IFA 2007: Ministation, Drivestation, Nfinity - Buffalo presents new home-networking devices

Buffalo, a company that is probably best known for its professional backup solutions, is unveiling a number of products at this years IFA aimed at the home user.

Buffalo’s MiniStation HD-PS120U2 contains a 2.5” hard drive and is housed in a shock-absorbing, handy case. As a mobile data-backup solution, it is especially interesting for notebook users. Buffalo has also given the problem of stray cables some thought. The solution : each of the four corners sports a clip that can hold the cable in place when it is wrapped around the case. This solves two problems at once. On the one hand, it improves the shock absorbance, on the other, it reduces the risk of tearing the cable from the case. It seems that in the past there have been sufficient instances of users impatiently tugging their Buffalo devices out of their notebook bags while the cable was still entangled to warrant this much attention.

The 80 Gigabyte variant HD-PS80U2 costs £52 /€77, the 120 GB model HD-PS120U2 a mere £57 / €84. Considering the very small price difference of only £5 / €7, it seems reasonable to expect that most buyers will go for the 120 GB version.

Buffalo’s proprietary Turbo USB software which now comes included with all of the company’s USB-hard drives and is also available on the support website, is an interesting and promising addition. After installation, it promises to increase data transfer speeds substantially. Of course, there is little benefit in this if you’re only copying a file or two. However, it can shave lots of time off a backup task. The principle : Buffalo removes a good deal of the USB protocol’s overhead in software. Turbo USB works independently of a motherboard’s chipset.

The Drivestation HD-HS500U2 will be the big brother to this small mobile drive, and is aimed at the desktop user. It is an external USB-2.0 storage solution based on a 2.5” drive housed in a tower-shaped case.

Although the standardizing committee behind the new wireless standard 802.11n seems to have ground to a halt, the development of network solutions using this (as yet still not finalized standard) has displayed its own dynamic of late.

If you’re planning on actually using the higher nominal bandwidth of 300 MBit/s, make sure you select products that have been optimized for „Draft 2.0“ of the 802.11n specification. Due to chipset limitations, “Draft 1.0” models (with a nominal speed of up to 270 MBit/s) can’t simply receive a firmware upgrade to make them Draft 2.0 compliant.

Buffalo is launching its Wireless-N Nfiniti Draft 2.0 Router WZR2-G300N at a very attractive price of £62 / €92.

The web-access feature, which will be integrated into the company’s network products as of November, is of special interest. The software is already available for download on Buffalo’s website. It will enable users to make documents or multimedia files (audio or video) on the user’s computer accessible from the web, worldwide. Uploads can also be allowed. Buffalo lets the user decide whether the web-access enabled computer should be bound to the user’s IP address, e.g. using dyndns.org, or whether it should use an account offered by Buffalo. If the user chooses a Buffalo account, that doesn’t mean that personal data will be copied to a Buffalo server, however. They will remain on the user’s PC. Buffalo simply provides the web-access functionality.