Server Has So-So Services

Photograph: Marc SimonThe Mirra Personal Server is sold as a way to automate backups of multiple PCs on a small network and to provide remote access to the files that those systems contain. With a Mirra connected to your network through ethernet, and the company's software installed on your PCs, you may designate files or folders for automatic backups of up to eight versions of a single file.

After some time with a preproduction $500 120GB minitower, however, I realized that I expected more from something called a personal server.

If you're traveling and need a file, you can go to the Mirra Web site, which will connect you to the server in your home or office so you can download what you want. You can designate certain folders, like one containing photos, for sharing and can invite friends or coworkers to access them. But I found the Mirra's remote access unreliable and slow. I frequently got messages that my download could not go through because of a server error. A minute later, it would work fine.

Restoring a lost file is simple, though not necessarily speedy. The Mirra is no multitasker--if it is already at work backing up files, it will wait to restore your file until it has finished performing the backup job.

What really annoyed me, though, were all the things I felt a personal server should be capable of, but that the Mirra's creators chose to omit. Why does it lack the ability to stream audio or video files to any PC on the network? And why not let PCs grab files from the Mirra, change them, and then save them back to the Mirra? In other words, why not let the server be a server?