14 DAY TRIAL // The first surprising thing about Buffalo's LinkStation Pro Duo is the fact that, when you take it out of the box, it seems really small in comparison to the performance you expect it to reach. But all you have to do is to plug it in, connect it to your router and install its software and you'll see that it can perform as expected. It is easy to install, easy to configure its settings and easy to use, and features little power consumption. It can be integrated in any business network and allows fast and easy remote file access. Its dimensions are 3.9 x 6.4 x 8.7, it weights no more than 6.8 lbs and eats (with no USB device connected) an average 21W power.
Its massive storage capacity can be used in two ways, according to your needs or preferences. You can either run it on RAID 0 as a single 1 TB drive, or on RAID 1 as mirrored 500GB drive for data redundancy. The internal hard drives are connected through SATA interface and have a 7200RPM rotation speed. With so much storage space at your disposal, you can store, share and access all sort of data, as photos, music, videos or other files form any network or machine (PC or Mac) with no special software needed. And if the amount of space is not enough, the LinkStation Pro Duo allows you to get extra storage simply by adding a USB 2.0 hard drive.
The list of Buffalo's LinkStation Pro Duo features does not stop here. It has Active Directory support, TCP/IP, SMB, FTP, HTTP, NTP protocols, UPS connectivity and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet with JumboFrame support. The connector type is RJ-45 for Lan interface and USB Series A for the USB interface, which features 480Mbps on High Speed Mode and 12Mbps on Full Speed Mode.
LinkStation Pro Duo also includes Memo AutoBackup Software for both Windows and Macintosh. The Web Access interface allows you to give the device a name and than access it via BuffaloNAS.com. Security features for business users are also available. Multiple shares on the drives can be set up, as well as separate user accounts for everyone and the shares they have access to. This action will allow data to be accessed only by users who have proper rights. Other security and management features are available on the NAS web page.
There are only few problems with this storage server, as its stated on Slashgear. The first one seems to be the manually setting up of the device. Although Buffalo tried to make it as simple as possible, it is easy when you have a router that supports UpnP but you can get lost in the process otherwise. Another one is the fact that only one file can be copied via Web Access. The bottom line is, though, that this is another next generation device that waits to be pun to work.
