Pros: Easy to use web management interface
Easy to setup for small IT environments with no subnets
Good warranty program
Good health monitoring features

Cons: The Active Directory integration requires the Buffalo to be in the same subnet as the domain controllers in order to work properly. We have 10,000+ users in our environment and adding user permissions was painfully slow. You cannot assign share permissions for computer accounts, event if they are part of a group, so if you have any services running under the Network Service account, you cannot give them access and the services must be reconfigured.

The firmware update tool in the web interface checks for updates on a server in Japan that does not contain the most current software updates. Always go to the website and download the latest update and then apply it through the web interface. ALWAYS update the firmware to the current version before you start setting up this product because support always recommends wiping the configuration back to factory default after a firmware update to avoid problems and it will be the first troubleshooting step that they ask you to do. So if you spent a lot of time on your configuration, all that work will be lost after the upgrade.

The iSCSI support has some limitations as well. The Buffalo has four gigabit ethernet ports but don't expect to be able to connect a server to each with each on their own subnet and have it work reliably. If you are connecting multiple servers, be prepared to buy a triple speed switch and to place all the servers on the same subnet. If you setup each interface on its own subnet, the IPs of all active interfaces will be pushed out to all the iSCSI clients and each client will try to connect one at a time to each IP until it hits the correct subnet. This means that one server will connect right away while the other three servers will go through one to three three minute TCP timeouts until they are able to connect. If you plan on having the storage available for use on startup by a system service, this will create a serious problem as the storage won't be available for three to nine minutes after the service fails to start. So you will need to manually start the services making use of the storage after a reboot.

If you are using iSCSI and set a management IP on a separate management network, then the iSCSI clients will also try to connect via the management IP. If you configure the management IP to not respond to iSCSI, then you end up with the three to nine minute TCP timeout issue mentioned above.

The lack of an isolated management IP and other design choices in both the Active Directory integration and the iSCSI demonstrate to me that while the product has some Enterprise-level hardware characteristics, the software is similar to their consumer line of the products. This is definitely a product for small, simple IT environments. The product has no knowledge of subnets or isolated management interfaces.

For the price, a Dell server with Windows Storage Server might be a better choice.

Other Thoughts: For the price, a Dell server with Windows Storage Server might be a better choice.