NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE: BUFFALO LinkStation

LinkStation is a mini file and print server cum NAS device for small networks. Connect it into the hub or switch, and it will take an IP address from your network's DHCP server. You will have to install a software that identifies the LinkStation and assigns it a drive letter on all client machines that will be accessing it. The software will also tell you the IP address obtained from the DHCP server, using which you can access the device's management interface (password protected) from a Web browser. The administrator can run maintenance tasks such as disk scan, format and backup from there. You can create multiple folders, users and groups and assign folders to each of them. LinkStation has two USB ports, to which you can connect additional USB storage drives or USB printers. It has built-in drivers for most major USB printer brands. In addition there is a generic driver. If the driver is not there, you need to install it on the client and redirect the print queue to

LinkStation.

The device can be used as shared network storage or a backup device. For backup, backup software has to be installed on every client. You can also back up the entire data from the LinkStation to an external USB storage. The software doesn't let you back up the data in the LinkStation to another network backup device. We tested the device on a 100 Mbps network and it took 2.44 min to transfer 650 MB data.

The bottomline: Good replacement for the workgroup file and print server in a small network.