Connecting my work-issued ThinkPad was another matter. The discovery tool found the StorCenter device but could not configure it, instead displaying a "drive is offline" error. Iomega's troubleshooting instructions suggested disabling the Windows firewall software on the machine. The same firewall hadn't blocked other machines on the network from accessing the StorCenter. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, turning off the firewall on the corporate machine was a nonstarter. My laptop is part of my workplace domain, and the configuration is locked down through Active Directory group policy settings that are out of my control. I made a call to Computerworld's IT director Dave Callaghan to ask for permission to temporarily disable the firewall. After a jovial "Ha ha ha, that's very funny, Rob," Callaghan promptly denied my request -- a denial you're likely to hear as well if you have any problems configuring the StorCenter to work with your business machine.

One nice feature of Iomega's technical support is the IM chat function. Soon I was running through the problem with a technician named Tracy. While the StorCenter showed up as a network object, no folders were visible, and I could not map to it. I use Cisco client software to connect into Computerworld's virtual private network (VPN), and Tracy suggested that I activate it. Once I logged into the Computerworld VPN, the discovery tool was able to map the drive, although I still could not map to it myself from within Windows Explorer. The machine subsequently crashed when I closed the VPN session. Uninstalling the Iomega software and reinstalling from a new disk sent by Iomega produced the same result. After that initial glitch, however, the system and the StorCenter ran fine.

I was not able to track down the source of the problem, and Iomega's product wasn't the only one to have trouble with my work laptop. The Western Digital NetCenter had similar issues.

The StorCenter included a copy of Iomega's Windows only Backup Pro software, but the company is now bundling EMC's Retrospect Express 7.5, which will work with Macs or Windows machines and can configure an emergency boot disk that you can use to restore lost files and system settings. With plenty of product in the channel, it's possible that users will find the earlier backup utility in the box. Iomega will sell you the new software, but it will set you back an additional US$20.

While you can configure Retrospect to encrypt backup files, the backup process slows the operation considerably. "It takes a big performance hit," acknowledges Duke McKinley, support supervisor at Iomega, adding that most customers don't use the encryption option for this reason. I was able to configure Retrospect to back up my shared folder on the StorCenter to a local disk as well as feed backups of my local machines to folders on the StorCenter. Retrospect lets you choose which days to back up and the time of the backup. It also lets you create up to seven daily backup sets or two weekly backup sets and rotate them automatically -- a handy feature if you need to go back in time to find data that was already erased or corrupted when the last backup occurred. It can also compress the backup, which saves space but slows the backup process. Finally, you can require a password to access the backup set.