Pogoplug style server?

Support and Help
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Hello, Hopefully I’m in the right place for this topic. I was wondering If it is possible to make a a popgoplug style on a ubuntu? What pogoplug did was you plug in a ub drive and you are able to access it on a webpage. From that webpage you can upload files and able to see the whole content on the usb drive. also delete the files. The only thing I came close to was owncloud and openmediavault. One thing about pogoplug is that when you plug a flash drive in that it formated it for you and I was able to access the flash drive through the web interface page.

Also I can setup other family members accounts and they can have there own flash drive access. Meaning I can plug other flash drives in then go into the webpage see the flash drive then assign my brother to his own flash drive.

I can not find something like that for ubuntu. only thing close is openmediavault or owncloud. I couldn’t figure out how to see the flash drives or assign the flash drive to a user. Or if there is a way to do that.

My question is Does anyone know of a way I can do the same as pogoplug wihout me having to go to mount the drive format it and assign it to a webpage user account? I’m not much of a programmer but I’m willing to try.

Joseph

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Moved to the Support and Help category, as you are seeking help instead of collaborating upon a Ubuntu development project.

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I had never heard of pogoplug, I had to google it. It sounds like you are looking for a solution where you can use your hardware to host data that other users can access their share, remotely? Then you mention each user having a USB that would be plugged into your hardware, for their use… a device that doesn’t require you to do any special formatting or partitioning, etc.

Would the other users be accessing their shares from within your home network, or from outside your home network, or both?

Either way, I know what I would do. I do it now. I’m a big fan of the Nextcloud snap. I mention snap because it is much simpler to install, comes packaged with Nextcloud, and the database and web server applications that are needed, and it updates cleanly without breaking anything, at least in my experience.

Your storage can be a partition on some internal device that you use, or it can be a separate USB drive attached to your computer. In the application, you can designate shares, like folders, with permissions that only the intended user can access. Your remote users would need the Nextcloud app installed on their device, whether that be a laptop, desktop, iPhone, or android, lots of options.

Next, security, if that’s a real thing :slightly_smiling_face: should be considered for any remote access outside your home network. I use a self hosted, WireGuard VPN to reach my share on the Nextcloud server from my office. I helped my daughter at college set up her connection on her laptop, and iPhone.

If I didn’t know how to set up a VPN for remote access, I probably wouldn’t do it. But if you twisted my arm to do it anyway, I would at least put the Nextcloud server on its own subnet, with nothing else.

I am not aware of a hardware, plug-n-play option to simplify things. Perhaps a NAS device would have options and make some things easier.

My apologies if I’m in left field to what you are really looking for.

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Help yes. Sorry trying to figure things out. I wasn’t sure where I should be. Thank you

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@aljames this is all correct. I’m actually looking for is close to all this. a long time ago I had pogoplug. And for me I’m not a programmer by any means. I play with it the best I can. I learn online from videos and some searches try to change things as best as I can and Even this great community has helped me out big time.

I actually like Nextcloud compare to Openmediavault, That is my opinion. I’m not worried about the whole plug in and formatting part. My main problem is I’m trying to assign a drive for each one of my family members. That way they can take later on with them if they need it.

If I use nextcloud. How can I do that? That is what I’m really struggling about. Yes it is great to have the security and I need it. I’m no stranger to hardware itself. My skills are in hardware not software.

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Like @aljames
I had to google popgoplug as well, and based on what I read to understand what it actually does.

To just give @josephchrzempiec a short answer.
yes it can be done, the complexity of the setup is up to the user.
In short any device can be locked to a user:group.

I base that answer on this post

Looking at that it seems that one should be able to setup a cloud instance and limit access to drives / directories to a specfic user:group
looking at Own Cloud documentation
key is the USB drives need to be external configuration. And can be locked to a specific user:group .
I have tried Owncloud in the past for like 3 days just to try it.
And went to a NFS for my purposes. And I know for a fact a NFS can be locked in the manner the OP desires, but will be lacking a gui, except for the what the OS shows ie file explorer.
added some information background on next cloud as It took me a while to type and respond

some info on next cloud

some more info

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@sgt-mike Thank you I’m looking at it all.

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Bear in mind if your considering a NFS or NAS configuration, of the Pro’s and con’s of each. And no they are not the same thing.
USUALLY in a NFS configuration a Windows machine won’t naively work. Exception is the PRO version of Windows does work (home is missing the NFS-Client package/ability) Here is where a NAS comes into play but is sometimes depending on the user setting up can be more frustrating.

IMHO the easiest for you will probably be a cloud solution.

1 Like
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With Nextcloud snap, any storage outside the installation container is “external” storage. We are trained to think of external storage as something connected to our computer via USB. In this context though, external storage could be simply a partition on your internal NVMe or SSD drive. These still are external to the Nextcloud installation container. Therefore, you would need to use either the command line or the Nextcloud administration page to designate your external storage, and permissions.

Also, external storage mount points must be owned by root so that the Nextcloud snap can control it.