Jon, do you have the LinkTheather? Can you really use it w/o a PC running. That is pretty big news if you ask me. Thanks for the update!

Drew

PS:You are very brave for updating the firmware on your device with no release notes! :)

I too have upgraded the firmware on the Terastation. I have tried the PC Cast and it does work. Not as functional as the PC software, but provides the basic functionality. The best part, you don't have to have your PC on.

Has anyone else experienced this?

When mounting a Terastation share on a Mac running OS X 10.4.1, I see fewer folders/files when using AFP. When I mount the same share using Samba, I see all the files (using either Mac or PC).

The folders/files are rips of my DVDs, if that matters.

Sunil.

For those considering the product and wanting to attach USB drives to the Terrastation, be aware of speed limitation for the attached drives. When I initially purchased the Terastation I intended on attaching USB 2.0 drives to it and playing stored HD Movies from the attached USB drives. Early on in the thread I pointed on that this did not work and video stuttered. BrianV hadthen said it was due to excessive syslog activity and it would be fixed. Unfortunately I have just downloaded the latest firmware and the problem has not been fixed. I have an email to him to see if there is any update on the status of this fix and will pass it along as soon as I hear anything. It would be very helpful if they would post expected throughput of USB 2.0 attached drives.
I do really like the unit, but am very disappointed that this may not ever be resolved. Hard to believe by my 1 TB Terrastation is now full.....

I did just find their spec sheet and it says the througput for the USB interface is 480Mbps. Shouldn't that be sufficient for HD Video?

http://buffalotech.com/documents/pdf/TeraStation_DS.pdf

Darin

I would like to share my experience with the Terastation. I have the 1TB model, and at first was quite dissapointed by it, because it was too slow. Especially that I had invested in some nice Jumbo-Frames enabled networking hardware and PC cards.

Well, I upgraded to Firmware 1.08, and re-enabled Jumbo Frames. Now this thing transfers files at what, subjectively, feels VERY fast. I really love this puppy now!

And I'm talking about when using RAID 5 !

I easily get over 21 MB/s ( 170 mbps ) read speed, which is very satisfying!

I also get 11 MB/s ( 88 mbps ) write speed (at 54% capacity, so its not empty).

The above stats were taken when copying various sized files with Windows XP copy-paste function from "\\Terastation\Photos" (it is not even mapped to a drive letter) to local C:\temp drive and vice-versa.

I also have a Mac Mini at home, and some of you mentionned issues with AppleTalk/Appleshare not seeing all the files. I for one noticed that if I connect using AppleTalk/Appleshare (via a afp:// link for example) it will not show files larger than 2G or 4G. But no sweat. Just connect using Samba (SMB:// link) and voila, everything works smoothly.

I have nothing to complain about the unit. My APC UPS reports that it uses only 30W of power. I can't say how loud it is, because for my home theater/automated home I built a dedicated soundproof server closet, which already has noisy equipment in it, so I can't tell.

The web browser-based user interface is a charm to use. I get daily emails on the status of the disks and free space, and supposedly emails if any problems occur, such as a failed drive that I need to replace.

I would give this device, with Firmware 1.08, a good overall review.

Beware: after updating the firmware, you have to turn back on the Jumbo Frames. It took me a while to figure that out.

Without Jumbo Frames, I still got about 105 mbps download speed on my gigabit ethernet network and 70 mbps upload speed to the terastation.

Too bad the Mac Mini is stuck with only 100-Base-T networking. Even my pretty hot Dell 9200 laptop is only 100-Base-T. Apple powerbooks are nice for that.

The Terastation is definitely a great place to store ALL your photos (in RAW format, of course) as well as ALL your music (in full uncompressed or lossless format, of course) with room to spare for 50 to 75 DVD movies (the complete 8GB uncompressed .ISO of each movie disk, of course) and all this, with the redundancy and protection of a journalled, RAID 5 filesystem. It uses the XFS filesystem which is quite good and reputedly doesn't fragment much and is quite robust.

I do dread the day that one drive does go haywire. The instructions for replacing it sound to me like I'm gonna have to work a couple of good concentrated hours to replace the drive.

Anyway, the speed issue is now a non-issue for me. None of my machines at home can read#write faster than 40 MB/s anyway, so half that, through a network, to a RAID 5 protected filesystem is quite satisfying, both subjectively and objectively, to me.

Odi

Before anybody asks... The fast Terastation read/write (download/upload) speeds quoted in my previous message were using the following config and hardware:

- Gigabit ethernet confirmed 1000 mbps full duplex connection on both ends
- Gigabit switch with Jumbo Frames support (SMC 8508T)
- Cat. 6 cables
- Intel Pro/1000MT PC ethernet card set at 9K frame size
- P4 2.4 ghz
- Terastation in RAID 5 mode, Jumbo Frames set at 7.4K frame size

Sweet

i have also upgraded mine, even when there's no way to know what does the new firmware correct / add to the old one. (i can´t believe there's no document at all talking about this).
i am very happy with my unit. after upgrading my net to gigabit, i got just what i was looking for: a solution to securely store music and video files with fast transfer capabilities.
the only thing i miss is better documentation/support. i can´t find details on (as example) PCast functionality anywhere.
when my TS get full (80% now) , i will have no problem to purchase an additional one.

I just got a TeraStation and found out that I can't copy my chinese songs over. All my chinese songs have chinese characters in the filenames. The characters all turn into '-' when it's copied over. I'm on a mac and use smb to talk to it. Anyone else have this problem? Any workarounds? I can't imagine this can't be fixed b/c isn't the TeraStation targeting the Japanese market?

This is to my knowledge a flaw - you might want to return your unit if Buffalo tech. support says there is no fix coming soon.

i have also upgraded mine, even when there's no way to know what does the new firmware correct / add to the old one. (i can´t believe there's no document at all talking about this).
i am very happy with my unit. after upgrading my net to gigabit, i got just what i was looking for: a solution to securely store music and video files with fast transfer capabilities.
the only thing i miss is better documentation/support. i can´t find details on (as example) PCast functionality anywhere.
when my TS get full (80% now) , i will have no problem to purchase an additional one.


I just filled up my one 1TB Terrastaion. I almost went with the ReadyNas, but the Terastation just ended up being so much cheaper I couldn't resist. $849 at outpost.com (frey's) plus a $70 rebate gets it to $779.
I too wish they had better documentation on what the new firmware addressed and what additional plans they had for the firmware. But...speeed is now OK and it is so easy to get raid 5 going I think still makes it a good value....

Darin

Just bought one too at Outpost w/ the rebate. In addition to storing media, this unit will also act as a backup for my office machines (run my business from my home). I've been using Ghost to backup disk images, but that requires booting under a boot disk, saving the image, etc. I'd rather enable something automatically, that could do an entire disk image backup to the buffalo network drive on a schedule (incremental backups every 4:00am). Anyone doing this and if so, with what software?

I just filled up my one 1TB Terrastaion. I almost went with the ReadyNas, but the Terastation just ended up being so much cheaper I couldn't resist. $849 at outpost (frey's) plus a $70 rebate gets it to $779.
I too wish they had better documentation on what the new firmware addressed and what additional plans they had for the firmware. But...speeed is now OK and it is so easy to get raid 5 going I think still makes it a good value....

Darin

I'm still trying to decide between Terastation and ReadyNAS. By chance do you know if the new firmware allows you to change the port number of the webserver?

thanks
Brian

Well BrianV just told me that there's no plan to fix the chinese characters problem with the terastation... that sucks. I might have to find a work around by having all my chinese songs renamed to something the terastation will accept. If anyone knows of any itunes plugin/script to do this, let me know.

Just bought one too at Outpost w/ the rebate. In addition to storing media, this unit will also act as a backup for my office machines (run my business from my home). I've been using Ghost to backup disk images, but that requires booting under a boot disk, saving the image, etc. I'd rather enable something automatically, that could do an entire disk image backup to the buffalo network drive on a schedule (incremental backups every 4:00am). Anyone doing this and if so, with what software?I saw the Fry's deal and couldn't believe it--if I had the money I would rush-out in a buying frenzy! What a deal for a convenient TB of storage.

I have Acronis True Image and swear by it--one of the best utilities ever. You don't have to exit Windows to use it (unlike Ghost as you describe it), it has a very flexible automatic scheduling feature, and it will backup to the network. You place a copy on each computer that you want to back-up, and it works in the background of course.

Just checked, didn't find any option for changing the TeraStation's web server port. You can do this through your router's config, by port forwarding (the two routers I know of, anyway)

Just checked, didn't find any option for changing the TeraStation's web server port. You can do this through your router's config, by port forwarding (the two routers I know of, anyway)

Thanks for checking for me. Unfortunately I have a Linksys router that allows port forwarding but only to the same port. But you are right I have seen routers that allows you to forward to a different port.

I saw the Fry's deal and couldn't believe it--if I had the money I would rush-out in a buying frenzy! What a deal for a convenient TB of storage.

I have Acronis True Image and swear by it--one of the best utilities ever. You don't have to exit Windows to use it (unlike Ghost as you describe it), it has a very flexible automatic scheduling feature, and it will backup to the network. You place a copy on each computer that you want to back-up, and it works in the background of course.

Thanks for the info Laserfan. I'll check into it.

As a side note for you XP gurus....What exactly does XP Pro's built in backup accomplish? On a HD failure, could you restore a system to the exact same state (Registry, Profiles, Data, Programs, settings, etc...) or is there some info lost? In otherwords, does Ghost and True Image which do bitwise sector backups get you more than the built in XP stuff? Is XP able to backup open files?

Actually, I have a Linksys WRT54G, and I have the port forwarding to a different port. I upgraded the firmware to the Sveasoft firmware. It was $20US for 1 year's worth of updates included.

Odi

Japanese update information available here (http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/download/driver/hd/hd-htgl.html). (May or may not be the same as the US one ... but it seems likely somehow; note that JP is up to 1.09.)

With the help of The Fish (http://buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp/download/driver/hd/hd-htgl.html):

Ver1.08 - Ver1.09 [ 2005.6.29 ] [ SYSTEM ] Japanese PDF the manual was revised. RAID array the setting which does not shut down at the time of obstacle "" was made factory shipment setting. Product from when shipping it made the RAID5 constitution being completed. (Note) by firmware update, there are no times when disk constitution is modified.

Ver1.07 β - Ver1.08 [ 2005.6.6 ] [ SYSTEM ] When IP setting address, the problem which it cannot set that the least significant beam is 0,255, was corrected. When disk drive generates lead/read error, F/W corrected the problem which hang up is done. When the format of the disk is done, the problem where LED of disk error blinks was corrected. When WEB setting from the picture setting "Windows client language" other than Japanese, letter of the foreign country letter corrected the problem which transforms. [ PCAST ] ICommand the problem where picture quality setting of setting returns to standard picture quality after Reboot was corrected.

Ver1.06 - Ver1.07 β [ 2005.4.25 ] [ SYSTEM ] When the USB disk of external is connected with AUTO power mode, the problem which TeraStation does not start was corrected. * There are some which require time for recognition of the disk. [ System state ] - [ USB information ] being similar, in regard to verification, please utilize the fact that it is recognized. If it is MANUAL power mode, it is recognized directly. [ PCAST ] When similar file name exists and the problem where playback order becomes strange when file name is long was corrected.

Ver1.05 - Ver1.06 IEPG the problem which cannot designate the channel entry CATV as when reserving was corrected.

Ver1.04a - Ver1.05 When < trouble correction with > iCommander function, it restarts, the problem which periodic access to the server becomes impossible was corrected. ICommander with setting, "-" the hyphen letter corrected the problem which transforms. The problem where nighttime electronic program indicatory date of the time zone slips was corrected. ICommander with function, information of reservation of the tuner which it is not selective is notified corrected the problem which to the iCommand server. When start time and finish time of reservation and video recording are piled up, start 1 minute corrected the problem which is late.

Ver1.04 - Ver1.04a < Trouble correction with > RAID5 environment, Link de record! ! The problem which has the case where (while videotaping) reset in the midst of functional executing catches measure was done.

Ver1.03a - Ver1.04 < Specification modification update > media server performance was added. Link de record! ! Performance was added. * Case the data of note * HD-HTGL is played back from LinkTheater, "manual LinkStation/TeraStation the data is played back with LinkTheater," please refer to. Link de record! ! When function is used, please refer to the manual of PC-MV7DX/U2.

Ver1.03 - Ver1.03a < Trouble correction with > FW:1.03 the problem which cannot refer to the contents "of the info" folder was corrected.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modification past record of time before Ver1.03 is stated in README.TXT inside the download file.

Are they going to come out with a unit 2TB or more? I filled up two 1.6 TB unts and am ready for a third unit.
Ash

Ash... what the heck are you storing on these things?????

Peter,
I built a 4 TB media server with Adaptec Raid card (19 250 gig Sata drives) - it was noisy as a airplane landing.
Moved my 600 DVD movies to the 2 Terrastations and love it. Each movie rips to about 4 to 5 gigs.
Ash

I was wondering if SSH/SCP and NFS are going to be added to the TS? I would really like to see SCP added since it is faster and more secure than FTP. I think as features are added we need a way to control which features are active so that we can conserve CPU power. I would also like to see NFS added so that a Linux server can access the TS natively.

HI ,

Can someone get me up to speed on the 1tb terastations or something else like it. Are we happy with it????

I really don't want to read the whole thread but read the last couple of pages.

Thanks,

Larry

I just read the entire thread today and from what I read I can say that the overall impression of the Terraserver is postive since the new firmware 1.08 was released. It fixed a major cpu utilization problem and thus has made the Terraserver more responsive. if you are considering the Terraserver I highly recommend you read all of the posts because I learned allot of cool things along the way. I have my own issues with the Terraserver like lack of SSH/SCP support along with NFS. I also have had my Terraserver mappings become unavailable/unreachable and I don' t know what is up with that. All in all I am happy with the terraserver as is povides me with a safe place to store my digital camera pics and mp3 collection.

I hate to drag up something up from 4 months ago, but this troubled me.

BrianV said this:
RAID 5 is the best all around solution for backup. Enterprise servers use it more often than not. Your thoughts of the drives all failing at the same time are somewhat inaccurate. That would be like buying two Honda Accords and assuming their headlights are going to go out within minutes of each other or their transmissions will go out.

Enterprise servers don't use RAID-5 as a backup mechanism. Enterprise servers use RAID-5 to prevent a drive failure from causing a server outage. Nothing more.

RAID-5 (or RAID-1 or 0+1) does nothing to protect from accidental or intentional deletions from operating systems or databases. I'm sorry if this sounds brusque, but anyone relying on a RAID storage system as their backup mechanism is in for a rude awakening one day.

Leave the Enterprise Servers to those of us that are used to dealing with all of the aspects of enterprise servers :) Telling people RAID5 is a backup mechanism lulls then into a false sense of security for the enterprise environment. It isn't even advisable for the SMB market for enterprise critical data.

I'm not disrespecting the Terastation, it's on my buy list later this year as my storage solution for mass storage for a home media server :-)



Cheers,

John ,,

good point. I am looking at this as my storage or backup to my storage for my home media also. So many more toys to concur.

Larry

Thought I would add my BIG Thumbs up with the 1GB Terastation that I bought from Fry's last week. I'm getting over 11MB read speeds using FTP and around 6.6MB write speeds. I like stuff like SmartFTP because I can see a graph of the data rate as it transfers.

Strangely, I was ripping a DVD to ISO and was getting even higher write speeds, but maybe the software (DVDShrink) was just giving me wrong information.

I now have about 500GB of the 700GB available (Raid5) used up with my full MP3 collection, years of photos, and quite a few DVD ISO's as well as about 100GB of movies converted to DivX. I like DivX because it was easier to launch from my HTPC. However, as soon as I can figure out how to click/watch ISO's, I will try that instead.

This morning I tried out the backup feature using a 400GB USB2 drive and it was easy to do except I had to reformat the drive to XFS. Not a big issue I guess. I tried to sleep mode and it does turn off at my programmed 11:30pm and turns on at 6:30am. Pretty cool.

Now to figure out how to upgrade the firmware to 1.08 as my first attempt didn't work. I tried a direct connect to my PC and that didn't work yet. Need more time to figure it out.

Still, this thing does everything I wanted in a server. My old Tritton NAS was dog slow at less than 2MB read/write speed. Even my DivX movies sometimes had problems with stutter on some scenes. Not with the Terastation.

Larry:

It's a matter of differentiating the environments. The home environment is a dramatically different environment than an enterprise environment. The goals and practices are also dramatically different as the value of the data is quite different as well.

Having people say "RAID5 is the backup on Enterprise Servers" hits a hot button with me. It ain't. RAID5 prevents outages (so does RAID1 and 0+1). If your goal is just preventing outages, you use RAID5 with a hot spare (or spares). If your goal is performance, you use RAID 0+1 with hot spares (striped mirrors). Not that I know anything about the topic mind you :D

Personally, I'm going to use a a Terastation to build a media content library. Mostly lossless music to start, and eventually to store some video content.

Cheers,

Just curious - I have a APC 350W UPS that only supports USB shutdown. My computer is attached to the USB cable. So, is it possible to remotely shutdown the Terastation automatically when the PC gets the UPS shutdown command?
Thanks!

During the night (2 nights ago), I was copying about 200Gig of DVD's and when I woke up, I noticed the write speed had dropped to about 3Mbyte. Sure enough, I could see the dates of the files change from around 10min/DVD to 20min/DVD (on average).

I still get around 11MByte read speed so it isn't my network that is giving me a problem. I thought it might be because I was around 85% full so I deleted a few hundred Gig and it didn't make a difference.

Any ideas?

EDIT: My problem. I used another computer and the write speed was over 70Mb/sec. Not bad with a 100mbit connection. Actually, it was peaking at 72Mbit and those dips when the Terastation was processing the data - that Raid5 thing I guess.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum. My question is directed at Brian from Buffalo Tech.

I work on a Mac platform, specifically an older (2002) G4 dual processor machine. I have been looking for an affordable RAID 5 array. Do you have any experience with your Terastation on a MAC? I think I only have USB 1.1 on there, but could upgrade to USB 2.0. Beyond that, is there anything I need to look out for? Can I configure the TeraStation from a Mac, or is that done from a PC?

Thanks in advance for any input / advice.

Philipp

I might can answer some of this for you....

The configuration is done through any web browser, so your mac should have no problem. You can also enable the shared folders for Apple support, so I'm assuming that the terastation is meant to support MACs right out of the box.

The USB port on your PC doesn't really come into play, as you don't connect your PC to the Terastation via USB. It's via an ethernet network. The Terastation has USB ports on it to hang additional USB drives or a printer (built in print server), but I don't think it's meant to connect to your PC.

Robert

I'm having a few issues w/ anonymous FTP setup. It's more likely a network issue, but I figured someone here might point me in the right direction....

I've created a shared folder called FTP and enabled FTP in the check box...No restricted Access. Made the folder writeable.

I've enabled anonymous FTP and selected the FTP folder, and made the FTP access readable only.

I can hit the FTP from a local machine using ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.103:8021 and it works fine. The problem I'm having is accessing via the internet.

I have a linksys router that I've enabled port forwarding of 8021 to xxx.xxx.xxx.103. When I try to hit the FTP using ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8021 (where the IP is the Router IP from my cable modem) I get a FTP Folder error "Make sure you have permission to access that folder 250 CWD Command Successful 200 Type set to A". I'm also using No-IP, and entering the URL FTP://MYWEBSITE:8021 does the same thing.

Any suggestions?

Robert,

Thank you for your input. Im going to Fry's to check one out. Just had a near-disaster experience: after backing up a Firewire 160GB, the original disk became completely unreadable. Too freaky for my nerves. Looks like RAID 5 is the way to go.

Thanks,

Philipp

Robert,

Thank you for your input. Im going to Fry's to check one out. Just had a near-disaster experience: after backing up a Firewire 160GB, the original disk became completely unreadable. Too freaky for my nerves. Looks like RAID 5 is the way to go.

Thanks,

Philipp

I can empathize. I bought and received the TS last week, and while setting it up, my 120GB HD on my office desktop began to crash. Took 5 minutes to boot and all the while losing clusters. First thing that went was the Nvidia drivers as one of the DLLs became corrupt. Had to resort to the VGA boot. Then windows explorer would take 2 to 3 minutes to access a folder...Seek times must have been going through the roof. Started losing random files, so Word wouldn't work, then Outlook crashed. It was no fun. I quickly bought and downloaded Acronis True Image (Highly recommended) and did an image backup to the TS. Original counter started at 20 days because the first few clusters were so trashed. Finally, after about 5 hours, the image backup completed. Swapped in another 120GB drive, and did a restore. Acronis reported that the Index file was corrupt, but it finished the restore. Then when rebooting, Chkdsk repaired about 200 clusters, lost files and corrupt indexes. After holding my breath, rebooted again and everything was recovered and my system is running like a champ.

From now on, I'll be scheduling incremental backups to the TS using True Image.

Whew......

Robert

However, as soon as I can figure out how to click/watch ISO's, I will try that instead.


i would like this support as well.

i need go to start making some apperances over at the linktheater-related threads :)

Has anybody tried to connect the TeraStation UPS serial port to a APC Backup UPS. The APC I have comes with an RJ5 data port and they give you a RJ5 - USB (male) connector. The TeraStation has a serial port. Anyone know how to make this thing work, i.e., that if the power goes out all data will be saved and the TeraStation will shut down first?

question:

Are you guys using this as your server to your network and /or what are you doing to back up the TS???? I am thinking of using an inexpensive dell server and having the TS back that up or just use the dell for the automation house software and then point everything(computers) to the TS for media ,audio and video content.

What are you all doing???

Larry

I'm using the TS exactly as you said...I have mapped drives for my music, pictures, and video. I back up my music and pictures to a USB2 400Gig drive.

I just discovered I can FTP into the TS from outside my home network so I put files i want to access there. I'm also trying to figure out how to have all my email on the server so I can access the same email from multiple computers. OE doesn't allow store folders on a network folder, so I might switch to firefox.

Larry,

How critical is the data you are storing?

Can you reconstruct the data in the event that you either lose 2 drives or the RAID becomes corrupted?

The former (2 drives failing simultaneously) is unlikely assuming you have a UPS unless you were literally taking a direct lightning hit. That might take you down. I would imagine the RAID itself is fairly robust. I've only seen RAIDs become corrupted on Windows systems, and they aren't running Windows on the Terastation ;)

The Buffalo folks don't want to see me typing this, but no single point of failure storage subsystem is infallible. None. I'm not saying this as disrespect for their product, or any other product for that matter. Even multi-level systems can fail under the right conditions and I've seen it happen.

Questions to ask if you're going to run on just the RAID.

When a drive fails (not if):
1) How long does it take to get a replacement under warranty? You will be running in degraded mode and exposed until the replacement is installed and the raid is fully regenerated. Until fully regenerated a second drive failure will cost you your data.

2) When the box goes out of warranty, can any same capacity or larger drive be substituted in the array?

Yes, I do make my living in enteprise systems, so I know which questions to ask. I also now exactly what risks I'm willing to take on the data I'm going to store when I buy a Terastation. For media I'm planning on storing there, losing the data is of no consequence, all I will be out is the time to reload the media.

Cheers,

i would like this support as well.

i need go to start making some apperances over at the linktheater-related threads :)

check videolan, a great media player and streaming server, under gnu. sorry i can´t post the link because of stupid restrictions

I have just purchased a TeraStation. Has anyone compared the read/write speed of the RAID 1 configuration to RAID 5? There's a review of the TeraStation on tomsnetworking; however, this was done with a different firmware version. That review has benchmarks for read/write speeds using all RAID modes on both 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps LAN. According to that review RAID 1 outperformed RAID 5. However, I wonder if this has changed with firmware v. 1.08?

Also, Buffalo Tech has created forums for their products. You can access the TeraStation forum by going to terastation com

Thanks!

I have just purchased a TeraStation. Has anyone compared the read/write speed of the RAID 1 configuration to RAID 5? There's a review of the TeraStation on tomsnetworking; however, this was done with a different firmware version. That review has benchmarks for read/write speeds using all RAID modes on both 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps LAN. According to that review RAID 1 outperformed RAID 5. However, I wonder if this has changed with firmware v. 1.08?

Also, Buffalo Tech has created forums for their products. You can access the TeraStation forum by going to terastation com

Thanks!

I doubt it....The TS Raid 5 is software implemented, so it will always be slower than Raid 1.

Robert

John,

Great points as always.....So you know more then just video!!!!

What will be on the terastation , when I go that route, will just be audio and video files. I am using the Professional version of Media Center and can control lights, hvac, security etc. etc but I might just put the automation control on a seperate inexpensive server. All the other computers will have media center and will store and point to the terastation....so each computer will be able to store the files I need......

I currently have a wireless network and the Word files and Quickbooks stuff are already backup on other media. I don't have a big need to share that information. Just myself and my wife and each have are own computers for that stuff....

Keep your suggestions coming.....All ideas are welcomed......Keeps me thinking of new ways to do this stuff....

Thanks,

Larry

I'm having a few issues w/ anonymous FTP setup. It's more likely a network issue, but I figured someone here might point me in the right direction....

I've created a shared folder called FTP and enabled FTP in the check box...No restricted Access. Made the folder writeable.

I've enabled anonymous FTP and selected the FTP folder, and made the FTP access readable only.

...

...


Any suggestions?

Try to also forward TCP port 20 to the TeraStation.

Larry,

For your environment, as long as you are comfortable with the data being "at risk" then you can probably run without backups. That's fine, and for the market that Buffalo is targeting that's cool too.

It got me going when I saw the Buffalo guy talking about Enterprise servers using RAID-5 as their backup. Nope. At least no enterprise system that actually values their data :D

Also, since the Terastation runs an imbedded Linux, you might not have the luxury of undeleting a file, double check this capability.

Cheers,

"Also, since the Terastation runs an imbedded Linux, you might not have
the luxury of undeleting a file, double check this capability"

That is really a good point. I will have to check into that.

I really do want to backup whatever I have on the server. As prices come down getting another server or terastation really is not a big deal....as the prices come down though....

Larry





Larry,

For your environment, as long as you are comfortable with the data being "at risk" then you can probably run without backups. That's fine, and for the market that Buffalo is targeting that's cool too.

It got me going when I saw the Buffalo guy talking about Enterprise servers using RAID-5 as their backup. Nope. At least no enterprise system that actually values their data :D

Also, since the Terastation runs an imbedded Linux, you might not have the luxury of undeleting a file, double check this capability.

Cheers,

Larry,

Also, since the Terastation runs an imbedded Linux, you might not have the luxury of undeleting a file, double check this capability.

Cheers,

There's an option to enable a Recycle Bin on every new shared folder created on the TeraStation. So, all you deleted files first go to the "trashbox" folder, from which they can be manually moved to any folder you want.

Try to also forward TCP port 20 to the TeraStation.

Thanks, but didn't help.

Robert

Thanks, but didn't help.

Robert

OK, so I tried to get to the anonymous FTP server from the Internet myself, and wasn't successful either. After some research, I found a bug in the TeraStation implementation of anonymous FTP. Basically, somehow the host on the Internet receives the TeraStation's private IP address and tries to SYN to it. Obviously, this is not going to work over the Internet although it works fine over LAN.

To see this, after trying to access your anonymous FTP server from the Internet,

ftp://your_public_IP_address:8021

go to the windows command prompt and issue the following command:

netstat -an

You will see something like this:

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 0.0.0.0:135 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:445 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:1029 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:2869 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:110 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1028 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.103:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.103:4070 64.233.161.147:80 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.103:4071 24.98.xxx.xxx:8021 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.103:4072 192.168.200.4:63443 SYN_SENT
UDP 0.0.0.0:135 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:445 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:500 *:*


As you can see, first the Internet host residing behind a NAT device (192.168.1.103) establishes the connection to the public IP address of the router behind which the TeraStation resides (24.98.xxx.xxx) on port 8021; then it sends a SYN packet to 192.168.200.4:63443. However, this is my TeraStation's private IP address, and this address is not going to be routed through the Internet. Obviously, the only way the host on the Internet can learn about this IP address is from the previous packet sourced from 192.168.200.4:8021 (my TeraStation). The NAT router behind which the TeraStation resides did translate the IP header of the packet (otherwise the host on the Internet wouldn't have gotten the packet with the TeraStation's private IP address). However, TeraStation's private IP address was embedded within the packet. This is an obvious bug in the TeraStation's implementation of anonymous FTP. In its current implementation it's not going to work over the Internet.

And now the most frustrating news for you.

While writing this email, I called Buffalo tech support and tried to report this bug. I was told that the way to do this is to email to info2@buffalotech.com. When I asked if this was a known issue, I was told that indeed it was. And finally, when I told them that it would be nice if they posted known issues somewhere on their web site so that people wouldn't have to spend hours to get something that's broken to work, I was told that they can't do this because their web server is managed from Japan. Go figure!

Sirozha,

Nice find....I am finishing somethings then I will start to buy my systems....this is motivating me to finish this project......Now all I need is time.....

Anyone want a family for a couple of weeks so I can finish????

Larry

I would like to invite everyone to post issues related to TeraStation to the new Buffalo forum. You can access it by going to www.terastation.com or www.buffaloforums.com

Since TeraStation is not just a streaming server but a lot more, I believe everyone will benefit by posting there. Also, Buffalo Technology seems to want to monitor those forums.

sirozha,

Thanks. That's why I said "check on it". So they have the option of replacing rm with another command ;)

Cheers,

OK, so I tried to get to the anonymous FTP server from the Internet myself, and wasn't successful either. After some research, I found a bug in the TeraStation implementation of anonymous FTP. Basically, somehow the host on the Internet receives the TeraStation's private IP address and tries to SYN to it. Obviously, this is not going to work over the Internet although it works fine over LAN.

To see this, after trying to access your anonymous FTP server from the Internet,

ftp://your_public_IP_address:8021

go to the windows command prompt and issue the following command:

netstat -an

You will see something like this:

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 0.0.0.0:135 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:445 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:1029 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:2869 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:110 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1028 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.103:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.103:4070 64.233.161.147:80 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.103:4071 24.98.xxx.xxx:8021 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.103:4072 192.168.200.4:63443 SYN_SENT
UDP 0.0.0.0:135 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:445 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:500 *:*


As you can see, first the Internet host residing behind a NAT device (192.168.1.103) establishes the connection to the public IP address of the router behind which the TeraStation resides (24.98.xxx.xxx) on port 8021; then it sends a SYN packet to 192.168.200.4:63443. However, this is my TeraStation's private IP address, and this address is not going to be routed through the Internet. Obviously, the only way the host on the Internet can learn about this IP address is from the previous packet sourced from 192.168.200.4:8021 (my TeraStation). The NAT router behind which the TeraStation resides did translate the IP header of the packet (otherwise the host on the Internet wouldn't have gotten the packet with the TeraStation's private IP address). However, TeraStation's private IP address was embedded within the packet. This is an obvious bug in the TeraStation's implementation of anonymous FTP. In its current implementation it's not going to work over the Internet.

And now the most frustrating news for you.

While writing this email, I called Buffalo tech support and tried to report this bug. I was told that the way to do this is to email to info2@buffalotech.com. When I asked if this was a known issue, I was told that indeed it was. And finally, when I told them that it would be nice if they posted known issues somewhere on their web site so that people wouldn't have to spend hours to get something that's broken to work, I was told that they can't do this because their web server is managed from Japan. Go figure!

Excellent work....Keeps me from pulling my hair out!

Robert

I've been trying to run scheduled backups on my TeraStation, and I've noticed that every new backup adds log files in the top-level shared folders. The log file is added to the original folder. When I asked Buffalo tech support what those files were for, no one could give me any reason for these files to be created and saved in the original folder. Additionally, with every next backup, the log file of the previous backup is added to the backup destination folder too. So, if one has scheduled "Differential Backups" once a day, at the end of the month there will be thirty-one log files in your backup source and thirty files in the backup destination folder.

I would like Buffalo to either change this behavior so that useless log files not pollute the original folder or at least to add an option of turning this off. Is anyone else bothered with this behavior? If so, would you mind calling Buffalo and requesting that they change it? It renders the automatic backup feature almost useless since one has to go back and manually delete log files. If the log file needs to be created (to indicate when the backup job was run), it should be created in the destination backup folder only, and every knew backup job should overwrite the previous log file with a new one.

Thanks!

Coming in late and from a slightly different angle:

I purchased a Terrastation to use as a small office file server a few weeks ago and have run across a few issues that may take this product out of consideration for those thinking about using it for the same purpose.

1. Maximum password length of 8 characters!
2. No special characters ( *, $. @, etc.) permitted in the password!

So much for the good password practices I've been trying to teach my clients.

I ran across this problem while using the latest firmware. Buffalo tech support confirmed this limitation, but did not seem to consider this a problem and seemed have no plans in the forseeable future to address this show stopper (at least a file server replacement). If I would have know these limitations, I would not have made the purchase.

Coming in late and from a slightly different angle:

I purchased a Terrastation to use as a small office file server a few weeks ago and have run across a few issues that may take this product out of consideration for those thinking about using it for the same purpose.

1. Maximum password length of 8 characters!
2. No special characters ( *, $. @, etc.) permitted in the password!

So much for the good password practices I've been trying to teach my clients.

I ran across this problem while using the latest firmware. Buffalo tech support confirmed this limitation, but did not seem to consider this a problem and seemed have no plans in the forseeable future to address this show stopper (at least a file server replacement). If I would have know these limitations, I would not have made the purchase.

I would agree with Buffalo on this one. No one will remember a password longer than 8 characters. So, as long as the password is used over the Internet, I don't think this is a security risk. If the password is used over the Internet in plain text, the length doesn't really matter. I may be wrong, but why do you think an 8-letter password is a security risk when used on the LAN?

I would agree with Buffalo on this one. No one will remember a password longer than 8 characters. So, as long as the password is used over the Internet, I don't think this is a security risk. If the password is used over the Internet in plain text, the length doesn't really matter. I may be wrong, but why do you think an 8-letter password is a security risk when used on the LAN?

My intent was not meant to debate password practices, rather to point out that due to the restrictions put in place by Buffalo, passwords needed to access the Terrastation may not match passwords already in place. Buffalo is using a version of SAMBA, the goal of which is to provide seemless integration in Windows networks. These restrictions violate that goal.

My intent was not meant to debate password practices, rather to point out that due to the restrictions put in place by Buffalo, passwords needed to access the Terrastation may not match passwords already in place. Buffalo is using a version of SAMBA, the goal of which is to provide seemless integration in Windows networks. These restrictions violate that goal.

OK. Fair enough.

Well, I am now the "proud" owner of a Linkstation Gigabite 400 Gig NAS device. I have had a few minor problems with it. One when you select sleep mode, it goes to sleep.... forever. It never wakes up again. I have some mis-givings about all of the NAS type devices, not just BuffaloTech. First printer support, there really isn't any. Most printers today require bi-direction communication and a driver that supports more than postscript. The FTP feature, well most people have a router and an DHCP address, what can you do with that? When you get down to the end results you have a $500.00 HD that you can copy files to. Documentation is non existent, you can only find a manual for these devices on your CD, you won't find them online. Firmware updates, haven't seen any yet, at least not for my device. Anyway, I am a little less than satisfied with my purchase.

The FTP feature, well most people have a router and an DHCP address, what can you do with that?

Plenty....First, change your NAS to a fixed IP on your home network....DHCP is pretty much useless anyway on a Home Network for client machines that are plugged in all the time. Next, if your broadband service doesn't provide you a fixed IP for your router, then simply use www.no-ip.com and setup a domain name that points to your router. You run a small server applet that automatically updates no-ip whenever your Service Provider changes your IP. Then, just forward the FTP port to your NAS IP, and you can access it with something like:

ftp://myNAS.servebeer.com:21 (or whatever port the FTP uses for the NAS).

Robert

I was able to get a new firmware update for the LS. It kind of worked. If froze near the end but I think it went through. It's now at 1.42. Well, I hate to be negitive but, That didn't change anything. Next I took your advice and created an account with no-ip. That was fairly simple and it might even work. I had to reconfigure my Asante router to use the now static IP of the LS and redirect port 21 to the LS and to make sure I had no problems I allowed the LS into the DMZ for unrestricted access. Created the share on my LS, but I cannot get to it as yet. It just does not work, also it still goes to sleep when ever sleep mode is enabled. Maybe I have a bad unit?

I was able to get a new firmware update for the LS. It kind of worked. If froze near the end but I think it went through. It's now at 1.42. Well, I hate to be negitive but, That didn't change anything. Next I took your advice and created an account with no-ip. That was fairly simple and it might even work. I had to reconfigure my Asante router to use the now static IP of the LS and redirect port 21 to the LS and to make sure I had no problems I allowed the LS into the DMZ for unrestricted access. Created the share on my LS, but I cannot get to it as yet. It just does not work, also it still goes to sleep when ever sleep mode is enabled. Maybe I have a bad unit?

Are you using anonymous FTP? If so, it's been shown that there is a bug in the firmware and it doesn't work. Also, if the LS is like the TS, it doesn't use port 21...Port 8021 I think. You'll have to setup an FTP share and a user name/password to access it via the internet.

Are you using anonymous FTP? If so, it's been shown that there is a bug in the firmware and it doesn't work. Also, if the LS is like the TS, it doesn't use port 21...Port 8021 I think. You'll have to setup an FTP share and a user name/password to access it via the internet.

I redirected port 20, 21 and 8021 to the LS. It didn't change much. First, Im not using an FTP client, just Internet Explorer. Second, I am using restricted access and I do get the interface which asks for user name and password. If I use the IP address of the router on the intranet I get right to it, can enter the user name and password and access the files. If I use the no-ip DNS name, everything is the same execpt that I am not allowed access. It takes a while for anything to come up, and the end result is a permission error trying to access the folder.

Details: 200 Type set to A
227 Entering Passive Mode(192,168,123,221,5,21)
421 No Transfer Timeout(300 seconds): closing control connection.

The "Entering Passive Mode" is suspicious. It contains the IP and the ftp port of the LS, but what is the 5?

Buffalo has there own forum now that may provide some support.

http://www.buffaloforums.com/

5,21 is the port used for the DATA connection (not the control connection...)

(I think 5*256 + 21 = 1301...) The FTP Server is telling the client to open port 1031 (I think) to the client to actually do the file transfer...

You need to forward the data port range through your firewall to your server as well...

FTP servers can be complicated to set-up behind firewalls...

Anyone compared the TeraStation to the ReadyNAS? I'm trying to decide which one to pick. Although the ReadyNAS isn't available here, so maybe it doesn't matter.

I've bought plenty of Buffalo gear in the past, but occasionally I get disappointed in their slow support of firmware and feature upgrades. That I can get into the TS attracts me greatly, having used Unix extensively for the last 15 years or so, and I would be interested in adding ssh, NFS and my own UPnP video streaming program. So the hacking aspects of it is a big plus. It worries me that Buffalo would suddenly wasted resources trying to stop us from getting into it in newer firmwares, instead of adding features, as big companies are prone to do.

Tom's Hardware review mentioned that the performance is not as great as one would expect. But perhaps that has been addressed in newer firmware versions, or TCP stack tweaking?

Still on the fence...

Hi,

I have a 1.0 TB terastation, which had stopped being accessible a few days ago. I did finally upgrade the firmware, and that did the trick, but one of the drives now has a blinking red light. I'm assuming I have to replace the drive.

Has anyone had to do this yet? Do I have to do anything/formatting to get it to work, or just unplug, open, swap, and it should be good to go, and it will repopulate the new drive with data?

Thanks in advance for any advice

J

Coming in late and from a slightly different angle:

I purchased a Terrastation to use as a small office file server a few weeks ago and have run across a few issues that may take this product out of consideration for those thinking about using it for the same purpose.

1. Maximum password length of 8 characters!
2. No special characters ( *, $. @, etc.) permitted in the password!

So much for the good password practices I've been trying to teach my clients.

I ran across this problem while using the latest firmware. Buffalo tech support confirmed this limitation, but did not seem to consider this a problem and seemed have no plans in the forseeable future to address this show stopper (at least a file server replacement). If I would have know these limitations, I would not have made the purchase.

I am going to have to agree with you on this point. I was evaluating one of these for a client (small office, dealing with medical data). There is no way this thing's password policy would pass muster with an examination committee. IMHO They've effectively limited an otherwise great product to the home user community (which may have been their intent).

Ah, well. ReadyNAS, here I come!

Interesting:

Looking trough the posts I realised that quite a few people where complaining about the lack of ATA drives in the Terastation. Then I went at Buffalo and found it. The Terrastation Pro. Not much more expensive at it's got ATA.

I'll have to get this one.

PS: People recommending posting posts to the Buffalo Forum - including Buffalo staff - should realise that the Buffalo Forum has VERY little content and not much monitoring from Buffalo. Don't know why but Buffalo is more present here - and users too...

I am going to have to agree with you on this point. I was evaluating one of these for a client (small office, dealing with medical data). There is no way this thing's password policy would pass muster with an examination committee. IMHO They've effectively limited an otherwise great product to the home user community (which may have been their intent).

Sorry, but I think this password issue is a bit boring. If you use it on LAN, if your security is so bad that people can come in an intercept passwords, you got othe probs.

If not, then 8 characters is not great, but is definitely no serious reason for not using the Terastation on small to medium entreprises.

Security is not just passwords. And most people use simplistic passwords anyway.

Words from some IT Security Professional...

Sorry, but I think this password issue is a bit boring.
Passwords are uninteresting. You'll find no arguments here.

If you use it on LAN, if your security is so bad that people can come in an intercept passwords, you got othe probs.
You're correct. Passwords are only one part of the security process. And if someone's set up a network where people can easily sniff their traffic, you're right, they've got other problems.

Unfortunately, interception isn't the big issue. An 8 character password free of special characters is a much easier target for brute force cracking techniques.

If not, then 8 characters is not great, but is definitely no serious reason for not using the Terastation on small to medium entreprises.
8 characters is not great, and I maintain that it seriously cripples the usefulness of this product in a small to medium enterprise. I do work with businesses who's networks are audited anually (so understand my paranoia), and I am certain that a device that can barely comply with Windows "enforce complex passwords" rule will fail to cut the mustard.

That said, this device is still a nice fit (price/size/convenience) for a home network.

Passwords are uninteresting. You'll find no arguments here.


You're correct. Passwords are only one part of the security process. And if someone's set up a network where people can easily sniff their traffic, you're right, they've got other problems.

Unfortunately, interception isn't the big issue. An 8 character password free of special characters is a much easier target for brute force cracking techniques.


8 characters is not great, and I maintain that it seriously cripples the usefulness of this product in a small to medium enterprise. I do work with businesses who's networks are audited anually (so understand my paranoia), and I am certain that a device that can barely comply with Windows "enforce complex passwords" rule will fail to cut the mustard.

That said, this device is still a nice fit (price/size/convenience) for a home network.

Yes, sure. I understand that if the company gets audited this kind protection is a problem. on the other side, i now plenty of real big companies that dont use better passwords than that...

If its a feature that Buffalo can change witout extreme effort, it would be nice if they did, specially for their Terastation Pro line, which I suspect should intererest companies somewhat more than home soho users.

Hi, I finally bought a 1TB TeraStation. I have so far been pleased with the unit, but I am having issues with connecting a USB drive. I need to have the USB drive formatted as FAT32 ( so I can easily share with other Windows and MAC machines ).

So I format the drives as FAT32, and connect to XP machine and XP sees it correctly as FAT32. However I then connect to TeraStation and a net view shows this:

C:\>net view \\192.168.0.6
Shared resources at \\192.168.0.6

TeraStation

Share name Type Used as Comment

------------------------------------------------------------
info Disk TeraStation utilities
lp Print Network Printer for Windows
music Disk Music
photos Disk Photos
share Disk TeraStation folder
usbdisk1 Disk test(Read Only)
video Disk Video
The command completed successfully.

If I then map a drive to this share ( usbdisk1 ) and show properties on the mapped drive from Explorer in XP, it shows the drive as NTFS. I have tried formatting the drive from within TeraStation as FAT32 but this doesn't seem to help either. I have tried this with 2 different drives now ( although I am using the same USB disk enclosure ) and both have the same results.

I am writing this while on hold with tech support ( 1.5 hours so far :-( ).

Any help would really be appreciated. Cheers !

Apparently, this is a known problem. Tech Support are going to escalate and get me a date when this is going to be fixed in firmware. I will post again when I know more.

HD-HTGL 1 TB
Firmware:1.12
RAID 5
Clients attached Windows XP
Linksys router WRT54G with port 20 & 21 forwarded to TS on LAN

(not using annonomous ftp, ftp user accounts and access rights working)
If I ftp to my TS from within my network (ftp to local IP) I have no problems.
If I ftp to my TS from outside the network (from the internet), ftp and access works fine but after I connect via external ftp all my computers on the network lose the terastation share name (even after I disconnect the ftp connection)

After connecting with external ftp and then disconnecting ftp:
I can still ping the internal ip address of the TS
I can still ping the TS name
I cannot map to the TS by IP or name
net view \\terastation_name - Windows cannot find the network path
If I reboot the TS then all the computers on the network can see it again.

Anyone have any solutions or heard of this issue ?
Seems like external ftp is disconnecting the TS local network path ? How can I use external FTP and not be required to reboot the TS so my local network can see it again ?

Thanks !

I am using a number of the Terastation Pros (1Tb and 2Tb). Has anyone experienced problems when using its scheduled backups? i.e. getting the backups to start automatically. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. There also seems to be a problem if you edit a working backup. Editing it seems to stop it from running at the next scheduled time.

People...

You can get a 1 TB ReadyNAS from newegg.com for 829.00. Do a search for readynas on newegg.com.

The readyNAS devices are much better than anything buffalo has put out, they have real hardware RAID which most of the buffalos do not, they have plugins to be able to run streaming services directly on the box with no modification to the OS, and they support online expansion of the array.

I have no affiliation with the company, they just make a really nice NAS. Their website is at www.infrant.com

Is there a reputable review/comparison of the Infrant and Buffalo products?

I am seriously looking at either taking the plunge or building my own.

Is there a reputable review/comparison of the Infrant and Buffalo products?

I am seriously looking at either taking the plunge or building my own.

Toms Networking (run by the well Respected Tim Higgins) has reviews of both.

The readyNAS NV, the newest ReadyNAS is reviewed at
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/03/03/infrant_readynas_nv/

The Terastatoin is at
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2005/05/25/review_terasta/

Jamy

Also, if you're a hard-copy guy, the latest PC Magazine (Cover Story 'The Future of Tech') has a pretty good story comparing 4 or 5 NAS devices - they like the Infrant the most, though the Buffalo gets praise as well. I thought I'd be able to find the article online, but can only find an accompanying story, for what it's worth:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1987972,00.asp

BTW, the review in the magazine is 'hidden' in an annoying CDW (?) gatefold - you have to open the gatefold to find it.

I have had the Terastation (1TB) for over a year. It is running in RAID-1 configuration with two 250Gig volumes, so I only got 500Gig out of the mirror solution. I had to replace one of the drives under warranty, it was not the easiest task to open up the case and fuddle with its 23 screws but as long you have good short term memory, you should be able to put it back together. The recovering process was not documented very well, but it did the job on its own. Note: I was not able to access the failed drive volume when it was down - meaning: DON'T rely on using RAID as your backup if your data is critical. However, once the drive was rebuilt, I was back in business.

I am considering moving from RAID-1 to RAID-5 to get more storage out of the unit but am unsure how to migrate the data. I could purchase another Terastation...or get some USB drives to hold the data temporarily. Anyone has tried this?

Also does anyone have more than one Terastations running? If so, do you mind sharing how do you have it setup? Does it conflict with each other? Or does it run separately with its own IP address?

Thanks in advance,
Lesmiz

I've read that the Terrastations aren't as fast as the ReadyNAS boxes. Are the Terrastations fast enough to provide multiple movie streams at the same time.

Anyone?

I've read that the Terrastations aren't as fast as the ReadyNAS boxes. Are the Terrastations fast enough to provide multiple movie streams at the same time.

Using the Terastation, I've tried using three different video players simultaneously with three different video clips on my laptop via a wireless G connection, I did not see any frames or audio issues. Each video played smoothly. I don't have a ReadyNAS box to try but suspect it can do just as well.

Good luck with it!
Lesmiz

I have one of the 1TB models and am researching a video library project for my company. I used three pc's hard wired and a laptop with wireless to hit the same movie file at the same time with no hiccups at all. I was pleasantly surprised but I'm not completely sold on it being something for this type of job thus I'm researching newer units like the Thecus.

I have one of the 1TB models and am researching a video library project for my company. I used three pc's hard wired and a laptop with wireless to hit the same movie file at the same time with no hiccups at all. I was pleasantly surprised but I'm not completely sold on it being something for this type of job thus I'm researching newer units like the Thecus.

I would think that three different videos would be more difficult. Heads would have to move back and for from different parts of the disks. Have you tried that?

I bought a1TB Terastation pro 2 weeks ago. I set it up to be part of my W2K AD, however after having some problems accessing it on the network, I found that there was a patch for enabling AD. I applied this patch (it appeared to be successful), after a reboot of the terastation, it had lost the domain/workgroup settings, as well as it appears that the firmware is damaged.
The client utility can see it, with the correct IP address, however nothing else can see it. The information on the client utility shows the name, IP address, subnet maskand mac address; but not workgroup of firmware version. I emailed Buffalo in regards to this and the told me to download the latest firmware and using the /force command within the shortcut to the .exe file for the update. This just reports that it cannot find the Terastation on the network.
I can ping the ip address assigned succesfully, and even though I have reserved the IP address in the DHCP scope and used the current name here withe mac address, nothing else on the domain can access or see the Terastation.
Any assistance here would be appreciated.

Try phoning the tech support line. Its not a premium rate number (in the UK anyway) and they are VERY helpful. Only had to wait about 3 mins in the queue too. My unit had entered an engineering state after a powercut and then helped me install the new firmware to resolve the matter.

I also installed the AD firmware but I just couldnt get it to connect no matter what I tried so I gave in. It can be accessed easy enough through normal shares etc. I havent spoken to their tech support about this issue.

Lanstrom

I bought a 1TB Homeserver initially because I had overrun my track limit on my Sonos. I decided to split my tracks with Classical on the Sonos & Modern of the Terastation with the Terastation streaming to a Philips 5520.

I then added a Buffalo PG4 Linktheater for video.

The Mediabolic server is a mess as far as music is concerned ignoring tracks number etc and not supporting playlists. To support this I purchased a QNAP TS201 wityh Twonky. That solved the track numbers although playlists are still in alphanumeric sort order rather than in playlist track order. (I now use the Sonos for Playlists).

I had a number of issues with the Terastation.

1. If find that the transfer rate is very slow. Half the speed in writing to it in comparison with the QNAP, which in itself is not the fastest.

2. Using USB hangs the beast

3. Power surge or ungraceful powerdown means that it will do a diskcheck on powerup. This takes in excess of 6 hours (I seem to remember it took 8 hours). So ensure you have it on a UPS (however it does not support USB interface with a UPS).

4. Support is sloooooow. Three questions asked by e-mail. The first was responded too in 1 week, the second 3 weeks and I am still awaiting response on the third.

Other than that it is a nice cheap device aqlthough only marginally cheaper than the QNAP TS-201.

The Linktheater is a nice simple device although it occaisionally comes against an encoding error and responds with "Doh! Unsupported format"

The other point is that I have yet to get MPEG-4 working with it. The buffering is weak. However it is at the low end of price so I should not really complain too much.

As a small business we purchased one of these time bombs. They are worthless in the corporate world. Support is the worst. I think some father and son are making these in their garage and they can't hack a Linux OS for the life of them. Support more or less told us, "Nothing we can do" and "we don't give refunds". Sounds like maybe the mafia is behind this. I could have built a better NAS with a old PII and a raid card. I would never recommend anyone purchase one of these. :mad:

I've read that the Terrastations aren't as fast as the ReadyNAS boxes. Are the Terrastations fast enough to provide multiple movie streams at the same time.

NAS wll always have issues with streaming multiple video streams. The better option if that is your need is NDAS which can handle a lot of stuff. It runs on drivers (PC end) and a chip (inside media players like MViX and N35).

The catch is that it installs SCSI drivers and connection is made by mappings (not over IP or Samba)...

Infrant performa around 18MBps if tweaked
Thecus performas around 22

Not yet tested the Buffalo, but that is software RAID so by default slower
than hardware raids as Infrant and Thecus. It also explains partial the
cheaper price of the units. Notice also that only with the latest models,
Buffalo has decided to become focussing on DLNA as well...

Can't say much more than that as the only Buffalo we ever reviewed dates 2
years back. The Terrastation which was ok to be used with uPnPav for
streaming to the LinkTheater...

I've owned the Buffalo 1TB NAS for more than a year along with the linktheater. I am not as happy with the Linktheater but mostly because it doesn't support lossless audio and that it's hard to play music in a random mode like I can my jukebox CD player.


The NAS drive has never failed and I mostly use laptops in my house but if I have to down/up-load large files I connect to a wall connection instead of using wireless. It's very fast this way and is most likely as fast as a direct connection by USB. The NAS has never failed and is silent and not much larger than a toaster. I use raid-5.

After 9 months my DVD drive in the linktheater failed and after a call to Buffalo and a pleasant conversation I was off the phone and with a new one in about 1.5 weeks. I did have to call them on a tech question and again had no problem.

I have no training in computers and had no problems with the NAS drive and would really recommend it. I had a 500 gig Lacie drive first and had sent it back because I had problems with it but I recall it was that the drive didn't have the feature set I wanted and didn't know it untill I had it.

The idea of a central NAS providing all the information to players around the hose is what I've been looking for and the Linktheater is nice and I've ordered a Helios 5000 which should be better but I know it's not perfect yet either but it does do lossless audio.

John