As you would expect with a device like this it has a web-based UI, much like a router. This can be accessed directly via a local IP address or once set-up via the TonidoPlug ID (http://<yourname>.tonidoid.com). Once logged in, the home page offers quick links to view and sync files, to share photos and music. It also highlights links, so you can download the mobile applications.
Clicking on Explore Files will give you access to all the files on the computer.
My accessing the shared files section you can share what you want with each user. The TonidoPlug 2 allows you to have several user accounts, or restricted guest accounts which can only access a handful of files.
TonidoPlug 2 works similarly to Google Drive or Dropbox and allows you to sync with several devices. However, without buying the Tonido Pro you can only sync 256 MB [Edit: Limit has now been increased to 2GB on free package]. With the ‘Pro' version you can sync 100 GB.
As we mentioned earlier in the review, you can create guest users; allowing users to log-in via the web-interface to access pre-configured files and applications. This means you could just limit your kids to only being able to access your music, or your holiday photos.
As you might expect in this day and age, the TonidoPlug 2 is capable of running applications, and there are four that ship preinstalled: a file explorer, a search utility, the Tonido Sync and WebShare.
The next page lists the official applications that can be installed. There are applications for torrent downloading, a dedicated media server and a blog application.
There is also a basic settings section allowing you to view details of the device (we have removed some details). This also allows you to update the firmware and software of the device and applications.
If you are logged in via the local network (and admin) you can view the TonidoPlugs files, this includes the OS files but more importantly the ‘USB Drives' (which also incorporates the internal SATA bay). This also allows you access to the TonidoPlug Admin configuration, from which you can alter network settings and drive configurations.
I have this device at home. Absolutely love it. Worth every penny. The most under appreciated device in the market.
I use it as my portable storage device and take it everywhere during my travel. It also works as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The TonidoPlug is a nice device running some really cool software. Couple of corrections: The Tonido Plug allows really full remote access to ALL your storage which could be terabytes of data unlike the limited capacity of online services like Google Drive etc.
Also, the TonidoPlug provides 2 GB of sync, not 256 MB as stated here, see https://store.tonido.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1
Hi Mio,
Since I wrote this review it seems they have updated the device quite considerably and you are right that they are now offering 2GB of Sync Storage.
At this time of writing you can see this was the limit:
http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Untitled-4-Copy.jpg
Regards,
Simon Telford