The range of Buffalo technology storage
devices is simply enormous, so here's a tip that could save you half an hour of
your valuable time. If you're searching for information or software updates for
this particular model of LinkStation Live, simply open your favourite search
engine and type in 'Buffalo LS-XL' and you'll head directly to the correct
place.
On the other hand, if you search for
‘Buffalo LinkStation Live' and look at Images you'll see at least three
different models of NAS that look nothing like the perforated rectangular box
with rounded corners that we have in front of us.
This is thanks to Buffalo’s policy of
steady upgrades and improvements, and it means that we're not sure what
hardware lies inside the LinkStation Live. But an educated suggests a
relatively slow Marvell ARM chip, perhaps slower than 1 GHz.
Buffalo lists three sizes of hard drive
with the 1TB at $192, the 2TB at $240 and the 3TB costing $320. You can find
the NAS on sale at a modest discount with the 3TB model on sale around the
$240. This makes the 1TB and 2TB look relatively expensive.
The LinkStation Live doesn't have any
control button,s and only sports an Ethernet port and power connection on the
rear of the casing. Buffalo has also included an in-line flick switch that allows
you to turn the power on and off without having to yank the plug from the wall
socket.
Setting up the LinkStation Live follows the
usual form, as you plug in the network cable, turn on the power and wait until
the drive hums into life.
After that, you install the NAS Navi set-up
software on a PC or laptop on the same network as the Buffalo, and then you can
install NovaBACKUP if you intend to use the Buffalo as a back-up device. The
NASNavigator2 control panel is used to keep tabs on the Buffalo NAS devices on
your network and can also be used to update the firmware. As it happens, we
performed this task in February and Buffalo hasn't issued a firmware update in
2012 so we were able to skip this step.
That saved some time but we still needed to
update the NASNavigator2. It was noticeable that Buffalo makes you perform
these tasks manually and doesn't make your life easy in the same way as, say,
Seagate.
The curious thing is that NASNavigator2 has
very little in the way of functions, and is only used to view the Buffalo NAS
devices on your network. Day to day tasks such as controlling the BitTorrent
client are handled in a browser screen. You can leave the LinkStation Live
gathering music, movies and TV while you are asleep or out at work.
The Buffalo LinkStation Live is a useful
piece of kit but hardly user friendly, and wouldn't be at the top of our list
when we considering a new NAS.
Details
Price: $192
Manufacturer: Buffalo
Website: www.buffalo-technology.com
Required spec: Windows 2K or Mac OS X
10.3.9 onwards
