First Look at TonidoPlug

Productivity Sauce

For Linux Pro Magazine readers, the name Tonido will sound familiar. I covered this sleek and user-friendly solution that lets you turn an Ubuntu-based machine into a nifty server in issue 105. Recently, CodeLathe, the company behind Tonido, launched TonidoPlug -- a tiny Ubuntu-based server running the Tonido software. In theory, this sounds like a great idea: plug the device, run a quick and simple setup, and you have a fully-functional Linux-based server that you can use to share files and photos, maintain a personal blog and collaborate with other users. But how does this idea work in practice? To find out, CodeLathe kindly agreed to send me a review unit of TonidoPlug, which duly arrived a few days later. While I plan to write a more detailed review of TonidoPlug later, I'd like to share with you my first impressions.

Let's start with the packaging. TonidoPlug's box gives a first indication of how small the device is. Measuring about 6x5.5x3 in, the package looks more like a gift box rather than a server package.

The box contains the TonidoPlug unit, a power cord, an Ethernet cable, and a brief user guide. The device itself is based on the Marvell SheevaPlug plug computer. It's powered by an embedded Marvell Sheeva™ CPU core running at 1.2 GHz backed up by 512MB DDR2 RAM and a 512MB flash disk. The device sports an Ethernet jack for network connectivity and a single USB port for additional storage.

Setting up TonidoPlug is pretty straightforward. Use the supplied Ethernet cable to connect TonidoPlug to your network, plug the device into the mains, and the server is ready to go. Use another machine on the network to go to http://www.tonidoplug.com/ip, and once the server has been located, a configuration wizard will guide you through the configuration process.

By default, TonidoPlug is not accessible from the Web, but you can enable this feature from the Tonido dashboard. Once you've done that, you can access your TonidoPlug server via the http://<tonidoid>.tonidoid.com:<port> address.

The Tonido software installed on TonidoPlug is identical to the standalone package that has been covered in the article, but it does include a few additional applications: WebsharePro (application for sharing files and documents, Torrent (torrent manager), Explorer (file manager) and Plug Admin (administration utility for managing TonidoPlug).

The default 512MB storage can be expanded by plugging a USB stick or a USB hard disk into TonidoPlug. As soon as you do that, TonidoPlug automatically detects the connected storage device, and you can use it right away. No fuss, no muss.

Finally, you can connect to TonidoPlug via ssh. This probably won't matter to most TonidoPlug users, but Linux geeks would appreciate the ability to tweak and hack the device.

So far, I like what I see. The hardware is excellent, setup is a breeze, and the supplied software covers all the bases.

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