If you rely on WeatherLinkIP (that is, don't have an active computer connected to the VP2 Console), the disadvantages include:
1. Your archive data is "somewhere in the cloud", on a server somewhere.
2. You can only upload and save what the WeatherLinkIP allows for.
3. You can only get the data back in the format that's provided by WeatherLink's website - so processing may be difficult.
Those may not be significant factors to you - but you need to know them.
I guess you aren't familiar with the WeatherlinkIP's operation. Those listed disadvantages aren't correct.
1. 4X the normal data logger's capacity can be (but doesn't have to be) archived on a Davis server somewhere
AND the normal ISS archive data is also stored in the SRAM of the logger just as it would be with a serial or USB logger. The data on the IP logger can be directly downloaded with a remote computer using a copy of the Weatherlink software if you wish. You can either leave this access wide open to the entire world by port forwarding port 22222 (changeable if you wish) though your router (there would be no user ID/PW authentication security with this method) or you could use a VPN through your router to the IP logger on port 22222.
2. The data that comes out of the WeatherlinkIP is identical in content and format to that retrieved from the serial or USB version loggers. If you are retrieving data using a LAN connection, it is just the same as if you had your computer hooked up with a serial port or USB port logger in the console, albeit it is a bit slower to initiate and then pull the data if the WeatherlinkIP is also uploading every minute to the Weatherlink.com site. The computer TCP/IP access has to wait for the microprocessor in the TCP/IP portion of the logger to release the connection to the serial port within if it was uploading to Weatherlink.com when the computer's access request arrived.
You could think of the WeatherlinkIP as a regular serial Weatherlink with a serial to ethernet server adapter attached to it. In fact you could even home brew this yourself if you wish, but the cost for one of these adapters is about $100.
3. The data downloaded from the Davis Weatherlink.com server is identical in content and format to that out of the serial or USB version loggers. This archive data
IS protected with an ID and a password authentication. If you wish to use your data logger's storage as your normal archive storage and download it remotely, then the the Davis server could be backup storage should you ever not be able to download directly from your data logger in time to prevent an overwrite of some of your data on the logger.
The Weatherlink IP uses about
3W Edit:
0.5W (I think). Compare this to a low power draw computer (assuming your laptop on site is this low power otherwise use your own power draw figures) drawing maybe 80 watts left on 24/7. I figure that at $0.13/KWHr, the WeatherlinkIP will cover its discounted cost in a little over two years. Meanwhile you save wear and tear on your laptop's HD.
Now there are some aspects that some people consider to be drawbacks to using a WeatherlinkIP:
1. It uploads to your "pre-built", personal weather website on the Davis server which only has basic text presentation of weather data. You would have to make other provisions if you wanted a richer graphical weather website.
2. It is much more expensive initially than buying a USB or serial data logger.
3. Weather plotting and analysis programs other than Weatherlink may not yet be capable of downloading from a WeatherlinkIP or from the Weatherlink.com server as they would be from a serial or USB Weatherlink.
4. If you were having a computer server on 24/7 for some other reason then it might just as well be running a weather software progran and pulling the archived data from a cheaper serial Weatherlink rather than a more expensive WeatherlinkIP.
5. It only uploads to Weather Underground every 15 minutes via the Weatherlink.com server and not any more or less frequently. Also all the data that could be uploaded to that site isn't and it is missing the 10-min wind gust reading.
I suppose there are other drawbacks that I haven't yet considered.