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Buffalo Linkstation EZ 500GB NAS Network Hard Drive | List Price: $187.99
Discount Price: $161.29
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Brand: Buffalo
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - •Simplified file sharing for home or small office networks • Easy Setup doesn't require any drivers • Access data from any Windows or Macintosh computer on your network
- •Auto-Sensing 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
great idea, bad execution [Posted on 2008-09-29]
As a network engineer, I would expect to know how to get a NAS working, but I had a heck of a time trying to get this device to be accessible to all computers on my network. When I'd get access from one device, another one would show the NAS unmounted. After 3 days of tinkering I gave up. Oh, and that's after I returned the first one because it was bad right out of the box.
Fantastic Product [Posted on 2008-10-25]
This is a great product, extremely easy to setup. I am an IT professional and I have purchased other products like this for my home and this one is by far the easiest to setup and use. It really is just plug and play, I was up in running in under 1 minute as it took no setup. I highly recommend this product.
Great product working well for me. [Posted on 2008-11-03]
I wanted a way to backup all the computers to a network drive and it's worked great for me, and the price was excellent.
Good - not perfect though [Posted on 2008-11-17]
The Linkstation EZ is a good product, but not customizable. It was easy to set up on my home network which uses both Macs and PCs. I mapped the Linkstation to a drive letter (L:) on the windows machines and it shows up under the "Shared" folders in Finder for the Macs.
As far as customizability goes, you are limited with the EZ models. The default name for the device on your network is ls-lglXXX where XXX is the last three letters of the MAC address. You can't change the name nor partition the drive or change the name of the root folder. Everything goes into a folder named "Share" on the Linkstation.
Other than that, it is great for what I use it for - backups and storage of large, shared files between my Mac, PC and Xbox. And for the price I paid, well worth 500 gb.
Should be sufficient for most [Posted on 2008-12-28]
I had already had 3 Buffalo Drivestations (2 500GB's, and 1 350GB) that I used for backups of my 2 PC's and laptop. I ended up taking the 350GB to use at work since our PCs don't have nearly enough space for the work that we do. This left me needing a replacement at home.
I chose to go with Buffalo again because I have NEVER had one issue with them and based on the many poor to average reviews of competitors' products I saw no reason to try another brand. Initially I was torn on whether I should choose another DriveStation or this LinkStation EZ, but decided to take my chances on the LinkStation since it would be a little more convenient for my other PCs to access it via my router versus having to connect it to my main computer and create a share.
Unlink the DriveStations that connect directly to the PC, the LinkStations connect directly to your router via an Ethernet cable (included). You can connect it directly to the Ethernet port on your PC, but if you do that then you may should have gotten the DriveStation instead. After connecting the LinkStation to your router, the setup process is simple and pretty straightforward. I'll admit I had some issues due to me not reading the instructions and rushing through everything; but after starting over from scratch I realized that I made it a lot harder than it needed to be. Once the LinkStation is setup on your network; all PCs in the network can access it via the Windows Network Neighborhood. You can also create a share if you desire, but its not necessary.
There are a few drawbacks with this LinkStation; a couple does not affect performance, but the last may if you are looking for fast data transfer speeds. First, the included Memeo backup Software is virtually worthless and to be honest I wouldn't even waste my time with it. I tried it with the very first Buffalo Drive that I purchased a few years ago, and it didn't take long to realize that it was garbage. It is not user friendly and the steps you have to go through to recover files you backed up is not worth the effort. Instead I opted to use Acronis True Image and I'm still using it years later. The second drawback is that there is no much customization of the drive outside of modifying the the IP address. You can't change the name of the drive itself and all data on the drive must be placed in a a folder named "share" on the drive. I haven't figured out how to place files in any other place, but it not that big of an issue since you can freely create your own folders under the "share" folder. The only real complaint I have about the drive is that copying to/from it does seem to be a bit on the slow side. Its something I can get used to since I schedule my backups early in the morning and only copy my backup files to my other Buffalo Drives once a week. But if speed is a big issue for you; this is something to keep in mind. I also noticed some complaints about it being very noisy, but I can't even hear mine and I am sitting just a few feet away from it.
Overall I think this drive will serve my needs for the time being; but for those of you who are looking for more customization and better performance, the LinkStation EZ may not be for you.
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