We’ve included two products from Buffalo because they represent two distinct product lines.

The distinguishing factor of the Linkstation is its support for a standard called Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA). This is similar in some ways to the UPnP standard (see Living with Nas) that allows media players and storage devices to interact with each other.

At the moment, however, DLNA isn’t as widely supported as UPnP, so this isn’t really a major selling point.

Even so, the Linkstation can stand on its own as a perfectly good network-storage device. It’s reasonably priced, offering 300GB of storage for just under £200, and includes useful extras such as two USB ports for network printing or connecting additional hard disks for extra storage.

There are also some nice details, such as the warning light on the front of the unit that tells you when the drive is getting full.

Our only minor criticism is that the documentation and installation process are a bit of a mess. When you insert the Buffalo CD-Rom, it displays a setup screen that lists a number of different installation options. However, the slim manual only mentions the main IP setup program, leaving you to install some of the other bits of software just to see what they do.

The IP setup program also mentions that a firewall is available, but doesn’t say how you can use it. It also mentions that the drive includes a shared folder designed specifically for Mac users. However, there are no instructions on how to use the drive with a Mac, so we could only really recommend the Home Server on straightforward PC networks.

Still, aside from the sloppy documentation, the Home Server works well and provides plenty of shared storage at an attractive price.

This article is part of a group test of network-attached devices.
See also
Adaptec Snap Server 110
Buffalo Terastation Home Server
Freecom Storage Gateway WLAN
Iomega Storcenter Network Hard Drive
La Cie Ethernet Disk Mini
Linksys EFG120
Maxtor Shared Storage II
Plextor PX-EH25L
Western Digital Netcenter 500
Living with NAS
DIY NAS

The table of features can be read via our pdf download.