User Manual LinkStation Pro Shared Network Storage www.buffalotech.com v1.
Introduction Congratulations on your new LinkStation Pro! This user manual is intended to assist you in configuring it. Because we’re constantly updating our product, 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. As time passes, future user interfaces, updated software, and later versions of this manual may be freely available for download at our web site: http://www.
Table of Contents Initial Setup.......................................................................4 Install Software..................................................................8 Accessing LinkStation Data from a PC............................. 12 Accessing LinkStation Data from a Mac........................... 13 LinkStation Layout.......................................................... 18 Advanced Settings .......................................................... 20 Network Settings...........
Connecting your LinkStation Begin by plugging your power cable and Ethernet cable into the back of the LinkStation as shown.
Connect your Cables Plug the power cord into a 120 volt wall socket or surge protecter. Plug the other end of the Ethernet cable into a hub, router, or switch in your network.
Powering up Press the power button on the front panel. LinkStation boots up. LEDs will blink as your After your LinkStation has completed booting up, check the LINK/ACT LED on the front of the LinkStation. If it’s lit, then your LinkStation is connected properly, and you can go on to page 8. If it’s not lit, turn to page 7 for troubleshooting.
Setup Notes The LinkStation’s Ethernet port will automatically adjust to use either a crossover or catch cable, so you may connect the LinkStation to your network with either type of Ethernet cable. Buffalo Technology doesn’t recommend connecting the LinkStation directly to a PC. Verify that the LINK/ACT LED on the front of LinkStation is lit (see page 6’s picture). If it’s lit, go to page 8 to continue setting up LinkStation.
Installing Software 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:\setup.exe (where d is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive). Press OK to continue. If you are installing the software on a Mac, open the CD and click LinkNavigator to begin installation.
LinkNavigator Setup Press the Begin Installation button to begin. If you’re installing on a PC, click on Connect this PC to LinkStation (the green, lower button). Mac users can skip this step. Click Next to step through the installation.
LinkNavigator Setup Continue pressing Next to step through the installation. When installation is complete, you may close the installation window.
LinkNavigator Setup is Complete! Two new icons will be on your desktop: Shortcut for LinkStation and Buffalo NAS Navigator. Clicking Shortcut for LinkStation takes you directly to the folders on your 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 51 for more on using the NAS Navigator client utility.
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 on page 29. To start using your LinkStation, you can either click on the Shortcut for LinkStation on your desktop, or you may just use drive L in My Computer, which setup has mapped to the default share in your LinkStation.
Using your LinkStation with a Mac After installing the LinkNavigator software, your Mac will have two new icons on the desktop. The Share folder is the main folder that you can put files and folders in. NAS Navigator is the LinkStation’s client utility. Clicking Share opens the main folder on your LinkStation. You can put files and folders in Share as though it were any other hard drive connected to your computer. You may add additional shares to your LinkStation on page 30.
Accessing LinkStation Data from a Mac You can manually add LinkStation Shares (folders) to your desktop by adding them 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” is your LinkStation’s IP address), and click Connect. If you don’t know your LinkStation’s IP address, see page 16.
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 Registered User credentials. Select the volume that you want to mount, such as share or share-mac, from the list of folders on the LinkStation. The share will open. A link to the shared folder will appear on your desktop.
Accessing LinkStation Data from a Mac If you don’t know your LinkStation’s IP address, there are several ways to get it. One simple method is to use the NASnavigator Client Utility (included on your CD) to find your LinkStation(s). Just click on the tab for your LinkStation and you’ll be able to read its IP address. See page 52 for more on the LinkStation client utility. You can always get the LinkStation’s IP address from your router’s configuration utility.
LinkStation Expansion LinkStation Pro has two USB 2.0 ports on the rear. These ports can be used for adding external USB Hard Drives. LinkStation will share connected USB storage devices, allowing everyone on the network to use them. Up to two external USB hard drives may be added to LinkStation Pro. To connect a USB hard drive to your LinkStation, simply plug it into one of the USB ports. Once your USB hard drive is connected, see page 27 for configuring your LinkStation to use it.
LinkStation Layout Power Button – Press and release the Power Button to turn the LinkStation on. Hold it down for three seconds to turn the LinkStation off. Link/Act LED – The Link/Act LED glows green when the LinkStation is connectied to a network. It blinks when the LinkStation is sending or receiving data. Info LED – The Info LED blinks when you have a message waiting for you in the client utility. Diag LED – The Diagnostic LED blinks to signal abnormal operation.
LinkStation Layout Init button – The red Init button allows you to return your LinkStation to factory defaults. 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Port – Use this port to connect your LinkStation to a switch, a router, or another computer. The port is autosensing, so either a conventional Ethernet cable or a crossover Ethernet cable may be used. USB Ports – LinkStation offers two USB 2.0/1.1 ports for adding external drives.
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. This works perfectly with OS X, Linux, and other non-Windows PCs. If you have a PC running the Buffalo NAS Client Utility, you can get to the Configuration GUI by clicking on Setup and choosing Configuration Settings.
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 36 to change your password. If this login prompt does not appear, your DHCP server may not be functioning correctly. If DHCP is disabled, you may re-enable it, or verify that the LinkStation’s IP Address is in the same range as that of your PC.
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 of your LinkStation (page 23). You are now at Home. Notice that the Home button is lit up in yellow.
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. To have your system time automatically set by an NTP server, enable NTP Server and enter an IP Address for the NTP server (e.g. 192.43.244.18) or use the supplied default NTP server.
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 DHCP is disabled and an IP Address is not set manually, it will default to 192.168.11.150. The LinkStation’s IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway Address, and DNS Server address may all be entered manually under IP Address Properties. Ethernet Frame Size may also be set manually on this page.
Advanced Settings Network (Workgroup/Domain) If you are unfamiliar with Domain/Active Directory networking, then leave the Network Type and Workgroup Name set to Workgroup. To make your LinkStation a member of a workgroup or domain, enter the appropriate information into the fields on this page and click Apply. Only select NT Domain if you have a Windows NT Server Domain Controller on your network. Only select Active Directory if you have an Active Directory server on your network.
Advanced Settings Disk Management (Drive Properties) This page shows the properties for the main drive in your LinkStation Pro. If you have any USB hard drives plugged into the linkstation, their properties will appear here as well.
Advanced Settings Disk Management (USB hard drives) From here you can see your USB hard drives’ setup 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. Select Disk Format from the left-side menu to format your USB hard disk(s).
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.
Advanced Settings Disk Management (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 2 gigabyte single file size limit. If you choose FAT32 for your file system, you will not be able to store single files larger than 2 gigabytes on the drive. Use of the XFS or EXT3 file systems is recommended. Press Select Target Disk when done.
Advanced Settings Shared Folders To begin setting up 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. Deleting shares will remove the share and erase all of the files and folders inside that share.
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 a selecting Enable or Disable. Enter a Shared Folder Description and a Remote Backup Password if desired.
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 the way to the Writable box, if you want to give them full access to the share.
Advanced Settings Shared Folders (Service Setup) To allow FTP Access to 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.
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. Add a name and a description to the Add New Group fields. Put checks next to each Member User that you want to be part of the group. Click Apply when your group is set up the way you want it.
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. The Add New User dialog will appear. Enter a User Name, Password, and User Description for the new user and click the Apply button.
Advanced Settings User Management (changing passwords) To change an account’s password, click on the name of the account under 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 folders may occur. Enter the desired new password in both boxes and click Apply.
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.
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.
Advanced Settings Disk Backup To create a backup job, click on a Job Number. The Edit Backup Job dialog will appear.
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 disabled. Enable Overwrite Backup to have each scheduled backup write over the previous backup, or Differential Backups to backup only files changed since the previous backup.
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.
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.
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. Select a Subject line for the emails (i.e. “LinkStation Status Report”) and enter the email address of each person you want to receive notification emails into a Recipient Mail Address field.
Advanced Settings Maintenance (Alert Settings) Alerts can be configured on the LinkStation to make audible noises when a problem is detected. Along with the audible noise, alert emails will be sent out if Mail Notification was properly configured. Please select the features you would like to receive an audible sound alert from and then press the Apply button.
Advanced Settings Maintenance (Status LED Settings) Adjust the brightness of the LEDs on your LinkStation’s front panel here. Press Apply to update the settings.
Advanced Settings Maintenance (Shutdown) From the Shutdown page, press Apply to shutdown LinkStation. This has the same function as holding down the power button on the front of LinkStation, but may be done remotely. Turning on the LinkStation after a shutdown requires a physical button push on the front of LinkStation. The Restart Now button simply reboots the LinkStation, bringing it back to functionality after about 120 seconds.
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.
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 Pro. These must be executed from a Windows PC on the same network. Your router, switch, or hub should pass through ports 8873 and 22939 for this to work (most do).
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.
Advanced Settings System Status (Drive Properties) This page shows you the properties of all hard drives in and attached to your LinkStation.
Advanced Settings System Status (Network Information) This page shows you the System Information for your network connection.
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 Refresh List to get tabs for each of your LinkStations. Each tab shows the Host Name, Workgroup, IP Address, and Subnet Mask of the associated LinkStation, as well as the version of firmware it’s running. With a LinkStation’s tab selected, you can click on the View Shares button to go directly to its root share.
LinkStation Client Utility IP Address Setup Here, you may enter your IP Address and Subnet Mask manually, or enable your LinkStation to acquire them automatically from a DHCP server. You’ll need the administrator password to use this screen. Press OK when you’re done.
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. Finally, if none of the above solutions help, then please contact Technical Support for further assistance.
Technical Specifications LAN Standards: IEEE 802.3u; IEEE 802.3ab; IEEE 802.3 Transmission Types: 1000BASE-T: 8B1Q4, PAM5; 100BASE-TX: 4B5B MLT-3; 10BASE-T Manchester Coding Access Media: CSMA/CD Media Interface: RJ-45 USB Standard: USB 2.
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