Buffalo TeraStation Pro II Review: Good performer, odd design choices

Setup

The TeraStation Pro II is shipped with a Windows-only setup utility called TeraNavigator (Figure 5). The setup utility prompts you through hooking up your TeraStation to your network and powering it up, and walks you through the initial basic configuration parameters, such as device name, password, and RAID configuration. It lets you map a drive to the TeraStation.

Figure 5: Simple setup utility helps you quickly configure the TeraStation Pro II

The utility installs another Windows utility called NAS Navigator that will scan your local network for LinkStations and TeraStations (Figure 6). For each device found, it shows you its IP address, capacity, and disk usage, and lets you view shares. Optionally, you can choose to install the supplied Memeo backup software.

Alternatively, you can bypass this whole setup scheme and just type in the TeraStation’s IP address that is displayed on the front panel after the NAS boots. By default, the Pro II’s DHCP client is set to automatically retrieve an address.

Figure 6: NAS Navigator discovers your LinkStations and TeraStations and lets you map shares

User Interface

Buffalo didn’t break any new ground with the user interface on the Pro II. It’s virtually identical to the UI found on LinkStation Live. Of course, some menus, such as those pertaining to RAID configuration, are different, and you won’t find menu entries for PCAST or Web Access on the Pro II. I’ll comment on each menu item only briefly.

Figure 7: Buffalo TeraStation Pro II Home page

Home – Top-level page that summarizes IP address, time/date, and usage (Figure 7).

Basic – Lets you change the name of the Pro II, set time/date, configure language and NTP server settings. A populated drop-down list of US-based NTP servers would be nice, instead of the default Japanese NTP server. And someday, Buffalo will support daylight savings time.

Network – Basic network configuration settings. In this menu, you can choose one of three jumbo frame sizes. (9694 bytes max.) This menu also lets you set workgroup, domain, or active directory parameters.

Disk Management – This menu lets you see the status of your RAID and individual disk status. You can also reconfigure your RAID (but you’re warned that you’ll lose your data), and set up a RAID scanning schedule. Other disk functions such as Check, Format, and Erase are also found on sub menus.