Buffalo LinkStation Mini User Manual
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Buffalo LinkStation Mini User Manual

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User Manual

LS-WS
LinkStation Mini
www.buffalotech.com
v1.6

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Summary of Contents for Buffalo LinkStation Mini

  • Page 1: User Manual

    User Manual LS-WS LinkStation Mini www.buffalotech.com v1.6...
  • Page 2 Introduction Congratulations on your new LinkStation Mini. This user manual is intended to assist you in configuring it. Because we’re constantly updating our products, the images and text in this manual may vary slightly from the images and text displayed by your LinkStation. These changes are minor and should not affect the ease of setup adversely.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Back Panel Layout ............4 Installation ...............5 Power Mode Switch ............8 Using your LinkStation with a PC ........9 Using your LinkStation with a Mac ......... 13 Add USB Devices ............17 Front Panel Layout ............18 Using the Function Button ..........19 Advanced Settings ............

  • Page 4: Back Panel Layout

    Back Panel Layout Power Switch Power Plug Ethernet (to Router)

  • Page 5: Installation

    Installation Insert the LinkNavigator CD into your computer’s CD-ROM drive. On a PC, setup should automatically launch. If it does not, manually launch setup.exe by pressing Start and selecting the Run... option. When the Run dialog opens, type d:\LSnavi.exe (where d is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive).
  • Page 6 LinkNavigator Setup Press the Begin Installation button to begin. If you’re installing on a PC, click on Easy Setup (the pink, upper button). Mac users can skip this step. Click Next to step through the installation.
  • Page 7 LinkNavigator Setup The wizard will step you through installation. Follow the directions on each screen and continue pressing Next to step through the installation. When installation is complete, you may close the installation window.

  • Page 8: Power Mode Switch

    Power Mode The “Power Mode” switch on the back of the unit has three positions: “Auto”, “On”, and “Off”. The “Auto” position automatically powers the unit on or off based with your PC. If your PC is turned on the LinkStation will power up;...

  • Page 9: Using Your Linkstation With A Pc

    LinkStation. Share is the main folder that you can put files and folders in. Info contains a copy of your user manual. The Buffalo NAS Navigator icon opens the LinkStation’s client utility. Turn to page 64 for more on using the NAS Navigator client utility.
  • Page 10 Accessing LinkStation Data from your PC To Access LinkStation Data from a PC: Your LinkStation uses “shares” (folders) to hold data. A share called “share” is already configured on your LinkStation, and you can create additional shares using the Shared Folders option.
  • Page 11 Accessing LinkStation Data from your PC You can map additional drive letters to shares on your LinkStation. From the Start menu, select Run..Enter your LinkStation’s hostname (if you don’t know it, you can get it from the NASnavigator utility) or IP address. Press OK. Your LinkStation should open.
  • Page 12 Accessing LinkStation Data from your PC From the Tools pull-down menu, select Map Network Drive. Choose a drive letter from the Drive: pull down menu. To specify the folder to map, either find it with Browse or enter \\LinkStation_ Name\share_name in the Folder: field, where LinkStation_Name is your LinkStation’s hostname (page 21) and share_name is the name of a folder on your LinkStation.

  • Page 13: Using Your Linkstation With A Mac

    Using your LinkStation with a Mac™ After installing the LinkNavigator software, your Mac will have two new icons on the desktop. The LS-ProDuoSettings.txt file contains the IP address of your LinkStation. NAS Navigator is the LinkStation’s client utility. With the information in the LS-ProDuoSettings.txt file, you can easily connect to the LinkStation from any of your computers on your local network.

  • Page 14: Accessing Linkstation Data From A Mac

    Accessing LinkStation Data from a Mac You can add a link to your LinkStation’s share folder to your desktop by adding it to the Mac’s server list. Begin by clicking Go, and then choose Connect to Server. In the Server Address field, enter your LinkStation’s IP address in the form smb:// ipaddress (where “ipaddress”...
  • Page 15 Accessing LinkStation Data from a Mac Select Guest and click on Connect. Note: If you have configured share permissions on your LinkStation, select Registered User and enter your login credentials. Select the volume that you want to mount, such as share or share-mac, from the list of folders on the LinkStation.
  • Page 16 You can always get the LinkStation’s IP address from your router’s configuration utility. Many Buffalo routers list this information on the Client Monitor page, as shown to the right. Consult your router’s documentation for instructions on...

  • Page 17: Add Usb Devices

    LinkStation Expansion LinkStation Mini has a USB 2.0 port on the rear. This port can be used for adding an external USB Hard Drive or a USB Printer. LinkStation will share connected USB devices, allowing everyone on the network to use them. To connect a USB hard drive to your LinkStation, simply plug it into the USB port.

  • Page 18: Front Panel Layout

    See the Troubleshooting section for error codes. Power LED - Blue. Lit when the LinkStation … is on. Flashes during boot or shutdown. † Lock Mount - This slot is for mounting a security lock to the LinkStation Mini.

  • Page 19: Using The Function Button

    Using the Function Button Direct Copy - You can copy digital media files directly to the LinkStation Mini from a USB storage device, such as a digital camera, USB flash drive, or external hard disk. 1. Connect your USB device to the port on the back of the LinkStation Mini.
  • Page 20 Initialization - You can easily bring your LinkStation Mini back to factory settings with the following steps. 1. Move the power switch to the ‘Off’ position. The LinkStation Mini will shut down after about 45 seconds. 2. While holding down the function button, move the power switch to the ‘On’...

  • Page 21: Advanced Settings

    Advanced Settings The Configuration GUI The Configuration GUI may be accessed at any time by typing the IP address of your LinkStation into the URL bar of a browser running on a computer connected to the same network as the LinkStation. You may also open the Configuration GUI from NAS Navigator by right-clicking on your LinkStation and choosing Open Web Admin from the menu.
  • Page 22 Advanced Settings This login prompt will appear. Enter admin for the user name. Until you change it, the password for the admin account will be password. Press the OK button when finished. User name: admin Password: password See page 39 to change your password.
  • Page 23 Advanced Settings - Home Welcome to Advanced Settings, the configuration GUI for the LinkStation! Bookmark this page in your browser so it can be easily accessed for future configuration changes. If the LinkStation’s IP Address changes, you will need to recreate the link. You can also get here by typing http:// LinkStation_Name into a Web browser, where LinkStation_Name is the name (hostname) of your LinkStation.
  • Page 24 Advanced Settings Basic You may modify your LinkStation’s hostname and description under Hostname Setup. A friendly, easy-to-remember name (e.g. “LinkStation”) is recommended. Make sure that the date and time are correct in Date and Time Setup. To synchronize time settings with those in your computer, press Use Local Time.

  • Page 25: Network Settings

    Advanced Settings Network (IP Address Properties) In most networks, LinkStation will get its IP Address automatically from a DHCP server. You may disable DHCP here if you would rather set a static IP address manually. If DHCP is disabled and an IP Address is not set manually, it will default to 1.1.xxx.xxx with subnet mask 255.255.0.0.
  • Page 26 Advanced Settings Network (Workgroup/Domain) If you do not participate in a Domain/Active directory network, then please leave the Network Type selected as Workgroup and Workgroup Name set to the name of your local workgroup. To make your LinkStation a member of a workgroup or an NT domain, enter the appropriate information into the fields on this page and click Apply.

  • Page 27: Disk Management

    Advanced Settings Disk Management (Drive Properties) This page shows the properties for the drives in your LinkStation Mini. If you have a USB hard drive plugged into the linkstation, its properties will appear here as well.
  • Page 28 Advanced Settings Disk Management (RAID Setup) Configure your RAID settings here. To change the type of RAID array used, click on “RAID Array 1” under RAID Setup. Two RAID options are available: RAID 0 (striped set) provides maximum capacity and improved performance, but doesn’t include any redundancy.
  • Page 29 Advanced Settings Disk Management (USB hard drives) From here you can see your USB hard drive’s system information. If the hard drives’ information isn’t displayed properly, try restarting your USB hard drives and then restarting your LinkStation. Some USB hard drives must be reformatted from within LinkStation before they can be assigned shares.
  • Page 30 Advanced Settings Disk Management (Disk Check) Disk Check checks any of your hard drives for errors. To use Disk Check, select the disk that you want to check from the target pulldown and click Select Target. Then click on Start Disk Check.
  • Page 31 Advanced Settings Disk Format To format a hard drive or array, select it from the Target Disk drop box. Choose the file system desired from the File System dropbox (internal drives can only be formatted with XFS). Note that FAT32 has a 4 gigabyte filesize limit for individual files.
  • Page 32 Advanced Settings Disk Erase To remove all data from a Disk, use Disk Erase. Once erased, this data cannot be restored. Note: Disk Erase may take several hours to complete.

  • Page 33: Shared Folders

    Advanced Settings Shared Folders To add new shares on your LinkStation, select Shared Folders from the left side menu, and then click the Add button under Shared Folders Setup. To delete a share or shares, check the checkbox next to the shares you’d like to delete, and press the Delete button.
  • Page 34 Advanced Settings Adding a new Shared Folder To add a new shared folder, enter a name for it in the Shared Folder Name box and choose which Disk Space it will reside in. You may also choose which operating systems and features the share will support by putting the appropriate checks next to Shared Folder Support, and whether the share supports the Recycle Bin by putting...
  • Page 35 Advanced Settings Shared Folders (Access restrictions) To use Access Restrictions for a share, select Enable. Highlight groups or users in the All Groups/ Users column and use the left-pointing arrow buttons (located just to the left of each box) to move individual groups or users from the All Groups/Users column to the Read Only box (if you want to give them read access only) or all...
  • Page 36 Advanced Settings Shared Folders (Service Setup) To allow FTP Access to your LinkStation, choose Enable for FTP Server. To enable legacy AppleTalk support, choose Enable for AppleTalk Protocol. FTP Server Info: Enabling the FTP Server will allow users to connect to shares via FTP protocol. Their username and password is used for their login credentials, and they will only have access to shares that have read-only or writeable access to on the LinkStation.

  • Page 37: Groups

    Advanced Settings Group Management Groups allow for easier management of permissions in some networks, specifically networks with a lot of users in different departments. To Delete a group, put a check next to its name and click Delete. To add a group to your LinkStation, click Add.

  • Page 38: Users

    Advanced Settings User Management LinkStation is preconfigured with two users, admin and guest, out of the box. The admin and guest user accounts cannot be deleted. To delete any other user, put a check next to their name and click Delete. To add a new user, click Add.

  • Page 39: Passwords

    Advanced Settings User Management (changing passwords) To change an account’s password, click on the name of the account under Local User Settings. Note: if a user name and password are used to log into a user’s windows computer or domain, the same user name and password should be used when creating the user’s account on the LinkStation, or problems accessing shared...

  • Page 40: Webaccess

    WebAccess With Buffalo’s WebAccess, you can access your LinkStation from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. It’s easy to access your files, or share them with other people, wherever they may be. WebAccess is set up from within the Configuration GUI.
  • Page 41 Configuring WebAccess Select ‘Folders Setup’ in the left-side menu. Any shares on your LinkStation will appear on the list to the right. Click on the icon beside it to select a share for web access. Choose your desired level of Web Access from the ‘Web Access Settings’...

  • Page 42: Using Webaccess

    Using WebAccess To access your LinkStation remotely, open a browser window on any computer connected to the Internet and go to buffalonas.com. In the dialog box, type the BuffaloNAS name that you set on page 40. Alternately, you can go directly to your share by typing BuffaloNAS.com/your_BuffaloNAS_name in the URL window.
  • Page 43 Using WebAccess To access individual folders on the right, click on their open links. Clicking on individual files will give you other options, depending on the filetype. Clicking on the Audio link at the bottom left corner of the page will give you options for playing music files, including the opportunity to launch a Flash-based music player that will stream your audio files directly through the Web interface.

  • Page 44: Dlna Media Server

    Configuring Media Server If you have a LinkTheater or other DLNA compatible media player, this page is where you configure your LinkStation to work with it. Choose Enable for Media Servers and select the folder where your media files are stored. This may be located on a USB hard drive connected to the LinkStation if the USB Disk box is checked.

  • Page 45: Installing A Printer

    Printer Installation If a USB printer is plugged in to your LinkStation, you can easily add the printer to any Windows PC on your network. Follow these steps for each PC that you want to be able to access the printer. •...
  • Page 46 Printer Installation • Access the LinkStation by pressing Start, selecting the Run... option, and entering \\LinkStation_Name (where LinkStation_ Name is the DNS name of your LinkStation). Press the OK button when finished. • Right click on the lp icon and select Connect. •...
  • Page 47 Printer Installation • The Add Printer Wizard will launch. Select the proper driver for your printer. If the specific printer is not in the list, you will be required to insert the CD that came with your printer into your PC’s CD-ROM drive and press the Have Disk button.
  • Page 48 Printer Installation • To print a test page or configure additional printer settings, right click on the lp printer icon and select Properties. This will open the printer’s driver properties page. Press the Print Test Page button to print a test page. You •...
  • Page 49 Print Server (Delete Print Queue) If a corrupt print job is sent to a printer, printing may suddenly fail. If your print jobs seem to be locked up, clearing the print queue may resolve the issue. To delete the print queue, press the Delete button.

  • Page 50: Troubleshooting Multiple Shares

    Accessing Multiple Shares from a single PC When accessing multiple shares to a Windows PC, you may see this error message. This is caused by having multiple shares to the same resource using different login credentials. The error occurs when connecting to at least one secure, restricted share. Due to a constraint in Microsoft Windows, only one set of login credentials can access or map drive letters for a network resource such as the LinkStation.
  • Page 51 Advanced Settings Mapping Multiple Shares When mapping any share, select the Connect using a different user name option. A login and password prompt will appear. Use the username and password required by any secure, restricted shares for all shares. All mapped shares on a single PC must use the same username and password! If only unrestricted shares are being mapped, then it’s not necessary to set a username and password for shares.
  • Page 52 Advanced Settings Disk Backup To create a backup job, click on a job number. The Edit Backup Job dialog will appear.
  • Page 53 Advanced Settings Disk Backup (Edit Backup Job) A Backup Job can run regularly on a daily or weekly schedule, or immediately by appropriate choices in the Backup Job Schedule field. Date and Time for the backup may be entered, and Encryption and Compression enabled or Enable Overwrite Backup to have disabled.
  • Page 54 Advanced Settings Disk Backup (LinkStation List) The LinkStation list shows other LinkStations in your network that you can configure network backups to. Press Refresh to get a list of LinkStations on your network.

  • Page 55: Backups

    Advanced Settings Disk Backup (Add LinkStation) To add a remote LinkStation to your network, enter its numerical IP Address in the Remote LinkStation IP Address field and click the Add to List button. For remote LinkStation backups, make sure both firewalls are configured to allow traffic in and out of their networks. Note: Disk Backups between two LinkStations use port 8873 for encrypted backups and port 873 for backups with no encryption.

  • Page 56: Maintenance & Notification

    Advanced Settings Maintenance (Notification) If your LinkStation is remotely managed, you may choose to receive nightly status reports and be notified of any disk events by email. To set this up, enable Mail Notification and enter the IP Address of your SMTP server* in the SMTP Server Address field.
  • Page 57 Advanced Settings Maintenance (UPS Settings) If using an Uninterruptible Power Supply, configure the LinkStation’s UPS settings here. Note: settings on this page can only be changed while a supported UPS is connected to the LinkStation.
  • Page 58 Advanced Settings Maintenance (Restart) From the Restart page, press Restart Now button to reboot the LinkStation, bringing it back to functionality after about 120 seconds.
  • Page 59 Advanced Settings Maintenance (Initialization) Initialization is a reset procedure that restores all settings back to the default, out of box, configuration. All configuration, users, groups, and backup jobs are lost, but actual data and shares on the hard are NOT lost. If you want all data to be erased, reformat the drive.

  • Page 60: System Status

    System Status (System Information) This page shows you the System Information for your LinkStation. Firmware updates are occasionally available from www.buffalotech.com for the LinkStation Mini. These must be executed from a Windows PC on the same network. Your router, switch, or hub...
  • Page 61 Advanced Settings System Status (USB Details) This page shows you details on USB hard drives and UPSs plugged into your LinkStation. In this example, no USB hard drives are plugged in to the LinkStation.
  • Page 62 Advanced Settings System Status (Drive Properties) This page shows you the properties of all hard drives in and attached to your LinkStation.
  • Page 63 Advanced Settings System Status (Network Information) This page shows you the System Information for your network connection.

  • Page 64: Client Utility

    LinkStation Client Utility This is the Buffalo NAS Client Utility. Installed on your PC, it allows you to access each of the LinkStations (and TeraStations) on your network. Click View to get icons for each of your LinkStations. Highlight each tab to show...
  • Page 65 LinkStation Client Utility IP Address Setup From the IP Settings tab, you may enter your IP Address and Subnet Mask manually, or enable your LinkStation to acquire them automatically from a DHCP server. Press OK when you’re done.

  • Page 66: Troubleshooting

    Troubleshooting Disk Errors If LinkStation encounters a disk error, it will be reported in the LinkStation status on the top of any of the Web-Based configuration screens. Run a Disk Scan in the event of this error. If that doesn’t work, try a reformat. Reformatting the drive will delete all of the data on it so try to backup any data you can before beginning.

  • Page 67: Technical Specifications

    Technical Specifications Data Transfer Rates: 10/100/1000 Mbps Hard Drives: (2) SATA 5400 rpm Main Connector Type: RJ-45 (Ethernet) USB Interface: USB 2.0/1.1 Protocol Support: TCP/IP SMB, FTP (File Sharing) HTTP (Management) NTP (Time Synchronization) Power Supply: 100-240V 50/60Hz (110-115V US only) Client OS Support: Windows Vista™, XP, 2000,...

  • Page 68: Contact Information (Usa)

    Contact Information (North America) Buffalo Technology USA Inc. 11100 Metric Blvd., Suite 750 Austin, TX 78758 GENERAL INQUIRIES Monday through Friday 8:30am-5:30pm CST Direct: 512-794-8533 | Toll-free: 800-456-9799 | Fax: 512-794-8520 | Email: sales@ buffalotech.com TECHNICAL SUPPORT North American Technical Support by phone is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (USA and Canada).

  • Page 69: Contact Information (Europe)

    2 Bracknell Beeches, Old Bracknell Lane Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 7BW United Kingdom GENERAL INQUIRIES Email: sales@buffalo-technology.com TECHNICAL SUPPORT Buffalo Technology provides technical support in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. For opening hours and relevant telephone numbers, please go to: www.buffalo-technology.com/contact...

  • Page 70: Gpl Information

    Within the envelope containing the self addressed padded CD shipping envelope, please include a bank draft or money order for $20 (USD) (made out to Buffalo Technology) to cover our handling fee, postage and CD preparation. The CD-R should have the name of the product and revision number clearly written on the actual CD-R (not on the insert).
  • Page 71 Within the envelope containing the self addressed padded CD shipping envelope, please include a bank draft or money order for €20 (Euro) (made out to Buffalo Technology) to cover our handling fee, postage and CD preparation. The CD-R should have the name of the product and revision number clearly written on the actual CD-R (not on the insert).

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