Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Buffalo LinkStation Live
Buffalo’s latest NAS drive could be the ideal storage solution for a modest network. Ian Waugh takes the NAS by the horns…
| Product | Linkstation Live |
|---|---|
| Company | Buffalo |
| Web | www.buffalo-technology.com |
| Price | £132-253 |
| We like | Add more drives via USB, WebAccess, network USB printers |
| We don't like | Browser management slow, no RAID |
| Rating | 7/10 |
| Requirements | Windows 98SE and later (including Vista), Mac OS 10.3 and later |
For an introduction to NAS, see here.
Buffalo produces a range of computer products including network storage devices and external hard drives. The LinkStation Live is a NAS device aimed squarely at home users (although also suitable for small business, too). It comes in four capacities - 250Gb, 320Gb, 500Gb and 750GB. We're looking at the 500Gb version here.
The unit itself stands upright like most external drives. It has one Ethernet and two USB sockets on the back along with a power socket which connects directly to the mains - no wall wart here.
Installation is easy - plug in the LinkStation, connect an Ethernet cable to your hub or router and the drive appears in My Network Places.
You can install additional software, NAS Navigator, which gives you more control over the system. One thing it does is to put a shortcut on your desktop to the shared folder on the LinkStation for easy access.
From NAS Navigator you can call up a web-based interface (which runs in a browser) which is used to configure the system and make advanced settings. You can also open the interface directly from a browser.
Settings include changing the hostname and workgroup if necessary. You can check the disk for errors and format it. The system uses the XFS format, commonly used by Linux, but you can format it to EXT3 (another Linux format) or FAT32. There's little reason for the average user to change it.
In most cases, the LinkStation will get its IP address automatically from the DHCP server but you can set it manually if you wish.
Like most NAs systems, LinkStation uses "shares" (folders) to hold data. There's one already on the system called, imaginatively, "shares" and you can add more through NAS Navigator. Shares can be made compatible with Apple Macs and, of course, you can password-protect them. You can also allow FTP access. You can map drive letters to the shares for easier access.
We ran the software on a Windows XP machine and a wireless-connected Vista machine picked up the LinkStation immediately.
The USB sockets can be used to add additional storage via a USB drive which is an excellent way to increase capacity.
The USB socket can also be used to add a printer which will also appear to the entire network, saving the cost of a printer with a built-in Ethernet connection.
A neat feature of the system is WebAccess. This allows you to access your LinkStation from any location via the web. Essentially, it's done via a Buffalo web site. You log in and are routed to your LinkStation. You can route this through another domain but then you must manage your own DNS settings.
As well as using the LinkStation for file storage, you can use it for backing up, too, and the system comes with the rather excellent Memeo software. You can, for example, schedule automatic backups to an external USB drive.
LinkStation can be used as a media server for LinkTheatre (another Buffalo product) and other multimedia players. It supports PCast (a sort of media server) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance, a "standard" developed by consumer electronics and computer companies for connecting "media" equipment). LinkStation can also be used as a music server for computers with iTunes (v 7 and above).
LinkStation claims a throughput of up to 35Mb/sec and features a Gigabit Ethernet port. However, it's not the fastest of drives, particularly when reading, but be aware that the overall speed will be limited by the network's speed so unless you have a Gigabit network, you won't be running at top speed anyway. Something to bear in mind before you automatically go out to look for the drive with the most go-faster stripes.
After our test, the unit threw a wobbler and we decided the drive had failed. It refused to appear on the network and clicked and locked up when playing MP3 files. We did, however, manage to get it running again by unplugging it and switching it on again so we were able to retrieve data although maybe we were lucky.
Drives do fail and the review system had been round the block and few times (i.e. to other reviewers) and probably well hammered. As we're pressed for time, we're simply reporting what happened but during the actual review the unit performed perfectly.
Conclusion
The Buffalo LinkStation Live is a very cost-effective way to add extra storage to your network. It not only offers storage but also backup, media serving, the ability to increase its storage capacity, and to network a USB printer.
Post-review problems we encountered notwithstanding, the LinkStation is very tempting.
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