Price : Too low to display
The LinkStation Pro Duo is built for the demands of business and prosumer networking alike. Plug it in to your network and all your users can store, share, and use files on it. The LinkStation Client Utility allows easy setup and administration from a PC or Mac. RAID 1 capability means that if one drive fails, the other still has a copy of the data. As an Active Directory client, the Pro Duo can integrated into any business network, and Web Access and a built-in FTP server let you access your files remotely. Buffalo's LinkStation Pro Duo is the ideal solution to keep important files safe and accessible.
This review is from : Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White)
Small Silent and Powerful . The LinkStation Mini from Buffalo is a fully loaded network attached storage device (NAS) with a slew of great features and options. The only downside is you pay more per GB than you would for similar units, but for home use the extra cash you spend is worth it. One quick comment - I purchased the 500 GB version, but my unit and the 1 TB unit are the same size and have the same feature set.
HARDWARE
The LinkStation Mini comes with a slim ethernet cable and power supply. The brick of the power supply has one of the smaller footprints I've seen for an AC plug. They both fit well with the mini theme of the device.
The LinkStation unit itself is unbelievably small. There are two laptop-sized hard drives in the black enclosure. The case is vented on multiple sides, has an ethernet jack, USB jack, power supply jack, and an On-Off-Auto switch on the back with a couple small LED lights on the front. The sleek black shell with blue LED design allows you to put it in your living room, office, or bedroom--especially since there is no fan in the unit and therefore virtually zero noise.
INSTALLATION
The LinkStation Mini comes with an install disc for your computer(s). Just pop in the disc, follow the simple directions, and you'll be able to hook up your LinkStation to your router and have your computer(s) be able to drag, drop, and copy files on it with no problem. If this is all you want to do, you will only need basic computer skills for this set up. As a side note, the LinkStation Mini has a USB port on it, but that is not used for a direct USB connection to your computer as you can only read/write the files on the LinkStation through the ethernet cable. The USB port is there to add additional USB storage drives to the LinkStation later.
If you want to use some of the more advanced features, you will need to have an intermediate to advanced level of networking knowledge to set up the LinkStation. If you have a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router the set up steps might be easier, but my UPnP router didn't work with the LinkStation. This is most likely because I have a cheap-O, free DSL modem-router combo unit from my internet service provider. I needed to go through and set up my advanced networking features manually. So if you don't know what terms like UPnP, port forwarding, DLNA, FTP, and SSL are, you'll probably have a difficult time setting up all the advanced features without enlisting the help of a computer geek.
USABILITY AND FEATURES
At its core, the LinkStation is a NAS, or networked hard drive. The advantage is that multiple computers in your house can all access the one hard drive instead of moving a USB hard drive from computer to computer. The two laptop-sized hard drives within the single unit can be set to be used as one continuous, 1000 GB hard drive, or be set to mirror each other as two 500 GB hard drives that constantly back each other up. You can also set the rear switch to be On all the time, Off all the time, or Automatically turn on when a computer accesses the LAN network. After that basic functionality, you can have the LinkStation do all kinds of neat stuff.
If you have a static IP address you can open up the ports on your LinkStation and set it to act as an FTP. My DSL provider gives me a dynamic IP address, so I can't set that up with any long term success. However, Buffalo has a website that mediates a free peer-to-peer connection with your LinkStation from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access. You have to open a few ports on your router, but it works very well for reading photos and music files. The website even opens your music files within an Adobe Flash environment complete with mp3 playback, so you can play your music files straight from a webpage on any computer in the world without having to download your files. The peer-to-peer webpage takes a little while to load, but works very well, especially if you group 50 files or less into separate folders.
You can also use the LinkStation as a DLNA server for movies, music, and photos. I'm able to have my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 find the LinkStation and stream music and videos straight from the disc. Combined with the "remote play" feature using the Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) with my LinkStation Mini and surround sound receiver, I can use my PSP as a remote control with a screen to browse and play my whole music library on my stereo system--all without booting up a computer or using my TV. It's similar to having a Sonos or SqueezeBox player in your house. A very, very cool feature with the LinkStation if you already have the video game consoles.
The software that comes with the install CD gives you an easy desktop icon to click to find your network shared folders on your Mini. It also provides a dedicated way to access the settings for your Mini. In addition, there is a licensed program, Memeo, included to help you schedule file back-ups between your computer and the LinkStation.
PROBLEMS/DOWNSIDES
The only downsides are the price and speed. Since there are two 5400 rpm laptop-sized hard drives in the unit, it's a little slower than larger units (with fans) that have 7200rpm hard drives. But the speed isn't that bad. In a RAID 0 configuration ("one" continuous hard drive) I was able to move 500 MB of multiple files to the LinkStation in about 1 minute. For my home needs, this is enough speed. You will also be paying more dollars per GB for the LinkStation Mini compared to other units out there. Therefore, if you are putting it in an office at work, I might opt for a cheaper, faster NAS.
OVERALL
Personally, I think the LinkStation Mini is great and suits my needs perfectly. It's fine for the office/work environment, but perfect for the home because: 1) there is a very low electricity drain so you can leave it on all the time, 2) it doesn't have a fan so it barely makes any noise, 3) plays nice with Vista, XP, and Mac, and 4) you'd be hard pressed to find so many useful NAS features in such a small package. I highly recommend it.
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Small Silent and Powerful . The LinkStation Mini from Buffalo is a fully loaded network attached storage device (NAS) with a slew of great features and options. The only downside is you pay more per GB than you would for similar units, but for home use the extra cash you spend is worth it. One quick comment - I purchased the 500 GB version, but my unit and the 1 TB unit are the same size and have the same feature set.
HARDWARE
The LinkStation Mini comes with a slim ethernet cable and power supply. The brick of the power supply has one of the smaller footprints I've seen for an AC plug. They both fit well with the mini theme of the device.
The LinkStation unit itself is unbelievably small. There are two laptop-sized hard drives in the black enclosure. The case is vented on multiple sides, has an ethernet jack, USB jack, power supply jack, and an On-Off-Auto switch on the back with a couple small LED lights on the front. The sleek black shell with blue LED design allows you to put it in your living room, office, or bedroom--especially since there is no fan in the unit and therefore virtually zero noise.
INSTALLATION
The LinkStation Mini comes with an install disc for your computer(s). Just pop in the disc, follow the simple directions, and you'll be able to hook up your LinkStation to your router and have your computer(s) be able to drag, drop, and copy files on it with no problem. If this is all you want to do, you will only need basic computer skills for this set up. As a side note, the LinkStation Mini has a USB port on it, but that is not used for a direct USB connection to your computer as you can only read/write the files on the LinkStation through the ethernet cable. The USB port is there to add additional USB storage drives to the LinkStation later.
If you want to use some of the more advanced features, you will need to have an intermediate to advanced level of networking knowledge to set up the LinkStation. If you have a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router the set up steps might be easier, but my UPnP router didn't work with the LinkStation. This is most likely because I have a cheap-O, free DSL modem-router combo unit from my internet service provider. I needed to go through and set up my advanced networking features manually. So if you don't know what terms like UPnP, port forwarding, DLNA, FTP, and SSL are, you'll probably have a difficult time setting up all the advanced features without enlisting the help of a computer geek.
USABILITY AND FEATURES
At its core, the LinkStation is a NAS, or networked hard drive. The advantage is that multiple computers in your house can all access the one hard drive instead of moving a USB hard drive from computer to computer. The two laptop-sized hard drives within the single unit can be set to be used as one continuous, 1000 GB hard drive, or be set to mirror each other as two 500 GB hard drives that constantly back each other up. You can also set the rear switch to be On all the time, Off all the time, or Automatically turn on when a computer accesses the LAN network. After that basic functionality, you can have the LinkStation do all kinds of neat stuff.
If you have a static IP address you can open up the ports on your LinkStation and set it to act as an FTP. My DSL provider gives me a dynamic IP address, so I can't set that up with any long term success. However, Buffalo has a website that mediates a free peer-to-peer connection with your LinkStation from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access. You have to open a few ports on your router, but it works very well for reading photos and music files. The website even opens your music files within an Adobe Flash environment complete with mp3 playback, so you can play your music files straight from a webpage on any computer in the world without having to download your files. The peer-to-peer webpage takes a little while to load, but works very well, especially if you group 50 files or less into separate folders.
You can also use the LinkStation as a DLNA server for movies, music, and photos. I'm able to have my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 find the LinkStation and stream music and videos straight from the disc. Combined with the "remote play" feature using the Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) with my LinkStation Mini and surround sound receiver, I can use my PSP as a remote control with a screen to browse and play my whole music library on my stereo system--all without booting up a computer or using my TV. It's similar to having a Sonos or SqueezeBox player in your house. A very, very cool feature with the LinkStation if you already have the video game consoles.
The software that comes with the install CD gives you an easy desktop icon to click to find your network shared folders on your Mini. It also provides a dedicated way to access the settings for your Mini. In addition, there is a licensed program, Memeo, included to help you schedule file back-ups between your computer and the LinkStation.
PROBLEMS/DOWNSIDES
The only downsides are the price and speed. Since there are two 5400 rpm laptop-sized hard drives in the unit, it's a little slower than larger units (with fans) that have 7200rpm hard drives. But the speed isn't that bad. In a RAID 0 configuration ("one" continuous hard drive) I was able to move 500 MB of multiple files to the LinkStation in about 1 minute. For my home needs, this is enough speed. You will also be paying more dollars per GB for the LinkStation Mini compared to other units out there. Therefore, if you are putting it in an office at work, I might opt for a cheaper, faster NAS.
OVERALL
Personally, I think the LinkStation Mini is great and suits my needs perfectly. It's fine for the office/work environment, but perfect for the home because: 1) there is a very low electricity drain so you can leave it on all the time, 2) it doesn't have a fan so it barely makes any noise, 3) plays nice with Vista, XP, and Mac, and 4) you'd be hard pressed to find so many useful NAS features in such a small package. I highly recommend it.
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White) Reviews
Small Silent and Powerful . The LinkStation Mini from Buffalo is a fully loaded network attached storage device (NAS) with a slew of great features and options. The only downside is you pay more per GB than you would for similar units, but for home use the extra cash you spend is worth it.
HARDWARE
The LinkStation Mini comes with a slim ethernet cable and power supply. The brick of the power supply has one of the smaller footprints I've seen for an AC plug. They both fit well with the mini theme of the device.
The LinkStation unit itself is unbelievably small. There are two laptop-sized hard drives in the black enclosure. The case is vented on multiple sides, has an ethernet jack, USB jack, power supply jack, and an On-Off-Auto switch on the back with a couple small LED lights on the front. The sleek black shell with blue LED design allows you to put it in your living room, office, or bedroom--especially since there is no fan in the unit and therefore virtually zero noise.
INSTALLATION
The LinkStation Mini comes with an install disc for your computer(s). Just pop in the disc, follow the simple directions, and you'll be able to hook up your LinkStation to your router and have your computer(s) be able to drag, drop, and copy files on it with no problem. If this is all you want to do, you will only need basic computer skills for this set up. As a side note, the LinkStation Mini has a USB port on it, but that is not used for a direct USB connection to your computer as you can only read/write the files on the LinkStation through the ethernet cable. The USB port is there to add additional USB storage drives to the LinkStation later.
If you want to use some of the more advanced features, you will need to have an intermediate to advanced level of networking knowledge to set up the LinkStation. If you have a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router the set up steps might be easier, but my UPnP router didn't work with the LinkStation. This is most likely because I have a cheap-O, free DSL modem-router combo unit from my internet service provider. I needed to go through and set up my advanced networking features manually. So if you don't know what terms like UPnP, port forwarding, DLNA, FTP, and SSL are, you'll probably have a difficult time setting up all the advanced features without enlisting the help of a computer geek.
USABILITY AND FEATURES
At its core, the LinkStation is a NAS, or networked hard drive. The advantage is that multiple computers in your house can all access the one hard drive instead of moving a USB hard drive from computer to computer. The two laptop-sized hard drives within the single unit can be set to be used as one continuous, 500 GB hard drive, or be set to mirror each other as two 250 GB hard drives that constantly back each other up. You can also set the rear switch to be On all the time, Off all the time, or Automatically turn on when a computer accesses the LAN network. After that basic functionality, you can have the LinkStation do all kinds of neat stuff.
If you have a static IP address you can open up the ports on your LinkStation and set it to act as an FTP. My DSL provider gives me a dynamic IP address, so I can't set that up with any long term success. However, Buffalo has a website that mediates a free peer-to-peer connection with your LinkStation from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access. You have to open a few ports on your router, but it works very well for reading photos and music files. The website even opens your music files within an Adobe Flash environment complete with mp3 playback, so you can play your music files straight from a webpage on any computer in the world without having to download your files. The peer-to-peer webpage takes a little while to load, but works very well, especially if you group 50 files or less into separate folders.
You can also use the LinkStation as a DLNA server for movies, music, and photos. I'm able to have my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 find the LinkStation and stream music and videos straight from the disc. Combined with the "remote play" feature using the Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) with my LinkStation Mini and surround sound receiver, I can use my PSP as a remote control with a screen to browse and play my whole music library on my stereo system--all without booting up a computer or using my TV. It's similar to having a Sonos or SqueezeBox player in your house. A very, very cool feature with the LinkStation if you already have the video game consoles.
The software that comes with the install CD gives you an easy desktop icon to click to find your network shared folders on your Mini. It also provides a dedicated way to access the settings for your Mini. In addition, there is a licensed program, Memeo, included to help you schedule file back-ups between your computer and the LinkStation.
PROBLEMS/DOWNSIDES
The only downsides are the price and speed. Since there are two 5400 rpm laptop-sized hard drives in the unit, it's a little slower than larger units (with fans) that have 7200rpm hard drives. But the speed isn't that bad. In a RAID 0 configuration ("one" continuous 500 GB hard drive) I was able to move 500 MB of multiple files to the LinkStation in about 1 minute. For my home needs, this is enough speed. You will also be paying more dollars per GB for the LinkStation Mini compared to other units out there. Therefore, if you are putting it in an office at work, I might opt for a cheaper, faster NAS.
OVERALL
Personally, I think the LinkStation Mini is great and suits my needs perfectly. It's fine for the office/work environment, but perfect for the home because: 1) there is a very low electricity drain so you can leave it on all the time, 2) it doesn't have a fan so it barely makes any noise, 3) plays nice with Vista, XP, and Mac, and 4) you'd be hard pressed to find so many useful NAS features in such a small package. I highly recommend it.
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on Amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Small Silent and Powerful . The LinkStation Mini from Buffalo is a fully loaded network attached storage device (NAS) with a slew of great features and options. The only downside is you pay more per GB than you would for similar units, but for home use the extra cash you spend is worth it.
HARDWARE
The LinkStation Mini comes with a slim ethernet cable and power supply. The brick of the power supply has one of the smaller footprints I've seen for an AC plug. They both fit well with the mini theme of the device.
The LinkStation unit itself is unbelievably small. There are two laptop-sized hard drives in the black enclosure. The case is vented on multiple sides, has an ethernet jack, USB jack, power supply jack, and an On-Off-Auto switch on the back with a couple small LED lights on the front. The sleek black shell with blue LED design allows you to put it in your living room, office, or bedroom--especially since there is no fan in the unit and therefore virtually zero noise.
INSTALLATION
The LinkStation Mini comes with an install disc for your computer(s). Just pop in the disc, follow the simple directions, and you'll be able to hook up your LinkStation to your router and have your computer(s) be able to drag, drop, and copy files on it with no problem. If this is all you want to do, you will only need basic computer skills for this set up. As a side note, the LinkStation Mini has a USB port on it, but that is not used for a direct USB connection to your computer as you can only read/write the files on the LinkStation through the ethernet cable. The USB port is there to add additional USB storage drives to the LinkStation later.
If you want to use some of the more advanced features, you will need to have an intermediate to advanced level of networking knowledge to set up the LinkStation. If you have a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router the set up steps might be easier, but my UPnP router didn't work with the LinkStation. This is most likely because I have a cheap-O, free DSL modem-router combo unit from my internet service provider. I needed to go through and set up my advanced networking features manually. So if you don't know what terms like UPnP, port forwarding, DLNA, FTP, and SSL are, you'll probably have a difficult time setting up all the advanced features without enlisting the help of a computer geek.
USABILITY AND FEATURES
At its core, the LinkStation is a NAS, or networked hard drive. The advantage is that multiple computers in your house can all access the one hard drive instead of moving a USB hard drive from computer to computer. The two laptop-sized hard drives within the single unit can be set to be used as one continuous, 500 GB hard drive, or be set to mirror each other as two 250 GB hard drives that constantly back each other up. You can also set the rear switch to be On all the time, Off all the time, or Automatically turn on when a computer accesses the LAN network. After that basic functionality, you can have the LinkStation do all kinds of neat stuff.
If you have a static IP address you can open up the ports on your LinkStation and set it to act as an FTP. My DSL provider gives me a dynamic IP address, so I can't set that up with any long term success. However, Buffalo has a website that mediates a free peer-to-peer connection with your LinkStation from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access. You have to open a few ports on your router, but it works very well for reading photos and music files. The website even opens your music files within an Adobe Flash environment complete with mp3 playback, so you can play your music files straight from a webpage on any computer in the world without having to download your files. The peer-to-peer webpage takes a little while to load, but works very well, especially if you group 50 files or less into separate folders.
You can also use the LinkStation as a DLNA server for movies, music, and photos. I'm able to have my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 find the LinkStation and stream music and videos straight from the disc. Combined with the "remote play" feature using the Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) with my LinkStation Mini and surround sound receiver, I can use my PSP as a remote control with a screen to browse and play my whole music library on my stereo system--all without booting up a computer or using my TV. It's similar to having a Sonos or SqueezeBox player in your house. A very, very cool feature with the LinkStation if you already have the video game consoles.
The software that comes with the install CD gives you an easy desktop icon to click to find your network shared folders on your Mini. It also provides a dedicated way to access the settings for your Mini. In addition, there is a licensed program, Memeo, included to help you schedule file back-ups between your computer and the LinkStation.
PROBLEMS/DOWNSIDES
The only downsides are the price and speed. Since there are two 5400 rpm laptop-sized hard drives in the unit, it's a little slower than larger units (with fans) that have 7200rpm hard drives. But the speed isn't that bad. In a RAID 0 configuration ("one" continuous 500 GB hard drive) I was able to move 500 MB of multiple files to the LinkStation in about 1 minute. For my home needs, this is enough speed. You will also be paying more dollars per GB for the LinkStation Mini compared to other units out there. Therefore, if you are putting it in an office at work, I might opt for a cheaper, faster NAS.
OVERALL
Personally, I think the LinkStation Mini is great and suits my needs perfectly. It's fine for the office/work environment, but perfect for the home because: 1) there is a very low electricity drain so you can leave it on all the time, 2) it doesn't have a fan so it barely makes any noise, 3) plays nice with Vista, XP, and Mac, and 4) you'd be hard pressed to find so many useful NAS features in such a small package. I highly recommend it.
(P.S. If you found this review helpful please click yes below so other prospective shoppers will read it. I place a lot of weight on Amazon reviews before I make a purchase too. Thanks!)
Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White) Opinions
Really simple to use NAS with good features . Two wireless laptops are using this NAS, one OS X and one Ubuntu 8.10, where the NAS is attached by wire to the wireless router. Connecting to the NAS's IP address on the router (DHCP enabled by default) lets you configure it. Make sure you click "help" for the default username/ password (then change that password!).
It comes default as RAID 0 so change it to RAID 1 if you want before copying anything to it. Setting up folders, users, and folder permissions was really easy when password protecting data. To access my files I use my file manager to go to SMB://(ip address) and see all my available folders. Videos stream nicely over the wireless network.
Absolutely no software is required to use this device aside from an operating system with web browser. Now that my data has been copied it's nice to know all my files from my old tower PC is available on my laptop.
UPDATE: The USB hard drive attachment works great. I stream movies from the USB drive through the NAS over the network and they work fine. Additionally the media server works well where I use it with a Roku M500 without problems. Everything is still working as before since I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04. Hey, that rhymes!
Really simple to use NAS with good features . Two wireless laptops are using this NAS, one OS X and one Ubuntu 8.10, where the NAS is attached by wire to the wireless router. Connecting to the NAS's IP address on the router (DHCP enabled by default) lets you configure it. Make sure you click "help" for the default username/ password (then change that password!).
It comes default as RAID 0 so change it to RAID 1 if you want before copying anything to it. Setting up folders, users, and folder permissions was really easy when password protecting data. To access my files I use my file manager to go to SMB://(ip address) and see all my available folders. Videos stream nicely over the wireless network.
Absolutely no software is required to use this device aside from an operating system with web browser. Now that my data has been copied it's nice to know all my files from my old tower PC is available on my laptop.
UPDATE: The USB hard drive attachment works great. I stream movies from the USB drive through the NAS over the network and they work fine. Additionally the media server works well where I use it with a Roku M500 without problems. Everything is still working as before since I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04. Hey, that rhymes!
Best home NAS drive . It's awesome - small, fast, quiet, can be configured as a 250 gig RAID, has gigabit support, has Mac support, auto power-down green mode. Killer for dumping your data to. If you have the money, they offer a 1TB version also. I didn't install the software (but I hear the sofware is decent).
The unit is silent, even when copying files onto it. It's smaller than I expected (a little larger than two iPhones stacked), you can easily carry it with you if needed. The options on this unit are great, especially that it is two 250 gig drives that can be configured in RAID. The unit comes configured as one 500 gig storage, but using the web interface it's easy to reconfigure for a 250 gig RAID failsafe config. The unit allows you to create any number of shared shared folders, and make them individually public read-only, public read-write, or assign users to the individual shared folders for security. It has user management, where you create any number of login names/passwords and assign permissions to each user to allow for read-only or read-write permissions, and which shared folders they have access to.
In this price range you can't find a reliable NAS product that is silent, with two hard drives, gigabit networking, user security, and all these other features. There are some cheaper products, and they have bad reviews.
The unit is silent, even when copying files onto it. It's smaller than I expected (a little larger than two iPhones stacked), you can easily carry it with you if needed. The options on this unit are great, especially that it is two 250 gig drives that can be configured in RAID. The unit comes configured as one 500 gig storage, but using the web interface it's easy to reconfigure for a 250 gig RAID failsafe config. The unit allows you to create any number of shared shared folders, and make them individually public read-only, public read-write, or assign users to the individual shared folders for security. It has user management, where you create any number of login names/passwords and assign permissions to each user to allow for read-only or read-write permissions, and which shared folders they have access to.
In this price range you can't find a reliable NAS product that is silent, with two hard drives, gigabit networking, user security, and all these other features. There are some cheaper products, and they have bad reviews.
Excellent Device . I needed a network storage device to save files which are being scanned from a multi-function printer and I also needed a print server for a larger USB color printer. Additionally, I wanted the device to run very quietly and it had to have RAID 1 capability (disk mirroring for data protection). After a little research this product seemed to fit the bill. My experience is below.
1.) This is a very small unit, not much bigger than the two laptop hard drives it contains, and it runs very quietly. No fan, no loud access noises. Nothing. This was exactly as I had been led to expect.
2.) After wiring it to a switch which led back to my wireless gateway, I ran the detection routine. This is where I had the only trouble I've run into with this device. It simply would not detect on my network when wired to the switch. I had to run a cable directly to the gateway, which was no big deal, but it made me a bit nervous. Not starting out on the right foot.
3.) Now that I could reach it on the network I switched the 500GB RAID 0 configuration to a 250GB RAID 1 configuration. This lets both drives mirror data so that if one fails you don't lose everything. The built-in webserver on the device made this easy to accomplish.
4.) Once the Linkstation was wired to the gateway instead of the switch I was able to run the Buffalo software on all three of my networked systems without a hitch. I set up multiple shared folders with no problem, as well as a network share for my scanner, again with no issues.
5.) At this point I plugged in my USB printer cable into the USB jack on the back of the device and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the print server functionality worked. All you have to do is right-click on the "LP" share on the Linkstation and choose "Connect". After installing print drivers on all 3 of my computers, they were able to print to my USB color laserjet which had previously been connected to only one machine. Considering that most print servers alone cost $80 - $100, this makes the Linkstation a great deal for anyone who needs network storage as well as a networked printer. Although I didn't use it, the USB port can also be used to add a stand-alone hard drive for even more storage.
6.) The last thing I wanted to do with the unit was activate the WebAccess software so that I could use a browser from any computer (outside my network) to get to a selected share. Buffalo provides a service at [...]which will forward requests directly to your NAS device. This was the only other hiccup I had during installation because my brand new wireless gateway, which should be UPnP compatible, didn't automatically do whatever the Buffalo NAS expected it to do. Anyhow, I had to disable the "automatic setup" selection and manually forward Port 9000 to my Linkstation. Once that was done, the unit was reachable from outside systems.
Overall Impression: This unit is jam-packed with functionality for such a modest price. I knew when buying the system that the 5400rpm laptop drives it uses would not be as fast as most other NAS's, but, by coincidence (after I bought the product), I saw a review that speed tested access times for different network storage units and the Linkstation Mini scored in the upper 50%. That was very surprising, so the tradeoff for silence and low power consumption isn't even much of a trade-off. The LinkStation Mini did everything I wanted it to do (Disk mirroring, Print Server, Ultra-Quiet), so I give it a big thumbs-up.
1.) This is a very small unit, not much bigger than the two laptop hard drives it contains, and it runs very quietly. No fan, no loud access noises. Nothing. This was exactly as I had been led to expect.
2.) After wiring it to a switch which led back to my wireless gateway, I ran the detection routine. This is where I had the only trouble I've run into with this device. It simply would not detect on my network when wired to the switch. I had to run a cable directly to the gateway, which was no big deal, but it made me a bit nervous. Not starting out on the right foot.
3.) Now that I could reach it on the network I switched the 500GB RAID 0 configuration to a 250GB RAID 1 configuration. This lets both drives mirror data so that if one fails you don't lose everything. The built-in webserver on the device made this easy to accomplish.
4.) Once the Linkstation was wired to the gateway instead of the switch I was able to run the Buffalo software on all three of my networked systems without a hitch. I set up multiple shared folders with no problem, as well as a network share for my scanner, again with no issues.
5.) At this point I plugged in my USB printer cable into the USB jack on the back of the device and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the print server functionality worked. All you have to do is right-click on the "LP" share on the Linkstation and choose "Connect". After installing print drivers on all 3 of my computers, they were able to print to my USB color laserjet which had previously been connected to only one machine. Considering that most print servers alone cost $80 - $100, this makes the Linkstation a great deal for anyone who needs network storage as well as a networked printer. Although I didn't use it, the USB port can also be used to add a stand-alone hard drive for even more storage.
6.) The last thing I wanted to do with the unit was activate the WebAccess software so that I could use a browser from any computer (outside my network) to get to a selected share. Buffalo provides a service at [...]which will forward requests directly to your NAS device. This was the only other hiccup I had during installation because my brand new wireless gateway, which should be UPnP compatible, didn't automatically do whatever the Buffalo NAS expected it to do. Anyhow, I had to disable the "automatic setup" selection and manually forward Port 9000 to my Linkstation. Once that was done, the unit was reachable from outside systems.
Overall Impression: This unit is jam-packed with functionality for such a modest price. I knew when buying the system that the 5400rpm laptop drives it uses would not be as fast as most other NAS's, but, by coincidence (after I bought the product), I saw a review that speed tested access times for different network storage units and the Linkstation Mini scored in the upper 50%. That was very surprising, so the tradeoff for silence and low power consumption isn't even much of a trade-off. The LinkStation Mini did everything I wanted it to do (Disk mirroring, Print Server, Ultra-Quiet), so I give it a big thumbs-up.
Slow webaccess . The setup took some time. But works as described.
The biggest PROBLEM is the WebAccess GUI (graphical user interface). Very poorly designed and extremely slow. When doing "preview" of a photo which is about 3 megabytes it takes good 5 to 7 seconds to show the picture. Once you have one picture up in the preview mode you can click next (if you have more then one photo) and that also takes 5 to 7 seconds to show up.
Thumbnail preview is not available either so you end up looking at file names like (DSC_0041.jpg).
It has "MultiMedia" feature which I have not tried yet. May be that will give me thumbnail pic of a file.
The NAS itself has a web-based administration which you can access if your pc is on same subnet (private) as your pc, but I could not access it from outside (public)using WebAccess.
Tried calling support because I had few questions. Automated system told me that technicians were busy and its better to send an email. Since I wanted to talk to a live rep. to see if they know the product ended up waiting on the phone. For an hour no one picked up so I listened to music on hold "Mozart" which put me to sleep. No joke.
One more thing to add to poorly written Webaccess GUI. Once you login to see your files you can't logout because there is no button to do so. You have to close the browser to be logged out.
The biggest PROBLEM is the WebAccess GUI (graphical user interface). Very poorly designed and extremely slow. When doing "preview" of a photo which is about 3 megabytes it takes good 5 to 7 seconds to show the picture. Once you have one picture up in the preview mode you can click next (if you have more then one photo) and that also takes 5 to 7 seconds to show up.
Thumbnail preview is not available either so you end up looking at file names like (DSC_0041.jpg).
It has "MultiMedia" feature which I have not tried yet. May be that will give me thumbnail pic of a file.
The NAS itself has a web-based administration which you can access if your pc is on same subnet (private) as your pc, but I could not access it from outside (public)using WebAccess.
Tried calling support because I had few questions. Automated system told me that technicians were busy and its better to send an email. Since I wanted to talk to a live rep. to see if they know the product ended up waiting on the phone. For an hour no one picked up so I listened to music on hold "Mozart" which put me to sleep. No joke.
One more thing to add to poorly written Webaccess GUI. Once you login to see your files you can't logout because there is no button to do so. You have to close the browser to be logged out.
Great Network Storage . Purchased the Linkstation Mini and like the product very much. It is compact, fast, and full of features. In order to use the power saving feature, it is necessary to install the supplied software. Leaving the unit in the always on mode does not spin down the drives.
1st Impressions are Good . Installed it yesterday so this is 1st impressions really.
Out of the box the hardware looks and feels great. Plug in the NAS to the router, wall socket and flip the switch, it's that easy. Takes a few seconds for the NAS to boot, the lights will blink until solid indicating it's "on" status.
Head over to the computer side of things and I inserted the CD with the included software. This is where I had a hiccup, I ran the .exe file which brings in the installation process, however my Windows 7 OS was not compatible with the software. Called Buffalo who asked me to download a file from their site, after a few seconds I had "Buffalo NAS Navigator2" running, this program is only used to indicate the ip address in which the NAS currently is. Plugged those numbers on the browser and voile, access to the NAS granted.
The interface is very straight forward, however I had to force restart my server for it to be visible on both my lappy and PS3, this apparently is common according to the Buffalo rep I spoke with.
Another hiccup I had is the fact my external HDD is partitioned to have NTFS and Fat32, however since the 1st partition is NTFS the NAS will not recognize it, it being Linux based (again according to the Buffalo tech rep) so it will not recognize either partition. I'm now making the transfer from my external to the NAS at an extremely slow speed because of this.
Other features like remote access is easy to manage and access, my iPhone had no problems playing the mp3.
Once my external HDD is completely backed up on the NAS I will have to reformat it to ether Fat32 (bad idea since it will limit file sizes) or something like XFS or EXT3 maybe however at this rate maybe by next week my 220GB external will be free for this process...
Overall though seems straight forward and easy to use, just wish Buffalo would list these small details, most users use NTFS it is very very common so that's a solid star they lose from me.
Out of the box the hardware looks and feels great. Plug in the NAS to the router, wall socket and flip the switch, it's that easy. Takes a few seconds for the NAS to boot, the lights will blink until solid indicating it's "on" status.
Head over to the computer side of things and I inserted the CD with the included software. This is where I had a hiccup, I ran the .exe file which brings in the installation process, however my Windows 7 OS was not compatible with the software. Called Buffalo who asked me to download a file from their site, after a few seconds I had "Buffalo NAS Navigator2" running, this program is only used to indicate the ip address in which the NAS currently is. Plugged those numbers on the browser and voile, access to the NAS granted.
The interface is very straight forward, however I had to force restart my server for it to be visible on both my lappy and PS3, this apparently is common according to the Buffalo rep I spoke with.
Another hiccup I had is the fact my external HDD is partitioned to have NTFS and Fat32, however since the 1st partition is NTFS the NAS will not recognize it, it being Linux based (again according to the Buffalo tech rep) so it will not recognize either partition. I'm now making the transfer from my external to the NAS at an extremely slow speed because of this.
Other features like remote access is easy to manage and access, my iPhone had no problems playing the mp3.
Once my external HDD is completely backed up on the NAS I will have to reformat it to ether Fat32 (bad idea since it will limit file sizes) or something like XFS or EXT3 maybe however at this rate maybe by next week my 220GB external will be free for this process...
Overall though seems straight forward and easy to use, just wish Buffalo would list these small details, most users use NTFS it is very very common so that's a solid star they lose from me.
Cons Review
works just ok until it crashes not for backups . 98% of the time the drive works great. Several times a week though data stored to it will become corrupted for some reason, or databases residing on the drive will somehow not save changes that they should have. For this reason I have to backup, my backup which kind of blows the whole reason for using this as a backup. Last week the unit finally crashed and although it would power up, I couldn't see any data no matter what I did. Tech support was immediate and patient, although couldn't revive the unit over the phone. They will replace the unit but won't recover any data from the drives and said I had to do that myself prior to sending the unit back to them.
Other drawbacks are that it takes a seeming long time to startup and shut down when you hit the switch. It also does not have a battery inside to power the clock so every time it's unplugged, such as in our mobile environment, one has to reset the time and date which is a real pain in the ask! The user interface to control file permissions and settings is kind of clunky but one can muddle through it and it works when setup correctly.
Overall, this unit is useless as a backup. What is the point of having two RAID drives when they both crash at the same time? As a server it's really good (fast) other than the occasional file corruption. I'm looking for another solution that is more robust and has a battery for its clock.
Other drawbacks are that it takes a seeming long time to startup and shut down when you hit the switch. It also does not have a battery inside to power the clock so every time it's unplugged, such as in our mobile environment, one has to reset the time and date which is a real pain in the ask! The user interface to control file permissions and settings is kind of clunky but one can muddle through it and it works when setup correctly.
Overall, this unit is useless as a backup. What is the point of having two RAID drives when they both crash at the same time? As a server it's really good (fast) other than the occasional file corruption. I'm looking for another solution that is more robust and has a battery for its clock.
works just ok until it crashes not for back ups . 98% of the time the drive works great. Several times a week though data stored to it will become corrupted for some reason, or databases residing on the drive will somehow not save changes that they should have. For this reason I have to backup, my backup which kind of blows the whole reason for using this as a backup. Last week the unit finally crashed and although it would power up, I couldn't see any data no matter what I did. Tech support was immediate and patient, although couldn't revive the unit over the phone. They will replace the unit but won't recover any data from the drives and said I had to do that myself prior to sending the unit back to them.
Other drawbacks are that it takes a seeming long time to startup and shut down when you hit the switch. It also does not have a battery inside to power the clock so every time it's unplugged, such as in our mobile environment, one has to reset the time and date which is a real pain in the ask! The user interface to control file permissions and settings is kind of clunky but one can muddle through it and it works when setup correctly.
Overall, this unit is useless as a backup. What is the point of having two RAID drives when they both crash at the same time? As a server it's really good (fast) other than the occasional file corruption. I'm looking for another solution that is more robust and has a battery for its clock.
Other drawbacks are that it takes a seeming long time to startup and shut down when you hit the switch. It also does not have a battery inside to power the clock so every time it's unplugged, such as in our mobile environment, one has to reset the time and date which is a real pain in the ask! The user interface to control file permissions and settings is kind of clunky but one can muddle through it and it works when setup correctly.
Overall, this unit is useless as a backup. What is the point of having two RAID drives when they both crash at the same time? As a server it's really good (fast) other than the occasional file corruption. I'm looking for another solution that is more robust and has a battery for its clock.
Feature Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White)
- Dual Drive RAID NAS
- Active Directory
- Web Access
- FTP Server
- Memeo Backup
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Product Details
EAN : 0747464117973UPC : 747464117973
MPN : LS-WS1.0TGL/R1WH
Brand : Buffalo Technology
Color : White
Weight : 2 pounds
Height : 4 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 7 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : BUFFALO
Model : LS-WS1.0TGL/R1WH
Publisher : BUFFALO
Size : 500 GB
SKU : DHLSWS10TGLR1WH
Studio : BUFFALO
Where To Buy
You can buy Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White) on Amazon . Click here to Read More
