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Linkstation 300GB Home Server Gigabit Network Storage Center

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Brand: Buffalo
Category: CE

This item is no longer available

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 80096

Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Hard Drive Size: 300
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 11 x 8.7 x 4.6

MPN: HS-D300GL
Model: HS-D300GL
UPC: 747464109787
EAN: 0747464109787
ASIN: B000E57E0U

Features:

•	Available network storage - Up to 300 GB
•	Gigabit Networking with Jumbo Frame support
•	DLNA CERTIFIED server for easy playback of multimedia files to any DLNA CERTIFIED device
•	Two or more LinkStations can be used to back up each other over your network
•	Simplified file sharing on your home or small office network

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The Buffalo LinkStation Multimedia Home Server edition offers an easy and economic solution for added network storage. It's quick and easy to install, hile providing high-speed 10/100/1000Mbps LAN connections. The built-in DLNA CERTIFIED server allows you to easily stream mutimedia files to any DLNA compatible home electronic device. Two or more LinkStations can also be used to back up each other over your home or office network. Simple setup and maintenance, versatile storage, universal DLNA compatibility and a compact and quiet design make the LinkStation the "must have" solution for storing and sharing files on your home or small office network. Protect data by restricting access with group and user level security Easy setup -- does not require drivers Scheduled backup via USB 2.0 to external storage Memeo Backup Software for Windows PCs included Auto-MDIX Ethernet Port automatically configures for cross-over or patch cable Built-in print server to print files from anywhere on your network Minimal power consumption and schedulable auto power off and on Space-saving compact and aesthetic design

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

good well built product September 22, 2008
David Cohen
The LinkStation Home Server 300GB is a good well built product. Easy to set up and to use. The Media Server part seems to work well. Security seems to be simple and comprehensive

3 out of 5 stars

Works, but speed issues on MacOSX October 23, 2008
Robert Kieffer (Bend, OR)
I bought this LinkStation about a year ago and have it shared among a Windows XP system, an Ubuntu Linux laptop, and a MacBook. The web interface for configuring and maintaining the device is pretty good, but nothing to write home about. But it's let me do the things I need to do.

It's worked pretty much as expected for the PC and Linux machines. Setup was easy and reading/writing files works just fine. (These devices are all connected with an SMC 100MB switch, btw)

Unfortunately the MacBook gave me a bit of trouble. There is apparently some sort of conflict in the low-level networking software of the LinkStation and MacOSX (10.5.5, btw) that causes file transfers to be glacially slow. I was only able to write to the LinkStation at about 2MB/minute initially.

Fortunately a fix is available as described here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080305053403936

(In case that link dries up, the secret sauce is to do "sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0" in Terminal.app)

Anyhow, 3-Stars for basically doing the job and working across all 3 major Operating Systems, in spite of a bit of a hiccup on MacOSX. Sorry nothing really to rave about though.

1 out of 5 stars

Media Server Unreliable and Unsupported July 23, 2006
Darius Lakdawalla
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

The Network Attached Storage functionality of this device is fine, but if you want a 300 GB NAS device, buy the Buffalo Linkstation without the "Home Server" feature. You'll save yourself about $100 and a whole lot of aggravation. The whole point of this particular drive is its provision of DLNA-compliant media server capability. On that critical dimension, this drive is an abject failure.

The media server firmware is extremely unreliable. Compounding the problem is the Buffalo tech support staff's inexperience with troubleshooting the media server: they are able to provide little help when things go wrong, as they most assuredly will. Moreover, even when the media server works, it is mediocre at best. (FYI, I used it with a Roku Soundbridge M1000, which is a great device for playing digital music.)

When it works, you can expect basic and minimal functionality. You can browse your music by artist, genre, album, or track. Two drawbacks: playlists simply do not work, and the interface lacks some refinements. I was unable to get m3u playlists to work after several solid days of trying. From all appearances, many other people on the internet have also failed to make this feature work. Buffalo tech support was totally unhelpful: they did not even seem to know the most basic instructions for getting the server to parse playlists, and they were certainly unable to solve my problem. In addition, the server is not as refined as iTunes or other commercial servers: The server does not supply sorted lists that can be alphabetized on your digital media player, and it is unable to handle special or accented characters. All these issues are somewhat annoying, but they would be outweighed by the convenience of being able to stream music without a PC being turned on.

The deal-breaker though is the firmware's instability, which renders the music server essentially unusable. Over 3 days, the server went down about 5-6 times, requiring a reboot each time. It probably would have crashed more, but the last crash caused an unrecoverable problem. Why did this crash occur? I plugged a USB drive into the Linkstation. I wasn't hacking into it or attaching unsupported hardware. I was merely using the Linkstation for something it was designed (and marketed) to be able to do -- backup to an external USB drive. After I plugged in the USB drive (which, by the way, works fine on my other Linkstation drive), the music server went down for good. Once the USB drive was attached, the music server kept fading in and out of operation, and became unusable. Buffalo tech support offered very little help, other than asking me to make sure that I had chosen the "enable music server" option (I had, but thanks for asking). They then had me reinstall the firmware (not upgrade, just reinstall), and reset the drive to factory default settings. If this sounds like useless support advice, you are a perceptive reader. None of that worked. My server still does not serve anything.

I could have sent the drive back to Amazon for a replacement, but quite frankly, I did not want to face another interminable stretch of days spent troubleshooting the shoddy music server firmware.

If you want a network drive, Linkstations are great. If you are looking for an embedded media server, run, don't walk, away from this device. Life is too short to buy hardware like this.