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Using a standard Gigabit LinkStation we were able to schedule backups from one appliance to the other and a new Backups folder was automatically created on the destination device. With the Overwrite Backup option switched off each backup will create a new sub-folder named with the current date and time and with it switched on a single AutoRewrite sub-folder will be reused for each job.

There’s plenty of client backup software to play with as Buffalo’s Easy Backup utility enables users to schedule their own backup tasks and restore their own files. The bundled Memeo AutoBackup takes this a stage further as it supports a wider range of backup destinations, can encrypt files and after the first scheduled backup has run will only secure file changes or new files. The PCast menu option enables you to set up the multimedia streaming feature. This is much more extensive that that offered by the standard Gigabit LinkStation as you can choose a source media folder and password protect it. The appliance scans the network for DLNA player devices and enables you to decide which ones are allowed access.

General file sharing performance was reasonable as copying a 459MB mixture of graphics files from a Supermicro Pentium D 3.2GHz PC over Fast Ethernet to the Home Server returned an average write speed of 4.5MB/sec. Copying the file from the appliance saw read speeds pan out to 6MB/sec. Moving up to Gigabit Ethernet saw write and read speeds improve to 5.6MB/sec and 8MB/sec respectively. The appliance does support Gigabit Jumbo frames but from our experience this feature has never made any really significant improvements to performance and anyway the network adapters in your PCs and network switch will also need to support these – even the Intel PRO/1000 PM embedded adapter in our Pentium D PC didn’t support this feature.

Verdict

A nicely designed and compact NAS appliance with extensive backup features and good overall performance but if you don’t need the extra media server functions then Buffalo’s standard Gigabit LinkStation will do just as good a job for less cash

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