BUFFALO LinkStation HD-HG400LAN External Hard Drive 

The Buffalo LinkStation is a Gigabit Network Storage Centre

that provides an easy way to share files, images, videos over a network. It is

meant for SOHO networks. It has a compact design and can be kept on your desk.

The drive features two USB ports, one in the front and one at the back, where

you can connect extra drives. It, however, doesn't let you connect two

printers or drives at a time. The drive comes with an auto-sleep function that

can be configured to suspend operations for a while, but during that period you

cannot access any data from the drive. The best part is you don't need to

install anything to start using the LinkStation. It has an internal silent fan,

so it makes no noise at all. All configuration and monitoring operations can be

done remotely using its Web interface. Else, you can use the Client Utility

supplied with it. The utility also lets you map the unit as one of your drives

for convenience. You can configure it on your network to get its IP address

either from a DHCP server or assign one statically. Security-wise, it needs you

to create separate users on it. You can then organize them into groups and give

them access to files & folders stored on the device. It can't use accounts

created on other servers. It comes bundled with Easy Backup that lets you

schedule and perform backups and restores of your data. In our tests, it was

able to transfer a 635 MB file in 2 mins 40 secs on an isolated gigabit network.

Bottom Line: Considering this is a gigabit-enabled

drive, it would be a good buy for a small-user group needing a private file

storage space prior to putting it on a bigger file server.

Swapnil Arora