Gadgetory

cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive are great if you don't have a lot of data to store but if you have a larger media library and you don't want to pay a monthly subscription for cloud storage the best solution is to create your own cloud at the high end you can create your own 16 terabyte nav server that functions a lot like Dropbox but it's really geared more towards the business professional and it can get really pricey so instead I'll show you how to setup a basic cloud for yourself it'll let you download share and manage files just like you would on any other branded cloud storage service you can expect to pay anywhere from about 150 to 250 dollars for this type of setup to get started the first thing I'll do is plug in the my cloud directly into my router then use Western Digital software to set up the device I'll create a user account and finally my cloud is basically set up so now any files and folders I want in my cloud I just drag and drop into here once I've got all of my files in there some photos and a video I'm ready to access them from any other device so in this case on my Windows computer it's as easy as launching the browser and signing into WDS portal online since this is a Windows computer I'll actually browse my cloud using an explorer window there's my video double click and I'm streaming it over the web I can even drag and drop files from this computer directly onto my cloud to top it all off there's an easy way to access all of your files from your smartphone using WDS app just like any other cloud platform I can use it to view and stream any files I have in my cloud plus I can use the app to backup and share photos I've taken on my phone my cloud is by far the easiest and cheapest way to set up your own cloud but remember that since it is a single volume there's no insurance if your drive fails so use the USB input on the back to plug in an external hard drive and backup your cloud just to be safe