The Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo: Setup

Installing the LinkStation Pro Duo follows the usual basic procedures. You plug the box into a power outlet and an Ethernet port, then install the NAS Navigator software on one PC on the same network. The software will find the NAS unit automatically and kick off the installation process if this is your first time accessing the device. Once that's done, your next step is deciding whether to use RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring). For me, the whole point of these boxes is to provide hardware redundancy, so RAID 1 (which makes an exact copy of all the data from one drive onto the other) was a foregone conclusion. RAID 1 drops your capacity from 1 terabyte to 500GB but gives you complete hardware redundancy. Some may tout performance gains through "striping" (using both disks at once for faster performance), but given the Pro Duo's lackluster throughput numbers (see below), if fast striped access is what you're looking for, you'd be much better off installing two more disks in your local system.

After you've configured the drives, NAS Navigator drops you into a typical day-to-day management interface. Again, this is a mixed bag. On the upside, the new version supports Web Access, which previous versions apparently lacked. It's not a particularly easy-to-use feature, however. You have to configure DDNS with Buffalo (to keep track of the box's external IP address) and to enable port forwarding on the customer's firewalls to the right internal IP address of your LinkStation Pro Duo. HP's MediaSmart software, which uses Windows Home Server, makes this much easier. Buffalo also requires specific remote-access permissions for every folder—above and beyond any access permissions you've set for local network users. The procedure is spelled out fairly clearly in the docs but might confuse those who tend to merely skim manuals (read: the vast majority of the human race). Products targeted at home users simply need to be easier to use.

Setting local permissions was easy enough, as was configuring e-mail alerts. But there is a caveat with the latter: NAS Navigator doesn't support authenticated SMTP, so it can't send an alert if the outgoing e-mail server requires a username and password. For home users, the most likely SMTP server will be their ISP's, which generally won't require SMTP authentication. Small businesses with e-mail servers of their own, though, will need to check to make sure that the e-mail administrator left SMTP open as well. In these days of heightened security worries, that's not a guarantee.

Performance, as measured by the IoZone network file system benchmark test, was fairly disappointing. At gigabit speeds, and with a variety of block and file sizes, the box averaged 14.7 megabytes per second on read tests using 32MB files, dropping to just 9.2 MBps when file sizes reached 1GB. On write tests, the LinkStation Pro Duo was steadier, though still disappointing, averaging only 10.1 MBps with 32MB files and falling to 8.92 MBps with 1GB files. By comparison the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo's throughput was about 10 MBps better when tested with the smaller files on reads and almost 8 MBps better on small-file writes. But although these numbers are bad, they're still enough for most home network tasks. Only high-def video streaming and similar bandwidth-intensive tasks would have problems. Of course, since many folks will buy a home NAS specifically for things like video serving, it still stings.

Response to simulated drive failure hurt, too. In RAID 1, the configuration I was running, if one drive dies, the other should take over. Systems with redundancy built in should send an alert that a drive needs fixing or replacement, but all operations should keep right on going since the second drive is on the case. The LinkStation Pro Duo covered all these bases except the "keep right on going" one.

After I yanked the SATA cables on one drive, the device continued to purr for a bit, sending out a barrage of alert e-mails, then died. Hard. Only reconnecting the drive brought the NAS box back to life. It then rebuilt the problem drive and kept on humming, but it shouldn't have dropped the way it did. Had it forced a reformat of both drives, I'd have thrown it out a window, but as it stands, the Buffalo did what it was supposed to do, only with a time-wasting hiccup.

Still, the LinkStation Pro Duo was a disappointment all around. Buffalo touts the box as suitable for the home, but our test unit didn't show much evidence of that. Buffalo says that new versions of the management software come with a DLNA-compliant (the Digital Living Network Alliance of home electronic vendors) media server, but this wasn't included in our test version. Just as well, since, judging by its performance numbers, the Pro Duo wouldn't be fast enough for home video serving anyway.

The Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo (LS-WTGL/R1) really smacked more of a no-frills small-office storage resource than a home device. Buffalo has left business-oriented features in the box, like Active Directory integration, but ignored home requirements, like the media server or UPnP audiovisual support. Until Buffalo reworks its software in one or both of these directions, small-business users interested only in basic file storage should be fairly satisfied with the Pro Duo. Home users are better off looking elsewhere.

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