First Looks
The MyCloud is a minimalistic white box with silver top and bottom. The front has the logo and a simple blue LED for power, and the top is vented for airflow.
The bottom is also vented and has the product label. The rear features a gigabit Ethernet port, USB 3.0 port, lock port, power port, and a reset button, plus the requisite exhaust vents.
Setting It Up
I’m not a fan of fat client setup programs, so I dispensed with the included software and went directly to the MyCloud’s control panel to set it up. I know my local DNS is on the fritz, so going to the default hostname within my network, e.g. http://wdmycloud.mynetwork.lan, wasn’t going to work. Knowing that the device is running Apple’s Bonjour protocol, I took at stab at http://wdmycloud.local and was pleased to find that it worked! I used this to conduct the setup.
I was forced to sign up for a MyCloud account. Plus, I find a limit on password length of 30 characters to be unacceptable. Users purchasing this device are likely to want the features made available through logging in, but I would have liked to have been given the option not to sign up immediately. I could not find a way to get out of it.
The MyCloud is endowed with a very attractive control panel. The system features push-button firmware updates and a very user-centric configuration experience. Add users, add shared folders, configure mobile devices, backup the backups, and be done with it.
Here’s a short four-minute video showing you around the control panel. Notably, I was pleased to find the existence of SSH access. I can also do fun stuff with SSH.
Firmware update aside, I had the thing set up in less than 5 minutes. Put in your name and email, click the link in your email, create a password, ready to go. Shows up in network items in Finder.
