Buffalo LinkStation Network Storage Center review

Buffalo is well known for its networking products, and it’s latest AirStation range performed well under test here at TrustedReviews. However, the LinkStation is a bit different from your average access point or router.

In essence the LinkStation is a networked storage box, but with a twist. Inside the rather trendy looking box is a 120GB hard disk which spins almost silently. This is a reasonable amount of storage space, but considering that Maxtor already has external USB hard disks on the market with 300GB capacity, it’s not as capacious as it could be. But then again, a USB external hard disk is a one-user device, unless you share it via a PC.

The LinkStation is, unsurprisingly a network device, and at the rear you’ll find a 10/100Mbit/sec Ethernet port. Connecting this up to your switch/hub/router will allow every device on your network access to a shared storage facility.

Of course it’s not exactly what I’d call plug and play, since there is a fair amount of configuration involved. First and foremost you need to install the IP-Setup utility. From here you can logon to the LinkStation using the Root account (there’s no password as default). Once logged on you have access to all the settings on the LinkServer and it’s time to specify your MS Workgroup or AppleShare Network Zone. You also need to specify the IP address of the LinkStation and default gateway, or if you’re using DHCP on your network it will automatically grab all the IP data that it needs.

Once that’s all done you should be able to access the LinkStation from any computer in the workgroup. Looking at your Network Places under Windows XP will show you a shared folder on the LinkStation. This can be used just like any other hard disk except that everyone on your network can have access to the files on it. This is ideal for a home network where you want to share files such as music, across all the computers in the household.

But the integrated hard disk is only half of the story. The LinkStation also sports two USB 2.0 ports. Connecting a USB printer up to one of these ports instantly gives you a network printer that everyone in your workgroup can access. Considering the high cost of network enabled printers, this is a superb, solution. Of course USB print servers already exist, but it’s quite handy getting two types of functionality in one box.

Now, although I said that connecting up a USB printer instantly gives you a network printer, that’s not entirely true. Configuring the printer to work is not exactly the most straightforward procedure. Well, to be fair, it is very straightforward once you know what you have to do, but it’s finding out what to do that’s a little confusing.

Under the LinkStation IP-Setup utility there is a section for USB Printer Setup. Here you can enable or disable Print Sharing, which is pretty simple. But underneath this is a host of printer settings for a number of Epson printers or a PostScript printer. I found this rather confusing since I was trying to setup a Samsung laser printer, but I thought I’d try PostScript which should work – unfortunately it didn’t. After much frustration I contacted Buffalo who informed me that these settings were applicable to Mac computers only. Now to be fair, there is a heading saying “Use Mac Option?”, but I had assumed that this was another option.