Frequently Asked Questions

Make sure that your network drive is turned on and that it is connected to the internet. For more details about remote login, refer to Remote Login.

The MAC address will always be the default login and it's not possible to change it but you can register a new name for your device that is easier to remember. For more details about how to register a new name, refer to Register your NAS.

It's possible that the name you have selected is already taken. Please type in a new name and then try again.

Before it's possible to store and share data, the drive has to be formatted for the network drive. For more details about creating a partition and formatting the drive, refer to Auto create a data disk.

Go to My Server and look for USB1-P1 or USB2-P1. The data of your USB drive will be inside one of those directories. If you don't see it and have only just connected the USB drive, wait a few more seconds and then click Refresh to scan for new devices again.

In order to safely remove a USB drive, you have to eject it first, before you disconnect the USB cable or turn off the power. For more details about ejecting a USB drive, refer to Unmount a Partition.

Each user account has its own My Server diretory and its own HOME directory. They are named identical but the data is not accessible by anybody else except the corresponding user. The files are not automatically shared among all the users.

There are two ways to share the files:

By default, the download service is using the HOME folder of the system administrator (admin) to store the files. However, if there is not drive installed yet or the partition has not yet been created, it's unable to start. Make sure your drive is installed properly, a partition has been created and the drive has been formatted for the network drive to use. For more details about setting up a drive, refer to Disk Manager.

The i-sharing application for the iPhone utilizes the native media player to display the video files. If the video formats are not supported by the iPhone, it will be unable to display any of the video files. Make sure your video files are in the *.mov or *.mp4 format.

When streaming a video file, the time it takes to buffer will depend on the size and format of the video as well as the network connection. We recommend to make use of a fast network connection (for video streaming in general, a wired connection is always best) and compress the videos to reduce the loading time.

The RMVB extension and format is not supported. Following formats are supported (sorted by players):

• Quicktime: aif,aiff,aac,au,bmp,gsm,mov,mid,midi,mpg,mpeg,mp4,m4a,psd,qt,qtif,qif,qti,snd,tif,tiff,wav,3g2,3gp

• Flash: flv,mp3,swf

• Mediaplayer: asx,asf,avi,wma,wmv

• Realplayer: ra,ram,rm,rpm,rv,smi,smil

The web browsers (e.g., IE, FireFox, and Safari) have limited supports to some advanced features. I-Sharing utilizes a few browser plug-ins when these features are in use:

• Google Gears: This plug-in will allow users to use drag-and-drop to copy files from local PC desktop to the browser's “web-top”.

• Addobe Flash: Most of the Album View requires this plug-in.

• Cooliris: In order to play “3D-wall” effect in the Album view.

• Realplayer, QuickTime, and Windows Media Players: as described in the above FAQ, these plug-ins are required when playing corresponding media files.

The short answer is YES. If you would prefer to build your own log in portal rather than using the www.myFantec.com portal that we provide then you are more than welcome to do so. Please keep in mind that this is no easy task and the costs are extremely high. You must be absolutely committed to the personal cloud business to even consider such an endeavor.

When browsing the web page and registering the home server, a standard HTTP connection on port 80 is used. For the login and file access, a VPN connection on port 1194 is used.

When using the upload function in the web interface, files can only be uploaded one at the time. To upload multiple files at the same time, there are two options:

1. For Firefox 1.5-3.6 and Internet Explorer 6.0-8.0, you can install Google Gears and then simply drag and drop all of your files into the folder.

2. For other browsers and without Google Gears, mount the network drive to your computer and then copy and paste the files like you would for any of your local folders. If you are connected to the same local network as your MyCloud device, you can use SMB (Samba service). If you are not connected to the same network, you can use WebDAV (e.g. http://servername.myFantec.com/webdav).

The idea is to go to the web portal at http://myFantec.com, enter the 12 digits MAC address that is printed on the device and then login. It's not required to install any additional programs on the computer, setup the network router or register the device. The method of login works straight out of the box. At a later point, if you prefer a server name that is easier to remember, you can always register am additional name according to your own preferences (as long as the name is not already taken). Also, if you do not have an Internet connection or prefer not to use the web portal, we provide a tool that can be run on your computer to locate the device on the local network.

We recommend to login to your device, go to “Disk Manager” and then select the “Installation Wizard”. Click Auto to automatically setup your drives, create a partition and format the drives. For more information, see Disk Manager.

We recommend to use FireFox. In our SQA test we also covered IE7, IE8 and Safari. After IE9 were released, however, we found several compatibility issues. We were working to improve our design to support more web browsers, including IE9 and Goole Chrome.

When you access the files on the personal cloud server at home, you are on the same local area network as your device. The network speed is only limited by your network switch or router and possibly the wireless connection. In general, the transfer speed is enough to guarantee smooth playback and it doesn't take long for the video to load.

If you are on the road, you have to consider two important factors that do not come into play at home. First, there is the download speed of your current connection. This is a part which you are most likely used to it already, because it affects everything you do on the internet. The faster the connection, the faster you can load websites, download mail and stream files like those you access on the personal cloud server.

Second, and this is where your bottle neck most likely is to be found, is the upload speed of your internet connection at home. In order for you to access the files, the personal cloud server at home has to serve the files by uploading them from your home network to the wide area network. Unless you are on an expensive business plan, your download speed is many times faster than your upload speed. What this means is that when you are at home and access websites on the world wide web, the download speed is fast or at least decent enough that it doesn't bother you. However, because the upload speed is much slower than that, it takes much longer for the personal cloud server to upload the files when you are accessing them from the outside.

To get a better idea of the speed, use Google and search for “network speed test” or go to http://www.speedtest.net. Run the speed test when you are at home and select a server somewhere in the proximity of where you intend to access your personal cloud server from the outside. The results will only be for reference and not won't be exactly what you will get when accessing the device from the outside but it will show you clearly the difference between download and upload speed.

Last but not least, please keep in mind that network speed varies depending on the traffic. It might work much better during the day or at 3AM in the morning compared to 8PM when everybody else in the neighborhood comes home from work and goes online.