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Photograph: Rick Rizner
Buffalo Technology LinkStation Network Storage Center
- Spec Navigator
- Capacity
- Speed
- Interface Connections
- Hardware
- Software
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Storage »
Pros
Inexpensive pick for home user
Cons
Poor performance
Bottom Line
A great, inexpensive pick for the home user who doesn't need massive capacity or high performance.
Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center
LinkStation Network Storage Center Review, by Becky Waring December 29, 2004
The Buffalo LinkStation does it all, does it well, and does it at a great price. This versatile 250GB network storage device has two USB 2.0 ports for an external hard drive and a USB printer. You can use the second drive for either backing up the internal drive or adding storage. The Buffalo was the only NAS we tested to include a USB print server, a handy feature that lets home and small offices share inexpensive printers. While the competing Linksys EtherFast Network Attached Storage EFG250 includes a parallel-port print server, a significant number of inexpensive printers are now equipped only with USB ports.
We were just as impressed with the Buffalo LinkStation's software and documentation, which got us up and running in less than 10 minutes. The NAS correctly obtained an IP address from our network router, mapped itself as our PC's E: drive, and then appeared in My Network Places ready to accept data.
The LinkStation's simple Web configuration software makes it easy for both home users and small offices without IT support to add users, groups, and folder passwords.
We also liked Buffalo's Easy Backup utility for automating backups of client PCs to the NAS. You can select any combination of files and folders to back up to the Storage Center at regular intervals.
Performance was the only area where the LinkStation failed to be a star, ranking right in the middle of the pack in our speed tests. However, in typical use, where you are copying or retrieving only a file or two at a time, this device's middling performance would be hard to spot.
Upshot: A great choice for home and small-office users, the LinkStation offers print serving, password security for shared folders, and an expansion bay--all at a reasonable price.
Becky Waring
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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58
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53
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95
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Storage
58
91
48
100
Performance
| Large File Test (Read) | 436.07 |
| Large File Test (Write) | 558.58 |
| McAfee Virus Scan Test | 394.66 |
| Test Version | 1 |
| Windows File Search Test | 104.62 |
| Windows Files and Folders Test (Read) | 481.76 |
| Windows Files and Folders Test (Write) | 597.03 |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Buffalo Technology LinkStation Network Storage Center
1 Review Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 1 review
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Reviewed by: VReggie
Duration of ownership: 1 Year
Strengths: Network Accessibility, ease of setup. Storage capability. Small footprint.
Weaknesses: Slow to respond to write requests over network link. NOS on device limits file size to 4GB, which limits or excludes the use of NTBackup or other file compression backups. The hard drives are run of the mill, just as likely to suffer the same hardware failure you're trying to protect yourself from.
Overall: Although decently priced, and easy to use (for PCs) they're somewhat unreliable for totally automated backups. The units I've used seem to respond slowly to write requests, especially after long idle periods, which sometimes results in my backup software timing out. I've used NTBackup, Veritas Backup Exec and other compression based applications but have had the most luck using a simple XCOPY batch file.
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