Configuring new network

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
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I’m new to WD products, and NAS in general, and looking for a little advice. Here’s some background - I have a home network, which 4 people use. Currently, there are 2 vista laptops, and 2 win7 laptops in the house with no network storage. The network was designed several years ago for casual use. However, now 3 members of the family are telecommuting, so we are upgrading.

We have ordered 3 new laptops with win8 for work, and intend to use the old ones occasionally, so there will be 7 computers total. I am installing a Linksys smart wifi router, and I have ordered a WD mybook live personal cloud 3tb for network storage. I want to configure it so that all computers will backup to the WD automatically in addition to using it for shared media etc.

Here are my questions:

  • Is there a limit to how many user accounts I can create on the WD?
  • Is there a limit to how many computers I can install the auto backup software on?
  • Would it be better to create one account for each person (meaning 2 computers would be backed up in a single account) or should I create an account for each computer I want to backup?
  • I haven’t received the WD yet, but I read the instruction manual online and it sounds like passwords are optional when creating user accounts. Would adding a password interfere with auto-backup (i.e. computer not having access automatically)?
  • In addition to file backup, I want users to be able to files like mp3s or recipes, and have easy access via mobile device if their laptops are shut down. Should these shared files be stored in the same user account as computer backups, or should I make separate accounts?

Thanks in advance for any help, opinions, or advice anyone has. I’m new at this, and I want to get auto-backup set up on the new laptops right away, but I don’t want to mess them up configuring something that won’t work.

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  1. That I know of no, I have 6 accounts on my drive and we have no problems

  2. No, you can run smartware on as many computers as you want. Backups are divided first by PC then by User so all the files are neatly organized there not just dumped on one folder.

  3. Because SmartWare is really good about organizing backups I have it place all the backup files into one password protected share, so that not just anyone has access to everyone else’s backup files.

  4. Passwords are optional and won’t interfere with backups, just keep in mind that any guests to the network will have unrestricted access to everything on the MBL that hasn’t been secured.

  5. I personally would make ONE backup folder as stated and give every user their own personal share, just keep in mind that the WD photo app saves all pictures in the public share and as far as I know there’s no changing that. Out of the house the app’s speed will depend on your upload speed at home so if you find that your apps aren’t loading fast enough you’ll want to get a better plan with your ISP.

If you use the MBL for its intended purpose you’ll find that it’s not just a reliable product its also fairly easy to use.

Welcome to the community!

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THANK YOU!!! :smileyvery-happy: