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(More customer reviews)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.
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Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White)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.
Click here for more information about Buffalo Technology LinkStation Mini 500 GB (2 x 250 GB) Compact Shared Network Attached Storage LS-WS500GL/R1WH (White)
