Buffalo LinkStation 220 2TB 2 Bay NAS Solution | Installed with 2 x 1TB Western Digital Red Drives

I purchased this NAS primarily because of the price (£150) as at the time of purchase two 2TB drives would be about £120 making the enclosure only £30. This was very cheap in comparison to other units as you can pay upwards of £100 just for the enclosure. I wasn’t looking for anything spectacular as I am happy with just dragging and dropping files onto network locations, which I felt this would do fine. When you need to replace the hard drives you will need to use ones from Buffalo, which can me more expensive than other options, however I can’t see myself doing this for some time. From reviews I was a bit hesitant about the setting up of the device but for me it was very smooth. The instructions are basic, but do say to turn on the device and wait 4 minutes until the light stops flashing - this only took a couple of minutes and installing the software was a piece of cake. It recognised the Linkstation on the network and was ready for use from power on in 10 minutes. Getting to the settings is not that obvious as either you open the software and then find the 'settings' button, which opens a browser to the IP address of the NAS, or you can manually type the IP address into your browser - the unit usefully outputs a text file on your desktop with all the details when installed. The instructions don’t tell you this so you may miss it but it is helpful as you know the IP address to connect to. Once in the settings I found the unit was set by default at RAID 1 (mirrored). This is what I wanted so I was pleased it was set up this way. Having read the full instruction booklet online beforehand I knew I would need to enable AFP so a Macbook on the network could use it. So after going through all the settings over about 5 minutes I set everything how I wanted it, including the creation of more folders on the drive for people to use. I have not added usernames and passwords – but note that from a Macbook I needed to input the administrator details to use it with Time Machine. This was simple as well from the Macbook as it was automatically recognised on the network. Transferring files is as easy as drag and drop – I saw an option called Direct Copy in the settings which I enabled as I presumed this was needed to do so (but I can’t confirm). I plugged an external hard drive to my laptop on the network with the NAS (via Ethernet) and started copying. One hard drive maxed at 5MB/s (50Mbit/s) for lots of small files but a second hard drive at the same time maxed at 10MB/s (100Mbit/s) for less but larger files. For the larger files just over 300GB was transferred overnight (approx. 12 hours) so averaged 7MB/s, but the drive with the smaller files took much longer (was due to take 24 hours) so would be 3.5MB/s. Pretty slow, but this is a one off backup. I have backed up to the NAS box since the initial backup via Time Machine and this was simple. I don’t use it as a media store/access unit and it remains off most of the time, however when in use it is very straightforward. All in all it is a good unit and well worth the price in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier its effective price was £30 as it comes with hard drives so I’m very happy with it.

I've had a few NAS devices and needed to purchase another as my NAS of choice, a MyCloudMirror, decided to die after less than a year. Luckily I had a back-up on a more reliable Seagate Central. I plumped for this LinkStation as 6TB for the price seemed excellent value and reviews weren't too bad. The unit itself is black and unassuming and fits nicely where I want it to go. I can't place it flush to the wall though as all the power and ethernet ports are on the rear. The instructions were straightforward enough and I decided to use as one large 6TB of storage. The drive is nice and quiet and doesn't have any flashing lights to distract you, just a small white power light on the front. Despite the unit being in constant use copying data for the last week (more on that later!) the fan hasn't really kicked in and I've been impressed by it's quiet operation. I basically use NAS drives for two purposes; storage of the all important documents, photos and other stuff we all seem to amass nowadays and as a DNLA server so I can stream music/video to my Smart TV, phone, audio equipment, etc I copied over 1TB of music/video from Seagate Central to the Buffalo. It seemed to take a long time but I couldn't tell you exactly how long as I tended to leave it copying over night etc. Although I have a great WiFi network and connection (Virgin fibre) copying a file from one NAS to another using our W8.1 PC was painfully slow, under 1MB a second. The solution was simple, I used ES File Explorer on my Samsung S4 and copied data at a more acceptable 5-6MB per second, so although still not great, it was certainly better. Just had to ensure my phone was charged. My Pioneer X-HM72-K found the new NAS without any issues and streamed music fine. As did my various phones, tablets, laptops and Panasonic ALL8 speaker. However, I did have to poke around in the settings to ensure that DNLA was turned on. Again, streaming video content to my Sony smart tele was also easy. The only downside has been WebAccess. Despite reading endless guides and posts on message boards I cannot seem get WebAccess to work. To be fair, I'm never likely to need content remotely when out of the house, but it would have been nice to have the option. The Seagate Central solution with Tappin was very straightforward. Anyway, good value, large storage. Works well. Recommended.

JANUARY 2020: well, just over two years have passed and everything still works just fine as described in some detail below. Firmware updated several times without problems. Easy to use the webpage interface to tweak settings. A product that works and continues to work in a market where it seems to be difficult to get satisfaction. Still recommended without reservation. This was my third attempt at satisfaction with NAS products: I'd previously had a 2Tb single bay WD MyCloud which displayed an 'unrecognised fault' and would not work even after trying the recommended 'fixes'. It was returned for a refund. It was replaced by a 3Tb single bay WD MyCloud. This did not work, either. It too, was returned for a refund. After watching the excellent Buffalo videos online I decided to test my patience [and probably that of Amazon!] further and ordered this two-bay/two disk 4Tb Buffalo. The video presentation was very reassuring: informative, without being overwhelming. An exemplar of clarity. I felt confident that I knew what to do before the product arrived. I am pleased to report that this one worked out-of-the-box and was relatively hassle-free to configure. I have a Cocktail Audio/NovaFidelity audio server. It works very well using its own internal hard disk. I wanted to be able to stream material from NAS storage to it using DLNA. If you were thinking along the same lines, take comfort from knowing that my Cocktail Audio unit found the Buffalo NAS immediately via wifi. I was at least as delighted as I was surprised - beyond amazed, lantern-jawed, actually! Everything was there, including numerous options for 'recently added' and 'recently played' playlists. Absolutely stellar. It all works. And it works perfectly: no delays, no stuttering, even with FLAC and WAV files of considerable size and bit-rate. It has never pixelated streaming videos, either. After several hours I was prompted to update the firmware. This I did. It too, was a hassle-free experience. Nothing frightening: not once did I fear 'bricking' the device. The option to set up to three scheduled alarms during any 24-hour period across one or more days of the week is useful. On the grounds of saving cost and the planet, it is a pity that the two disks cannot [apparently] be made to hibernate after a specified period of inactivity. However, in all fairness, this and other NAS devices take quite some time to start up and sort themselves out - it's not the same as waking a normal hard disk that has gone to sleep, so it's easy to imagine operation problems if the disk(s) are not ready and waiting for action. The part of the configuration that I found a mite challenging was converting the two disks to work as one, this is the RAID 0 option; the device came configured with the second drive being set up to 'mirror' the contents of the first - the RAID 1 option. Be aware, that if you transfer files to the device when it is working in RAID 1 mode, that you will lose any data that you transferred when the disks are reformatted by the setup procedure that converts the device from RAID 1 mode to RAID 0. As a final attempt to be relevant and helpful, resist the temptation to change the User Name and Password when you're going through the initial setup. If you have difficulties, the last thing anyone wants is faffing about entering long strings of upper and lower-case characters with symbols included. Leave at 'admin' and 'password' until you're confident that all is well. No-one is likely to break into your NAS in the initial configuration and setup stages. Don't forget though to change to something longer and much more robust, eventually. Oh, it looks good, too. Much better than average matt plastic. Very well put together. No creaks or feelings of flimsiness. I hope to have been helpful.

Sorry to say I'm sending mine back after a fruitless afternoon wading through the terrible interface trying unsuccessfully to get it to appear as a simple mapped network drive. Navigating through the supplied software or the NAS's own landing page is a painful slow process, and it takes an age to respond even on a Gigabit network.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the rack when it comes to technical things, but I like to think if instructions are clear, I can deal with most things. I've spent about three hours trying to set this thing up and have lost patience. The initial configuration is relatively straight forward - downloading the manual, working out if you want a RAID set up, mirroring the drives etc. all good. Configuring folders - yes. Like most, I want to separate and store music, video and photos. This was a bit trickier, but again, working out who gets access, and for some reason, having to manually set it up onto a DNLA server, so your various devices can see it. I got to the bit where I just needed to transfer files from my PC onto this Linkstation. Well, I must be missing something because I can't find it. I thought this would be the simplest thing - but I can't find it in the manual and what I thought would be really easy - opening up Linkstation in File Explorer, then drag and dropping my PC's files over to the corresponding locations I'd created on the Linkstation. Could I do it? No. It opens some app called Twonky. This seems to have a nice clean interface with Videos/Music/Photos all as headers (possibly different to the manual folders you just ended up creating in the set up process, but I had these). I just figured again, by clicking into Music, I could then drag my PC's music files over. But no. I know there will be a really simple answer and I'm being stupid, but its frustrating me now. I had a MyCloud by WD )bought off Amazon) and that was really simple. Plug, play, drag, drop - bingo. The only issue with that is that it blew up after 15 months. I'd still prefer that, but with a RAID/back up configuration. Its a shame. The price of this was great and spec wise, it looked like it would work well. Reviews were good too - so I know I have been thick. But this will have to go back. *Update* After living wirh this for a couple of days, it didn't take long to see where I had gone wrong. It requires going through the downloaded Nas Navigator software from Buffalo, in order to transfer files. When I clicked on the LinkStation via File Manager, it just takes you straight to their third party player, 'Twonky.' Once I realised how to transfer files, it became more straight forward. I've now managed to stream music with my streaming devices easily finding the LinkStation on my network. It is still fiddly to set up, but once you are up and running it should be OK. I've changed my rating fro one star to three to reflect this.

I bought this to replace an old USB connected 1TB desktop hard drive. It is easy to install and setup and takes up little space on my desk. I had to install a network cable from the router in the kitchen (that's where the phone line comes into the house) to the desk in the office because I also wanted to use the print server capabilities for the printer on the desk. I've got it set up as RAID 1 so the usable capacity is 3TB (slightly less in reality). Performance is much better than my old setup but that wasn't exactly cutting edge. The DLNA media management is far better than my old setup where newly added media files are index and made available almost immediately. I have noticed that some files don't show up in some views straight away but if I look in the recently added playlist they are always there. There have been no issues where the index has to completely rebuild itself which my old set up used to do...it just works! I can now find and stream video, picture and audio files to my smart TV and other devices with no problems.I'm even streaming UHD and 4K movies from this device via a Airport connected to the same LAN as the Linkstation. I've not tried setting up some features like bitorrent and web access so I can't comment on those. My only gripe is the low level hum caused by the vibration of the rotating disks but putting a foam mouse pad under the unit reduced the hum to tolerable levels. Having used it for several weeks now, I'm very pleased with it so far and I think excellent value for money. My main concern now is that I'll need a bigger one as it is so easy to add files to it's filling up fast.

NB this comes pre-configured to RAID 1, if that's how you want to use it then will be working within a few minutes of getting out of the box. If you need a different configuration it takes a lot longer to format these big disks. Pros - Seems to be reasonable value at current pricing - Comes with Bittorrent client (Only down side is it's a very old version of Transmission, which has poor magnet link support) - Reasonably easy to set up if you have some previous experience or technical knowledge but I think a non-technical user might need help from a techie friend. - I can stream HD video from my home to anywhere in the world with a fat enough connection - no stuttering or buffering! (Only tried it over fibreoptic internet so far though...) - Virtually silent operation - Works perfectly on Win 7 & 8.1, Linux (Ubuntu, Mint) and Android (Via Buffalo App for web access and works over LAN with ES File explorer) Cons - No WiFi (it does come with a short ethernet cable in the box) - As others have already stated, transfer rates to and from the unit are quite slow (I got up to 12 MB/s sustained write transfer at best across a gigabit wired LAN, for smaller operations expect more like 5MB/s). - You have to go through buffalo's own website to access your drive when outside your own LAN, if buffalo ever pull support then accessing your "cloud drive" when out and about may become problematic. - Poor instruction manual (as I stated, if you have some tech knowledge then it shouldn't be too hard to get going without it).

Great little NAS. I didn’t need Plex, DLNA or other streaming bells and whistles as I have these taken care of by other devices on the LAN. With that in mind, I bought this for Buffalo’s reliability and the fact the case is large and has a fan. I’m fed up of replacing Seagate NASs and WD NASs due to overheating drives in claustrophobic enclosures. People criticise the interface on test Buffalos. It’s fine. It does the job quickly and without fuss. You want an interface that looks like iOS? Spend an extra £250 on a QNAP or Synology. For the price you won’t find a better and more well built NAS.

Mooie verpakking van Buffalo Goed merk Was niet moeilijk te installeren

Nube en casa; es servidor bit-torrent y puedes dejar tu ordenador apagado. Su conexión DLNA permite conectarlo a tu TV con DLNA y acceder al contenido. Permite acceder al contenido en remoto y descargarte y subirte cosas. Producto con interfaz sencillo, pero fiable.

Cumple su función lastima que no se puedan añadir programas como un sinology

Mit der Buffalo Station hat man wirklich viele Möglichkeiten auf die Dateien zuzugreifen und eine perfekte Anpassbarkeit durch eine übersichtliche GUI ist gegeben. Habe das Gerät für meine Großeltern eingerichtet für Fotos und Videos als NAS im Heimnetzwerk und als Abspielmedium aus dem Netzwerk heraus auf Fernseher und Co - das macht auf jeden Fall Laune und lässt sich super auch mit Laien-Wissen umsetzen. Wichtig ist natürlich die Passwörter hierbei zu notieren und immer parat zu haben. Bei SMB Freigaben ist die Buffalo wirklich super schnell ansprechbar.

Arrivato in tempi brevissimi (1 giorno) ho potuto constatare sia la facilità d'uso che la validità del prodotto stesso. Semplice come estetica ma essenziale , va benissimo così , silenzioso e piccolo , si può nascondere ovunque... prodotto consigliato per il rapporto qualità prezzo. non ho ancora provato la funzione torrent.