Perfect device for Network Storage (Buffalo Linkstation Live LS-CH1.0TL 1 TB)

Member Name: tlmartin

Product:	Buffalo Linkstation Live LS-CH1.0TL 1 TB
Date:	16/05/09 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No drivers, 1TB easy storage, whole network access, users can be set up

Disadvantages: Price, initial problems o earlier models

It does what it says on the tin. It is a 1TB NAS drive with many added features.

I wanted the ability to put all my movies onto my network from DVD so I could watch them on any comptuer in the house and watch them while someone else was watching it in a different room etc. I also wanted to do it to clear out my lounge of all those DVD cases that when you love movies take up lots of space for a fla 8cm disc.

This is the 3rd 1TB NAS drive I have bought, having bought the 1TB Terastation for my file storage and a 1TB LinkStation Pro for all my TV Series DVD's (which got full) this one is clearly a future progression of the range.

For started it is a 10/100/1000 Network card meaning on a fast network you have high speed data throughput, enough for the SATA hard drive inside (espeically as 100 network connection is slower than the drive is.

Writing data to it is quick as is reading it. I have had files being written to it and 2 movies being played off it wihtout any stuttering or loss of quality and that is on a 100mb network.

It is silent, small and does not generate much heat, so essentially stick it on a shelf and forget about it.

To configure the drive is all done through a web interface, very easy to access from any computer on your network through the internet browser. You can give it a name so you don;t need to remember the IP addresses (mine are named after Egyptian Gods).

You can set up the shared folders you want and what protocols can access it , jsut windows or Apple (although this limites storage capacity of each folder due to Apple restrictions), FTP access or aBackup Destination.
It has a trashbox on each folder if you like which is the same as recyclebin, but things are kept nice and safe so in essence you have a abckup against accidental deletion.

You have the ability to password protect certain areas, with user profiles, so you can make a folder only you can access and a folder someone else can access. For business users it works directly with active directory if you require it.

You can plug in an extra USB drive if you wish for more storage capactiy, although this can not be given any desginated share folder names, I tendto use this for putting in a equal size usb hard drive from £80 for backup up purposes meaning if there was a file corruption or HDD death I wouldn;t loose any data or have to spend ages converting my DVD's back onto another hard drive.

This USB port can also be used to connect a USB printer to so it can be a print server.

This is one disappointment on this new model the old Linkstation Pro had 2 USB ports on it, for 2 USB devices!!!

It has built in DNLA server for those with XBOX 360/PS3 or other DNLA devices so you can have items streamed to those devices

It can be configured for web accss if you store work files there to access remotely wihtout the need of a PC being on, you can do it direct to it, or through Buffalos mediation service (your box connects to buffalo, you connect to buffalo, and buffalo links you together)

You can set it to e-mail upon errors or certain events.

So overall this is a fantastic product.

however I did have one initial fault that I had to fox the other day (3 months after buying it) i was putting more data on it told me it was full when I knew i had only 400GB of data on there.
After researching I found out the firmware wasn;t properly initialised (seemed to be a problem on 1.02 and 1.06 models. But when i followed the support forums fix of forcing a flas and reinitialisng the drive it has worked perfectly. so only caused me the pain of copying 400Gb of data to a spare computer HDD and recopying it back after a 10min flash of the firmware.

But all products have some niggles every now and then.

I still think its a bit expensive at £170, but it is worth it compared to other drives out there, and still excelelnt value compared to some 4TB models out there.

Defiantley an excellent NAS device.

Incae your not sure. NAS devices do not need drivers to operate, they are set up on the device themselves, using something like a web interface. then all computers on the network whether temporary or permanent just talk to it via \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx IP or \\<device_name> and the shares will show in Network Places as if it wasa PC with shared folders. You do not need to install any software on any computer.

Summary: Fantastic NAS device, I will continue to buy from Buffalo