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Buffalo’s 500GB LinkStation Live has lots of useful features.
The most interesting is its remote access feature, which lets you access your files through the buffalonas.com website from any internet-connected computer. You’ll have to configure port forwarding on your router to do this, unless it supports UPnP.
You can also upload files to your LinkStation from the web, but uploading multiple files using the webmail-style interface can be time-consuming. You can even access your files using a smartphone. Viewing and downloading text and Office files on an iPhone worked well, but streaming audio and video files didn’t work, even over a fast WiFi network.
It’s possible to schedule when the LinkStation goes into standby so it uses less power when not in use. With just three different schedules it’s not as flexible as it could be, but it’s still a useful feature. It can also be set to turn off safely after a set period if it has to rely on a UPS for power.
The LinkStation can download files over BitTorrent without the aid of a computer. This is managed through the web administration interface, though, so other users could make unwanted changes to the settings. We had no trouble using the NAS as a USB print and disk server. It also worked well streaming media to a UPnP network media player, but iTunes refused to recognise it as a music server.
Configuring the features is straightforward thanks to the logically organised setup utility and web management interface. Although the LinkStation wasn’t unusably slow at copying files, it didn’t excel in any of our benchmarks. It copied large files at an average speed of 15MB/s, while small files were transferred at an average speed of 12.4MB/s.
Buffalo’s 500GB LinkStation Live costs a relatively low 26p per gigabyte and has lots of features. Some could be better, though, so unless you really need them, Western Digital’s My Book World is a better buy. It’s faster and has twice the storage for just £1 more.
