All the way back in early 2007 we mentioned Excito’s Bubba super-compact home server, a palm-sized FTP, media and backup store, and now the company has updated things with the Excito Bubba Two. As before, it’s pretty darn small – 4.5 x 1.8 x 7 inches – and, since the enclosure is fanless, quiet too; choose an SSD model and it’s silent. For basic users it can be as straightforward as plug-and-play, whereas for those who prefer tinkering the full Debian Linux underpinnings are available to muck about with.
Various storage sizes are available – up to a 2TB HDD – and power consumption with a 1TB drive is said to be just 7W. While there’s only room for a single 3.5-inch drive internally, the back panel has two USB 2.0 ports and two eSATA ports for adding further storage; alternatively you can hook up a USB printer and use Bubba Two as a network print server.
For most it’ll be the media server functionality that’s most promising, with Bubba Two compatible with UPnP, iTunes server, PS3 and Logitech’s Squeezebox Server software. There’s also remote access with a simple webpage login that promises to avoid remembering what your IP is day to day, standalone bittorrent downloads, and an integrated firewall, router, email server and calendar.
The Bubba Two is available from €236 ($292) with 500GB (€356 for 2TB; €308 for a 32GB SSD) while the Bubba Two WiFi – with 802.11n support and WiFi router functionality – starts at €312 ($386) for 500GB (€452 for 2TB; €380 for a 32GB SSD).
