BUFFALO LinkStation Duo 2-Bay 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) RAID Network Attached Storage (NAS) - LS-WX2.0TL/R1

Pros: This product is shipped with two 1TB WD green drives (2nd gen I believe), which can reach temperatures of 90 degrees Celsius under constrictive conditions. As such, I’d recommend swapping the drives out on your own. I purchased two 3TB WD red drives which have a significantly lower rate of failure. In addition to this, the LinkStation itself has failsafe commands. Upon hard drive, fan, or power failure, it can send you an email or text message alert, and then shut itself off. Considering I have more than 5TB of important data, I chose striping over redundant array, with an external drive connected to the LinkStation’s USB port to intermittently back up crucial data folders every 24 hours. Remote Access availability and accessibility depends greatly on your router. Port forwarding is necessary, “println()” IP output is also necessary unless you have a static IP or DynDNS-like service. To clarify, even if your ISP serves you a dynamic IP, you will still be able to access your WebAccess interface. In two months, I have experienced 100% availability through http, https, and android application. Currently the android application does not support https, but the development team has expressed interest in implementing the service. The android allows http audio streaming and http file downloading. The WebAccess interface is similar to any offline file browser, with a slight but noticeable lag. Current capabilities (via http or https) include upload, download, share (send someone a download/stream link for a determinable time), delete, move, and play (stream audio over the web interface). Remote file transfer rates appear to cap around 400kbps (bits) for both upload and download and the system currently bundles multiple file transfers in zip folders by default. Inside the NAT, you can expect to see transfer rates of 12mBps (bytes), or about half the actual speed of USB 2.0, allowing extra processing time for data redundancy. In stresstesting the unit, I found I was able to stream 2 simultaneous uncompressed blu-ray rips without buffering. Network security both local and remote is ostensibly flawless. With every pentest tool in my arsenal, I could do little more than bring the system down temporarily, at which time the system alerted me of such. I found no exploits save for the standardized “admin” username which cannot be disabled. As with every internet portal, however, your data is only as safe as your password is complex. Local and remote User Access Control (UAC) lists and groupings allow complete control over your data; that is, who can access what? How much total data do you want them to have? And how fast should they be able to get it? DLNA, bittorrent, PS3, Windows, Linux, even my finicky WDTV live unit all ‘just seem to work.’ Plug it in, set up UAC, and your data is instantly available through all mediums.

Cons: No android HTTPS

Overall Review: Would you rather fight one hundred duck sized horses or a single horse sized duck?

Pros: Compact, has lots of features built in.

Cons: This unit as advertised by newgg as FAST and SILENT. It is neither. Connected to my gigabit port it is only reaching a maximum speed of ~25MB/s which is somewhat less than a regular USB2.0 external drive will do (about ~30MB/s). Just to say, 25MB/s is only ~200megabit, or about 20% of a gigabit link maximum. Secondly, this unit is LOUD. The details page says it is fanless and silent. These are both wrong, the unit has a fan blowing out of the back and the hard drives GRIND quite loudly. It is far and away the noisiest piece of equipment in my PC room. The Web interface is terribly slow, the login page takes 10 seconds to pop up. Navigating the settings pages each takes about 5 seconds to display any information.

Overall Review: NOT RECOMMENDED!

Pros: Easy to set up. Nice centralized storage and backup.

Cons: I purchased this unit on 5/13/13. I set it up with raid 1 so that it would be a fairly good means of data backup. I set the unit up, backed up one computer and in the months since accessed the data maybe a few times. Everything seemed to work fine. I just bought a new laptop and want to use the linkstation as a means to transfer everything to the new computer as well as back everything up. I began the file transfers and started receiving connection errors. After some checking I find that drive 2 has bad sectors. No problem, right? I open the unit up and see that they are WD green drives. I look up the serial number an WD's web page and see that I must go through Buffalo on a warranty replacement even though the drive is dated 3/7/13. OK, still no problem right? I will order a new drive from Newegg so that I can get back up and running while I wait for Buffalo to send me a new drive. At least then I would have a spare ready to go in the event that I have another failure. Now I see in the reviews that the entire unit must be sent back just to replace a drive that doesn't even require a screw driver to get out. I do not have time to wait to send the entire unit back and forth when I need it now. Also, what happens to my precious data that is still on the device? If Buffalo does not make this right I will set a calendar reminder to post a bad review every week.

Pros: Cost, performance, reliable, web interface w/ mobile app (IOS and android). Torrent client works well, DLNA server works great.

Cons: The console web page is rather sluggish. Interface is not intuitive enough for the average Apple user. You might have to read the instructions & they are written in poor english. Included software is mostly useless, and a firmware update is needed before certain features are available.

Overall Review: I paired this unit with a WD Live tv box and love it. it contains and plays my entire media library as well as backs up my PC, smartphones and cameras. Overall this product will likly frustrate the less technical since the interface is not the most user friendly, but overall if that does not scare you, this is a great buy.

Pros: Does what it should till you have a problem, performance is acceptable

Cons: warranty is now somewhat worthless, forget redundancy during warranty period

Overall Review: I have several Linkstations (10+) in use for my customers, they work great and I set them up so if a drive goes out, you can pop in a new one with little down time, until now. Buffalo will no longer send you a drive, you have to send the whole unit in which takes two weeks, so much for reduced downtime. When asked why the change to past policy I was told that it was to save money and end users can't figure out how to slide the drives in. They will make no exceptions even though my unit has a total of 100mb of usage and less than 2 hours power on time. To save face with my customer I ate a $70 new drive and replaced it myself, thank you very much Buffalo, I'll still send you the old drive, however, with instructions on what you can do with it... This goes for all their non terrastation NAS's so keep that in mind.

Pros: Looks nice, has good set of options and more or less logical interface. Price. Support on Buffalo forums is ok.

Cons: Unit came with a defective hard drive and drove me crazy. Array reformat failed half way and I spent many many many hours trying to figure out whats wrong with it and fix it. Tech support is pretty much going on their forums and trying to fish for information, there is basically no real formal guide to do anything on this thing. THE FIRMWARE RESIDES DIRECTLY ON THE HARD DRIVES, so if there is a problem with the hard drives you have to jump all kinds of convoluted hoops to get the unit functioning again. I wouldn't deal with this unit again...

Pros: The web interface is very intuitive with many features still left to explore. File transfers are far better than expected from previous reviews (installed on cat6 cable) Price is Right!

Cons: User manual downloads but isnt tuly shipped, not even on CD. Still looking for drive removal instructions in the event of failure. Fast drive removal is an option but documentation is hard to find. In fairness I havent made this a huge priority.

Overall Review: I keep being surprised when using this wonderful device. I purchased this when my primary machines drives showed signs of failure and wanted data storage for seemless recovery in the event of failure. Setup was beyond simple with network name detection and the ability to lock IP immediately. Embedded mutiple server features make this a GREAT "bang for the buck" for someone who truly needs a safe mirror for small business use.

Pros: Lots of storage and features for the price. Very easy to set up (at least I thought so). Two 1TB Seagate 7200RPM drives. For the money this unit is hard to beat. Buffalo provided exceptional customer service (see below)

Cons: After performing firmware update the web interface seemed to slow down, but this is not much of an issue since you don't need to access it much once everything is configured. Newegg's shipping method leaves a lot to be desired. How do you package a power supply (in retail box) inside of a box of packing peanuts, but then ship a NAS with nothing but the shipping label on the retail box? Seems like somebody is asleep at the wheel on that one.

Overall Review: Newegg shipped this without any kind of protective packaging (shipping label right on the retail box) and it arrived looking pretty beat up--this did not instill confidence in the condition of the hard drives! Contacted Newegg and they said I could RMA but would still ship the same way...which I find ridiculous since they package all sorts of other items of same weight/dimension. I saw Marco (rep for Buffalo) had commented on another review and so I emailed him. I had a response right away and Marco personally worked out a brand new replacement to be shipped to us and provided FedEx return shipping. Top Notch Service!!! He even said that he was trying to resolve the way Newegg has been shipping these units. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with his communication and willingness to serve--something that is missing from all too many customer service reps these days. This is why I give 5 stars!