Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center review

Xiao Ming Wu CNET

Published: 05 Apr 2004

Want to access your music, photo and other files regardless of the computer you happen to be using? Buffalo's LinkStation Network Storage Center adds the convenience of network-attached storage to home and small businesses, giving you a central location for your data and letting you share that data across your network. You can also use Buffalo's Network Storage Center (HD-H120LAN) to back up important data to an external USB hard drive and use the LinkStation as a print server for your PostScript printer. It lacks the high-end features that you find in more capable but pricier network-attached storage devices, such as the Linksys EFG80 GigaDrive. However, if you're looking for the basic conveniences of a print server and network-attached storage, Buffalo's LinkStation is a well-designed and reasonably priced solution.

Setup & ease of use

You can get the Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center up and running in about 10 minutes. A printed eight-page quick-setup guide, with numerous illustrations and screenshots, walks you through the installation process. Even if you lack networking experience, you can complete the basic setup process in less than 30 minutes.

A standard Ethernet cable connects the LinkStation to a router, a gateway or a hub. A cable crossover switch on the back of the drive lets you link the LinkStation directly to a computer with the same Ethernet cable.

You can connect to the LinkStation from any computer on your network via the IP Setup Utility on the accompanying CD. The utility lets you configure the drive to join your network, and then opens the home page of the LinkStation's browser-based configuration tool.

The LinkStation's browser-based configuration pages let you assign a name, create new shared folders and set up security. You can elect to share folders with both Mac and Windows operating systems. Should you encounter any problems with the setup, Buffalo lists a technical support number in its quick-setup guide.

Features

We like the uncluttered, compact design of the white-and-silver Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center. The front panel houses a power button, a USB 2.0 port, and four LEDs that let you monitor network activity, drive errors, power, and drive capacity. The rear panel contains a 10/100 Ethernet port, a switch that toggles the Ethernet port between MDI and MDIX settings, a second USB 2.0 port, and a reset button. There's also a vent for the LinkStation's quiet fan on the rear panel.

The Buffalo LinkStation's two USB ports let you connect a printer and an external hard drive to your network. You can connect only one printer and one external drive to the device at any given time, but it doesn't matter which USB port you use.

If you attach an external USB drive, you can schedule daily or weekly backups of the LinkStation's shared folders to that drive. The LinkStation also lets you choose between full and incremental backups. Whereas full backups completely overwrite existing data, incremental backups overwrite only the data that has changed.

We think the LinkStation offers a good set of features for the price, but it's not an industrial-strength solution. The LinkStation doesn't offer any flavour of RAID, nor does it support the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), and it provides neither FTP nor DHCP services. For such advanced features, consider pricier alternatives, such as the Linksys EFG80 GigaDrive or its higher-capacity siblings.

Performance

The Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center's hard drive delivers the same quick response as that of the internal hard drives of our networked test systems. There may be a slight delay, of the millisecond variety, but you won't detect a lag when you open files residing on the LinkStation. If you place the LinkStation on a network populated by multiple users who are regularly streaming media across the network, you may experience an occasional hiccup in your media playback. This, however, has more to do with your Ethernet network setup than with the Buffalo LinkStation.

If you're currently sharing a printer from one of the machines on your network, you can use the Buffalo LinkStation to recoup the resources required to maintain a printing queue by offloading the task to the LinkStation's print server. Printer sharing can be a very resource-intensive service, so transferring it from a workstation to the LinkStation can help pep up the computer you use to share your printer.

Service & support

The Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center comes with a respectable two-year warranty. Telephone support is available for the product, but calls are charged at 8.5p a minute.

The support site provides downloadable documentation plus driver, utility and firmware downloads, but there are no product-specific FAQs or troubleshooting tips.

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