"Issue 1: Power
Unit in Linkstation spoiled, and repair cost = half the cost of brand
new linkstation. We have no choice but to repair because we can't find
the old model anymore and swapping harddisk to new linkstation won't
work (according to Buffalo Tech Support)
Propose Solution: Use external power adapter instead of build. It's easier and cheaper to replace.
Issue
2: Network Port in Linkstation spoiled, and repair cost = twice the
cost of a brand new linkstation to replace the mainboard.
Propose
Solution: have dual Network Port or use more reliable components. We
don't mind paying more for quality hardware. Buffalo NAS spoiled too
easily."
Our products are NAS devices, not fileservers. The devices are built
to be small and efficient. This allows us to fill a niche market that
is not covered by much more expensive fileservers. Replacement parts
are outside of our niche, because as you've noticed, repair services
cost a significant fraction of the product's low cost.
The newer Linkstations have external power adapters, and the newest Terastation III has dual network ports.
"Issue 3: Backup Freeze, Factory Default setting is the only way to resolve this, but it will wipe off user database.
Propose Solution: Option to terminate a running backup, and Function to import and export settings, especially user settings.
Issue 4: Backup confusing and incomplete
Propose
Solutions: Have a complete mirroring feature to another linkstation on
the same network. Backup to have append feature to keep multiple
versions. Label backup option clearly with proper description."
The new Terastation III has such features. The backup software works fine in all but a few scenarios, which are usually caused by some irregularity in the configuration or firmware, thus resetting the device and reflashing the firmware is the usual fix.
"Issue 5: When Buffalo NAS spoiled, there is no alternative to restore it.
Propose
Solution: Ensure new NAS is back-compatible with old models so that
when our NAS spoiled, we can replace it easily by purchasing a new one
and transfer the data and setting over instead of repairing (since
repair cost is more expensive than new purchase). The problem with most
NAS is that the hardware used is non-standard, making replacement
almost impossible when hardware spoiled."
We reserve the right to update our hardware when technology is made available, in order to keep our prices low, and our customers satisfied. Every consumer and business electronics manufacturer does the same thing.
"Issue 6: User
management is too primitive. When the users get too many, there is no
proper tool to search or sort. Worse is that the order is sort by
default according to the sequence of users entering into the system
first and there is no way to change this.
Propose Solution: Add
search or sort tool. If not, at least sort by alphabetical order will
help greatly. Also, it will be helpful if there is exception option. As
such all users are allow to access this folder except..."
The Terastation III and Linkstation LS-XHL have much-improved user management functions. The permissions that you wish to set are really only available on a dedicated fileserver, not a NAS.
"Issue 7: There's more user management issue: When a user is given
write permission to a folder whereby everyone is given read-only. But
because this user who is also in the everyone list, get downgraded to
read-only despite having write permission. Thus, the group account
become quite useless because of this wrong priority bug.
Proposed
Solution: If a user has conflicting permissions, the highest permission
level should be taken into account, not the lowest."
This is normal behavior on our products, not a bug. "Most-restrictive" permissions (Linux and Unix) as used by our products are more secure than Windows's "least restrictive" permissions.
"Issue
8: No fix disk utility. Linkstation indicate read error and check disk
option did not find any problem. We have to take out the harddisk and
boot into a Linux to run fix disk utility to resolve this, then put
back the harddisk into the linkstation.
Proposed Solution: Have a proper disk check and fix utility, or verify data to avoid such corruption."
The disk check performs a filesystem check on the RAID or single disk. Further utilities can cause even more damage to the data, especially when used by someone not experienced with them. The great majority of our customers are not tech-savvy, because our devices are built with user-friendlyness as a higher priority than infinite flexibility. If you wish to have COMPLETE control over a computer system, you must build and install the OS yourself.
Message Edited by Colin137 on 05-26-2009 10:56 PM