.  A reboot takes quite a while and external drives can take a couple of minutes to appear after being plugged in.  But then this is a device that really can be forgotten about once it is set up, so in the long term that isn’t a problem.

I must say I was impressed with the support I got.  Granted, my initial approaches met with a certain level of indifference, but once my status had been escalated, they pulled out all the stops.

All in all, I’m happy with my purchase.  Now.

Iomega iConnect

A Pipe and a Keyboard Posted on by

A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself an Iomega iConnect.

I had been sniffing around for a while for a USB hub, and I happened to be in PC World so I bought that model for the pure and simple reason that it was the only USB hub they had in stock.

Basically all I wanted was the ability to plug my external drives directly into the network, and this seemed to be ideal for the job.

I brought it home, unpacked it and plugged it in. I installed the management software and away I went.

Simple?

No!

I have had nothing but trouble with the damned thing.

Initially, I connected the yoke directly to my laptop in order to configure it. Documentation was crap, but it was a fairly straightforward process. I gave it a static IP address, and named it FServer. That was about all I had to do. I moved it into the area where I wanted to keep the drives (which happens to be beside my router), plugged it in and connected all the drives. I then went back to my laptop to start the process of mapping the drives backing up software.

I did a network search for the drives, but there was no sign of them. I could see there was a device on the network called FServer but that was it. No hard drives.

Since then I have……

  • Moved the iConnect between the office and my laptop.
  • On the rare occasion I could connect to it, I tried static and dynamic IPs.
  • I have tried it with and without hard drives attached.
  • I have tried resetting it, but nothing happens if I do it as per instructions (holding in the reset button for 15 seconds – I went up to two minutes but the reset never happened)
  • I have tried resetting it by de-powering, and then re-powering with the reset held in. That at least turned the status light red (which is the required result) but the damned thing stays on red and the only way to get it back to normal is to re-power it again, but the reset still hasn’t happened.
  • I have tried accessing it using Linux, Windows 7 and Windows 2000. Same results on all systems.

I have trawled the Internet looking for help. Iomega have a users forum, and I found quite a few roughly similar problems, but Iomega’s response seems always to be that a static IP should be used. Tried that. No good.

I connected it directly to my laptop again today to have another go.

I plugged it in, and nothing happened. The Management software can see it all right. It lists it as FServer with an IP of 192.168.1.9 (correct!). However it says that it cannot be managed, nor is there any sign of the USB devices. I tried pinging that IP and get no returns. If it weren’t for the management software, I would say it didn’t exist at all.

I can see it in the Management window –

Iomega screen

I can see it in Windows 7 Network mapping –

Win 7 screen

But that is all.

I think it’s about time for a return trip to PC World?

[Filed under Linux server management software]