Buffalo Adds Capacity, Cuts Wires

Buffalo Technology introduced Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show its TeraStation, a 1-terabyte network attached storage device for small and medium businesses and high-capacity consumer users.

TeraStation is Windows- and Macintosh-compatible with four hard drives of 250 gigabytes each. The product can be used in four different modes: standard mode, which allows each drive to be shared as an individual network volume; spanning mode, which merges all four drives as a single volume to create a 1-Tbyte share; mirroring mode, which creates two separate pairs of mirrored drives to prevent data loss in the event of drive failure; and RAID 5 mode, for increased performance with fault tolerance that spreads data across the four separate drives uniformly.

TeraStation offers additional data protection with its journaling file system. This allows instant data and operational recovery in the event of a system failure. The device also features UPS compatibility so the device can be safely powered down automatically or manually.

TeraStation has four USB 2.0 ports and one 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port. Up to four external USB hard drives can be connected concurrently; TeraStation also offers a print server feature so users can share a USB printer over their network, the vendor said. The product can be used as a central server so users can manage and share stored data, or as a media server when used with Buffalo's LinkTheater, which enables users to stream multimedia files directly on their television or entertainment system without the use of a media PC.

TeraStation will be available next month; estimated pricing is $1,299.Buffalo also used the CES venue to unveil the wireless LinkStation network storage center, available in capacities of 160, 250 and 300 Gbytes, which will permit business and home users to integrate a high-performance storage device into their wireless network.

The LinkStation uses 802.11g wireless technology and supports both the 128- and 64-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) standard. The product also includes Buffalo's AirStation One-Touch Secure System (AOSS), which allows users to instantly install any AOSS-enabled device and set up wireless security with the push of a button.

A pre-formatted network storage device, the LinkStation is compatible with Windows, Linux and Macintosh, and can act as an FTP server. The LinkStation has two USB 2.0 ports for additional storage and lets users run multiple streams for simultaneous media download and usage. The solution also features Buffalo's backup software so users can schedule and customize data protection.

The Wireless LinkStation network storage center will be available at the end of the month; estimated pricing ranges from $349 to $549.