Buffalo Linkstation Live LS-CH500L network hard disk

If you have more than one computer at home, it makes sense to have a central disk that holds shared music and office documents for all of them.

Although it looks more like a portable hard disk the Linkstation is really a computer in its own right that can be used to store and share files on your home network, or further afield if you so wish. It is also supplied with a backup program called Memeo.

Physical installation was simple, with just a power socket and network cable to fit. There's no wireless option but as the Linkstation will be quite happy sitting next to a router this is not a problem. Software is supplied for connecting the networked computers to the Linkstation. It is possible to do this by hand but this is a great time-saver.

It was a bit annoying that the various functions of the Linkstation had to be turned on manually. For example the media server – which allows streaming of music and video to networked devices – was turned off and we had to create a folder ourselves for the files.

Unfortunately the setup utility for the Memeo backup program was not very clear, which was a shame because Memeo was very good, automatically backing up files when they changed and keeping several versions in hand. Mac users will find that it's compatible with the built-in Time Machine software.

It is possible to reduce the Linkstation's power consumption by setting it to go into a sleep mode at certain times of the day or week. This will render it inaccessible, though, and backups will not take place either.

One good reason for leaving the linkstation on is to access files when away from home. In this area the Linkstation shines: while with other similar products it can be hard to locate the disk over the internet you can access the Linkstation quite easily using the Buffalo website.

In all, the Linkstation Live is a cost-effective device that will not only share your files at home or abroad, but can also back them up very easily as well.