Customer Reviews

Buffalo Technology LinkStation Pro 2.0 TB Shared Network Attached Storage LS-XH2.0TL (Black)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was looking for a NAS with DLNA support and Bittorrent client. I saw several options but this one was the better cost-benefits. It is a single drive NAS so I did not expect to have redundacy, I like it for my home digital repository, so I can access my media from any computer in my house, and I am planning to get an network audio player.
I installed it the last saturday so I had two days to test its features. The installation process was very straigth forward, in about ten minutes I have the NAS up and running following the installation CD. Then I copied a bunch of files from my PC to it and it did it without any problem. I can not say if it is as fast as Buffalo claims because I could not compare against any other NAS, it is my first one.
I enabled the bittorrent client and it worked very well. The media server worked also well, I used Mezzmo media player to test it from a laptop in the network and it find my media files and played correctly, I played the network media for about an hour and it did it steadily. The web access feature worked also without problem, I have to configure my router to allow access to it, but it was painless, now I can access my personal files from everywhere, specially from my work.
I am very happy with my purchase, i think it is a good start for my networked media players. The price could be a little high but it is in the range.
I have to visit this review in a couple of weeks, after I use it a little more, or when I get a network media player to test it with this NAS. But by now it was a very good purchase.
I am editing this review because I purchased a UPnP network media player (philips NP2900) and it worked with my music and photos library in my linkstation. When I configured the network connection in the NP2900 it inmediatly detected my NAS and I could begin to listen my music and displaying my photos. So It is another reason to be satisfied with my purchase.

I replaced a Lacie NAS device with the Buffalo recently, and generally find the Buffalo to be a much better unit. While the Lacie worked okay for Windows, it never worked consistently with my Linux and Mac systems.

The Buffalo has a few extra communications protocols, including basic FTP, so accessing it from non-Windows systems is easy. If you search the Web, there are ways to install NFS on this device, opening it up further still (NFS requires a firmware patch though - not for the novice!). Although not well documented, I was even able to connect the NAS device to a large IBM mainframe computer. I guess that's not common, but it's nice to know it works anywhere you might need network attached storage.

Performance so far is excellent, so long as you have gigabit ethernet between it and the computers connecting to it. In an informal test, it seemed to perform substantially faster than a USB 2.0 drive attached to my PC...so fast, you sometimes can't believe it was possible to move so much data in such a short time. But, plain old 100mb seems sluggish by comparison, and in this configuration, the USB drive won hands down.

The setup program and built-in administration cover all the basics and are easy to use, even for novices. I had mine up and running in under 10 minutes with no problems whatsoever. It can be configured with various types of security, keeping your networked data safe. Some of the security options do seem to slow the drive down somewhat, but I suppose that can't be helped.

The other thing I like about this unit is that it's fairly quiet compared to some others I've used. it does seem to have a small fan, but it is nearly silent in operation. For some reason, Buffalo makes it easy to replace the fan, which I found a bit concerning at first (why would it be easy to replace if it never breaks?) but my early experience tells me it's not exactly under a heavy load. Overall built quality seems high and it seems rugged enough to endure years of service under my desk.

Overall, high marks - especially considering the low price.

I got it a couple of weeks ago on Amazon.com. It's quiet, doesn't run hot and it's kinda' cool looking. It's pretty easy to set up too, but it comes with about 60 gigs of stuff that you probably don't realy need. Except for the Memeo software which is nice because it backs up stuff automatically. The web acces gave my a little bit of trouble and when I called to tech support guy he didn't really feel like helping me out... I guess that's the reason I gave it 4 star instead of 5. It works fine now, though. It seemed a little slow as far as transfer speed to start out but I went in and increased the frame size and it's a lot better now. I run gigabyt environment across the board so once I increased to frame size it really picked up speed. I would definitelly recomend it.

As most of the other reviews stated the product was easy to install and I was able to get it up and running quickly. Unfortunately after 3 weeks on line within my network, the unit stopped working. I think this may be a unique situation as the unit does appear to be well built. What is not acceptable is the software that runs and comes bundled with the unit. The backup software never worked, I was constantly getting an error message stating the NAS unit's date/time is out of sync with my computers and the web access software just does not work. These software problems are also well documented on their forum as well. After emailing and calling Buffalo tech support, they were not able to solve any of these problems. I am sending the unit back and will look at other NAS options.

I've had 2 of these for about 15 months. They both, work pretty much flawlessly. The only hardware problem I've had is one of them wouldn't switch off one time. But after I pulled the plug on it, it started behaving.

I use the second solely as a backup for the 1st. They have a wake-on-LAN capability so they power up and down automatically. Caveat: only a computer with the NAS software installed will wake it up. Since you can't install the software on devices such as media players, PS3s, AVRs, etc. you will have to either:
a. switch it on manually for them
b. have your computer on at the same time
c. leave it running 24/7, or
d. set an on-off time schedule.

Another caveat, a Linkstation cannot wake up another Linkstation. So if you're backing up Linkstation to Linkstation, the target must be on before the scheduled backup time. This can be done by setting a wake/sleep schedule for the target. But if you do that, it will not wake-on-LAN.

One nice thing is: it will back itself up automatically according to a schedule. However, it will only back itself up to another Buffalo NAS or an attached USB drive.

My uses are:
1. as a DLNA server for my Denon AVR and Sony PS3. No problem streaming music, video or pictures to them. I store all my media on the drive.
2. As a backup drive for my computers. I use the Memeo software that came bundled. The version that shipped with the unit was bugged and didn't work, but you can download a later version that does work. It is not the best software, and is excruciatingly slow for the intitial backup. I recall it took the better part of 5 days.
3. For sharing my itunes library, which I access on several machines. This works very well. To Apple's credit, sharing an itunes library is easy and works far better than Window Media Player or Media Center.

I don't consider the setup to be all that difficult, but it may be troublesome for some. Also, the documentation is not that great. I had to seek help numerous times from the Buffalo Forums, but found what I needed for the most part.

I'm giving it 4 stars because of price-performance, but downgraded because of:
a. its inability to back up to non-Buffalo network shares
b. because its power management needs improvement.
c. because the wake-on-LAN software doesn't install properly for non-admin user accounts in Vista.

After much research, I settled for the Buffalo Tech LinkStation Pro for its feature set and relative speed compared to other NAS devices in this price range. I thought I'd be getting the Western Digital MyBook World Edition for its simplicity of setup and lower price, but read that its performance is just okay. In any case, I also wish I had gotten it because I had a heck of a time getting the the LinkStation to work. For some unknown reason, the Web Admin interface was not allowing me to create new folders. After failed attempts by Buffalo Tech support (which was good), I combed their support forums and found that someone else had the same problem and solved it by reformatting the entire drive, which I did. And that took over 24 hours! But then all was well and good. All features work and it is quick in shuttling files. For those of you looking to use the iTunes Server, be forewarned that it does not support playlists--basically, it mimics the "share music" feature built into iTunes so that you get access to all the music on the drive in one big (searchable) list. Also, unfortunately, it seems as if you need to authorize other machines to be able to play songs not originally from the machine trying to play it, so it's not exactly like the "share" feature. I find these limitations of the iTunes server a bit annoying but perhaps future firmware updates will address this. Remote Web Access works well, but i haven't yet tried the built-in bittorrent client. All in all, this is a very good device for the price. Hopefully you will not be among the few who had to tinker with it to get it to work. For the record, Amazon promptly sent out a replacement although ultimately I did not need it.

As of May 10, 2010, I have spent about 4 days getting this set up (Buffalo Linkstation Pro LS-XHL). Still lots to do to get this working with "hands off", but it is basically setup and working as our home file server with LAN and web access. I have a fair amount of experience setting up PC's in a network and have done so from the days of Windows NT 4.0.
Based on my experience it is anything but easy to set up. It is certainly NOT FOR THE NOVICE.

I have managed to get it setup pretty much the way I want it, with all files and media for my home on the NAS, accessible from any PC in my home, and web access also appears to be working. bitTorrent, and DLNA is enabled but I have not tested this functionality. I was unable to get email notification working.. After checking on the forum, it appears email notification is not functional if the mail server requires a username and password.

The Memeo backup software only works with Windows XP and is only a 30 day trial version from what I can tell. It runs on client PC's, not on the Server. I am evaluating VisaVersaPro as backup and it looks promising.

My backup strategy is to back up the NAS to a couple of the client PC's that have fairly large drives. (6/1/2010 Update: I am successfully using Vice Versa Pro for scheduled hands off backups. $60 after free trial. Very worth while). Later I plan to supplement this with online storage.

The setup software is not complete enough for Buffalo to claim "Simple to use and install". If everything goes right that would help. However this still does not make it simple. In addition, reviewers have made it clear that many have had problems. I bought the Pro version after noticing that there were not nearly as many complaint reviews for the Pro as there were for the Live version. Now I suspect the software is the same on both versions and the reviews just do not reflect that the problems are the same.

My main complaints:
- Setup software is not robust enough to help much when things go even slightly wrong.
- The manual is generally not very helpful, only repeating the steps in the software without much further explanation.
- The forum help is also quite sketchy.
- Calling for help showed that the help desk has only limited knowledge about the product.

Ideally, the setup software should be able to guide you through the entire process of connecting to the server, mapping the drives, seting up shares, moving/copying your files and managing the whole process in the background. Along the way it should be able to handle errors and suggest solutions. If all this can not be automated, then issues should be mentioned in the manual or be made available by calling for help. Finally if that is not possible, then the forum or online manual should contain an organized user experience and solutions section. Instead at every juncture I have had to play detective and trial and error to get things to work.

Currently, the software must be installed on each client PC that wants to access the NAS. Then the NAS itself needs to be configured for users, shares, and then configuring webAccess, bitTorrent, DLNA, and other features using the built in web interface. Along the way the user needs to move all his files over. I just used the windows copy command and then verified this with FreeFileSync software and copied the remaining "problem" files using this tool. It took 8 1/2 hours to transfer 42 GB of data at an average rate of about 1.00 MB/sec.... kind of slow. (A file transfer tool could have sped this up to get the rate up to the 6MB/sec rate over a 100MBit/sec network). In all, about 137 GB of data was moved over the 4 days.

Then all my applications needed to be set to use the files on the NAS rather then locally. For me this meant changing the email account files (Outlook .pst files) and my Quicken file. After trying this I saw that accessing large files really makes the applications slow down during startup when run over the network. (I'm looking at using "offline files" and "Sync" available in at least some versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. I have it on my Vista Ultimate PC, but it is not showing on W7 home premium but this might be something that needs to just be turned on...).

The reliability problems have been related to my router and concerns about loosing data on the NAS if I do something wrong in the setup. My router has stopped working about once a day when UPnP is turned on (which was used to get web access working). Now I've turned it off and manually set the port settings. This is not the fault of Buffalo but it resulted from the addition of the NAS. Also, I'm not sure what will happen if I need to reinitialize... something I've read in the forum might be needed to "clean things up" if the NAS starts to run slow for example. It seems that it might not clear out all the data files, but this is not made clear at all. Also, early on I tried changing the IP address of the NAS and completely lost communications. Now I understand that I just needed to wait for the NAS to show up in the browse list, but I'm not that confident about this and am not willing to change this now after all the work that has been put in. I ended up reinitializing the drive and starting all over and left the DHCP Server (router) assigned address. (I then made this address a reserved address for the NAS in my router so it will always get this address).

It seems like the client software and Server firmware was all developed by a third party in Europe under the direction of the parent company in Japan, and there has been a lack of information transferred to the American side.

The product idea is great. I still believe the product will prove to be useful, but it will take some more effort and time on my part to get my confidence up on the reliability. I thought about sending this back a couple of times now. Right now, I still believe in this product as so many are using these products for backup or as a Home File Server. Just beware this is not for the faint of heart.

I checked reviews for the only other Home Server (WHS) and it too has users who have had problems, so I'm not sure if there is any better solution available for the money. Now I am seeing the 2TB version available for under $300. The lowest cost Windows Home Server from HP (MediaSmart) or ASUS is at least $500 and likely more.

Update June 1, 2010: I was on the phone yesterday with a Buffalo rep who was very knowledgable and helpful. Web Access would not let me change configuration info except to disable it. Ended up re-initializing the NAS and then it worked... at least in our quick test with the tech.. No data was lost and all the the shares were still as they were, but everything else, including the name of the NAS was changed to factory defaults. It took about an hour to get it set up again, mainly to set up users and groups and assign access to the various folders (shares).
Since my original review, I made the IP address a static IP address after reading a strong recomendation to do so from a non Buffalo source.
I'm definately getting more comfortable with working with this unit and it's reliability.
The speed claim is 66 MB/Sec but I am only getting 11MB/Sec transfer speeds over my now 1 GB home network. Buffalo recommended connecting the NAS directly to my computers ethernet port to check that there are not other other network components slowing it down.

First impressions, this thing is small and sleek. It fits under my desk counter by the Airport Extreme and barely makes a sound. It is just a damn nice looking piece of hardware.

There was a slight learning curve to using it, but this was my first NAS so maybe that had something to do with it. Setting up TimeMachine took some trial and error but once I got it set up it worked like a charm, like it should.

Media server is awesome. I can finally play videos, podcasts etc on my TV through my PS3. I DON'T recommend messing with iTunes, though. I just got done cleaning up the mess that was transferring my iTunes library and Pandora downloads back and forth and... arrrgh... Just, don't. Get a third party podcast downloader. For serious.

I have no clue why I would use the bit torrent client. Maybe someone can let me know why that is supposed to be cool.

Sleep timers, yea for that, and not wasting energy. Hurray environment.

Gigabit ethernet, use it, love it.

Will get around to using FTP and DynDNS features but till then, I'm a happy guy. =D

I bought this for 2 reasons, to back up my data and use it as media server for my ps3. It does the job very well. The backup software, memeo works really good. It will keep your data sync to the drive, so if you add some files, it will back that up. Very smart program. When i got the drive, it was pretty much plug and play, very fast setup. Buffalo gives you a website to access your files remotely, which is very handy. For the media part, it shows up on my ps3 as media server and works very well. Although, i recommend downloading the ps3 media server program on the web. It makes it easier to stream your files because the ps3 wont find all your media files. With the program, its user friendly. Overall, i'm really happy with this purchase. The unit is a little more expensive then the others but totally worth it.

Setup: It's the first time I try this type of backup system, which might explain why of some of the issues I've had; I'll modify this review once I learn more about it. Installation was straight forward; unpack the drive, insert the disc that come with it into the computer and follow the instructions, which includes connecting the power supply and the Ethernet cable. At first the link station wasn't recognized, but tried a second time and there it was. After that, it gets a little more too technical for those of us wh lack knowledge about network storage, which is why I gave it a four.

Software: Tried to install Memeo AutoBackup, but received a popup indicating the software was not compatible with the operating system, which was Windows 7 Home Premium; going to Buffalo website for support did not help as there's no mention of or updated software for Windows 7. So I tried using Windows 7 Home Premium backup utility, however this edition does not support backing up to a network; you'll need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. I have a key to Win 7 Professional so I opted to upgrade through windows Anytime Upgrade, which takes about 10 minutes. I tried the backup utility and it worked like a champ. It did take a while, about 1 ½ hour, but since it's the first backup, I guess it should be expected.

Other Stuff: I mapped the drive so it shows up as drive letters (two as of now) when I open "Computer". Accessing the Link Station from the internet is very straight forward; just entered the IP address and it took me there. I made sure to change the default user and password, which are admin and password respectively; that's important to keep predators away from your files. My next step will be to go through the manual, learn more and come back to edit this review.