SheevaPlug computer as a NAS server prototype--photos

The computer is about the size of two decks of cards and you can plug it right into a wall socket. It's just a little bit bigger than most powerline adapters.

The SheevaPlug prototype uses an 8GB thumbdrive as its NAS storage. However, it can work with any USB external hard drive. In CNET Labs' test, the drive had an excellent read speed of about 30MBps (about the same as most external hard drives) while its write speed was less than average, only 6.5MBps.

The computer sitting next to a USB thumbdrive.

It's power prongs are removable in case you want to use power cord to keep the area around the wall socket less crowded.

The computer and its included power cord.

The SheevaPlug computer sits next to a Seagate pocket-size USB external hard drive.

The SheevaPlug prototype powered and working.

Once you plug the computer into power and to the network, you can manage and access it in two ways. Via the Internet at www.myhipserv.com and via the local network by typing its IP address into a browser's address bar. Now you can sign in its Web-interface.

The signing in process took about 20 seconds.

... which looks like this.

You can access files, albums, and so on from the Web interface in a organized and sophisticated way. For example, can access a photo album somewhat like the way you access that with Google Picassa...

... or browse music library with album covers...

... and play songs with a Web-based full featured media player.

Locally, you can also access files on the computer the way you access another computer on the network.

The innards of the SheevaPlug computer. Note that this is still a prototype, the final product might look different or be even smaller in size with more features.