Buffalo Technology has added three new wireless-n (802.11n) products to its AirStation range, including the N-Technology USB 2.0 Adapter, N-Technology 150Mbps router and the Nfiniti Dual-Band Wireless-N Ethernet Converter.
Starting with the AirStation N-Technology USB2 adapter, this is the smallest wireless-n adaptor I’ve seen – it’s more like the little Bluetooth or wireless mouse transmitters – but still manages 150 Mb/s. It would be perfect if you’ve already got a laptop that only has 11g wi-fi and you want to upgrade. At just £19.99, it’s a bargain!
And if you want to upgrade your whole wireless network, then you’ll need to take a look at the complementary router, the AirStation N-Technology 150 Mb/s router (RRP £29.99). Finished in fashionable white, it draws design cues from the Link- and DriveStation range. There are four 100 Mb/s LAN ethernet ports round the back for hard-wiring. There’s a further single port for the WAN so note that this is a pure router – there is no modem; ADSL, cable or otherwise. DHCP, NAT and SPI firewall features are built-in.
Finally, for those devices that have ethernet ports but don’t have wireless-n, then check out the Nfiniti Dual-Band Wireless-N Ethernet Converter. This plugs straight into a power socket and incorporates two ethernet ports for connections to games consoles, DVRs, Blu-ray players and so on. Unlike the other devices, this converter can transfer data at 300 Mb/s and given that it’s likely to be used for streaming media, this is a good thing. You’ll be able to pick this up for £39.99.
All the devices above use Buffalo’s AOSS (AirStation One Touch Secure System) which simplifies the process of wirelessly connecting them together.
With luck, GNC will be able to bring you a hands-on review of these in the next few weeks.
Buffalo have also released an application called “WebAccess i” for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that allows owners of the Tera- and LinkStation NAS devices to download and upload files across the internet. It’s available from the iTunes store. (I’m told that it’s “really cool”, but I haven’t yet been able to test it.)
Sometimes things no one ever thought of simply seem to come together. Services and devices end up being used to do things the individual inventors and designers couldn’t have imagined.
The politics of the green movement and the polarity of views have often prevented real debate on climate change from happening. Each side will reinforce their opinion with selective facts from the data and use every opportunity to ridicule their opposition’s theories. A great deal of the climate discussion that has appeared in the media has been coloured by specious facts and bad science.
To describe the Buffalo DriveStation Quad as merely an external hard drive would be doing it a considerable injustice and likely to miss the point. This is an external drive on steroids and with attitude.
On the front there are four LEDs in the centre that indicate the status of each of the internal drives. There’s also a single power LED on the right. Round the back there’s both USB2 and eSATA ports. The USB2 can be used for both data and configuration of the device, whereas the eSATA connection can only be used for data. If you’re missing an eSATA port, don’t worry, there’s an eSATA bracket in the box that will convert a free internal connection to an external one. There’s also a simple auto/off switch.
So what’s it like in action? Let’s take a look.
In addition, there’s a bit of extra software including various drivers to “speed up” your PC, a backup utility and a RAM Disk utility.
Running a couple of speed tests, I was able to get an average read rate of just under 260 MB/s, which is actually better than spec (235 MB/s). To test the RAID capability, I removed one of the disks from the array and then copied some files to the remaining disks. On restoring the disk to the array, a red flashing light appeared on the front indicating the affected disk. The other three green LEDs flickered away while the array was rebuilt. Now, it did take a good few hours rebuild the array but I was still able to read and write to the unit during this time. Brilliant.
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