Can you start with one disk and add a second disk later without destroying your data?

I asked D-Link for comment, but haven't heard back. I don't think you can. The only case in which it might work is if you are using the disks in "standard" mode, i.e. as separate drives.

Update 12/13/2006: D-Link confirmed that if you are using "standard" mode, you can start with one drive, add a second and not lose data. They recommend, however, that you start with your first drive in the right-hand slot due to a limitation in the current firmware. Here's why:

"If you start with a drive on the left, it will be named Volume_1. When you add a second drive in the right hand bay, it will take over the Volume_1 name and the first drive will be renamed Volume_2. All of the information is still there and everything is fine, but it can give the perception that a person has lost their data if they have a Windows network drive mapped to Volume_1. The user would just need to map a new network drive to Volume_2 to get to their data."

D-Link said this is being addressed in future firmware.

Looking at the performance results, the D-Link clearly seems to have much better hardware performance. It's OS, LAN, drive controller and RAID performance seem excellent and clearly are limited by the junk Western Digital drives the reviewer chose to install. I would never install Western Digital drives in a production environment, especially in a NAS/SAN role. I also wouldn't pit them against the Seagate's in the HP Media Center for benchmarking.
In fact I personally refuse to deploy WD's in any capacity. Their long history of reliability issues and data loss are too hard to ignore.
I'd love to see the D-Link retested with a high end, high performance pair of drives.
That aside, the review was thorough and well done and the data was clear enough for me to easily see that the drives were the limiting factor. As for the few bugs, D-Link is good about updates and I'm sure they'll adress those issues shortly.
I also look forward to the inevitable OSS replacement firmware (like OpenNAS/OpenWRT) for this model. I'm sure we'll see even more cool features then. Like ReaserFS support and plentiful USB device addons.

Thanks for the great info and review on yet another excellent D-Link product.

Tachyon, thanks for the comment. I have been asking manufacturers to supply BYOD NAS products with drives, and the WD's are what D-Link provided.

Just to let you all know, there are a serious problems with ext3 filesystem on DNS-323. Initially I thought it was just me having problems, but now it looks that's not the case. I hope ppl here won't get mad if I post external link - http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/fo...e=2&pp=10.

It is for sake of all those in possesion of this NAS who would prefer ext3 over (default) ext2 as they format their drives initially. Be aware of it, since D-Link doesn't list it as a bug yet :(

Hope this helps to save at least some of you from loss of data I was "lucky" to experience...

Except of this (although serious) bug, I am very happy with the DNS-323 :)

Great performance, no big issues yet. Running latest v1.02 firmware using EXT3. Documentation is vague and weak - reading between the lines helps.

Installed a 300 GB then loaded up with data without issue. Added another 500 GB the day after without issue. Yes, running as separate volumes and adding later wasn't an issue.

Vista Ultimate was problematic, had to set local security policy to recognize legacy NTLM authentication, then everything worked fine.

I have a Linksys NSLU2, good device but really needs gigabit.

I picked one of these up about two weeks ago. I am using 2x Seagate 7200.10 500 Gig drives in a RAID1 array. Setup was a breeze, and I have most of my data backed up on it. Now all there is left to do is to figure out how to implement the users & groups so that I can make certain areas Read only to users other than me.

Is the iTunes server available in the D-Link DNS-323 relevant for playing iTunes music on a PC AND on a multimedia player? In other words, will I be able to play the protected iTunes files (m4p and m4v) stored on the D-Link through a UPnP AV player connected to my stereo?

If the iTunes server is only relevant for the PC, then what is its benefit? I should be able to add any folder, including folders on a NAS, to the iTunes library on my PC.

Posting this reply from D-Link:
"Question 1:
The DNS-323 has the iTunes server built-in to allow playback of unprotected iTunes music across the network. This means any Mac or PC can share iTunes content stored on the DNS-323.

Playback of iTunes files on a digital media player varies according to the device. Some UPnP AV music devices can play unprotected iTunes content. D-Link UPnP AV media players do not currently play iTunes files.

Question 2:
The advantage of the iTunes server being on the DNS -323 is that the DNS-323 iTunes server is automatically discovered by any iTunes client on a Mac or PC and the content appears as shared volume on the home page of the iTunes software on the Mac or PC. The user avoids the time consuming chore of searching for a network folder and having to share the various folders containing iTunes content."

Nice review, but missing a few key pieces of information. First, could you give more information on power consumption at idle (drives spun down) and at full load? It would be great to be able to calculate what it will cost to run this 24x7 for 365 days.

Second, it would be great to have a specific noise measurment - again at idle and full load. I realize that this will be drive-dependent, so use the same drives in all your testing :-). Is this NAS suitable for the bedroom or living room or should it be buried in a closet?

Third, in case it is buried in a closet, what is the operating temperature range of the unit? (idle and full load) Can you get drive temperatures from the webpage? Email alerts? SMART alerts?

I must say I am very satisfied with this product. I have zero complaints. Running 2 WD SATA 320GB SD Models. Seems the unit sometime does not go into standby, other then that is is great.

Has anyone actually tested replacing a RAID1 disk in this device, such as the reviewer did for the THecus n2100 on this site?

If you have I would like to know:
1. Did you receive an email alert telling you that the drive failed?
2. Did the drive automatically format and mirror when you replaced it?

Any other comments regarding this experience would be helpful. I am trying to decide between this device and the Thecus N2100 device.

Thank you

We normally check this, but didn't on this review. But the basic requirement of a RAID device is that it can restore data to a new drive if only one drive fails. The DNS-323 should be no exception.

The email question is a separate issue. Perhaps someone else can comment.

i'd like 2 see them add wol
wake-up-on-lan (a Esata port would be nice but i'd rather wol) if i had a choice

btw im bedridden another reason it would be great

My DNS-323 is still up and running strong. Haven't had any troubles with it at all (Knock on wood). I still have the same setup as I did in my previous comment (2x Seagate 7200.10 500 Gig drives in a RAID1 array). I have been able to (somewhat) figure out the user/group setup, and have it so that I am admin with read/write to root, and all the other users/groups have read only, with an exception being a single folder off of root that I gave read/write access so that if anyone wants to move files to the NAS, they go to this folder, and I can move them to where they need to go (I hate things not being organized...). Anyways, I am also using a D-Link WBR-2310 router in my network. I have ports 80, 20, 21 forwarded to my DNS-323 so that I can remotly get into the NAS to do any change work I need to. I have encountered a few issues and wanted to try to get some feedback....

1. I can't for the life of me get the email notifications for this box to work. My WBR-2310 supports email notifications also, and they work FLAWLESSLY. When I configure the DNS-323 with the same settings, no dice... using a gmail account. Any ideas why this aspect of the DNS-323 doesn't like me?

2. I have an FTP server running. When I FTP to this box with a command prompt, I am able to properly log into the NAS box, and i see *ONLY* what I am supposed to (Volume_1/FTP)... I switched the read/write account to be able to view root, and after logging back in, that is what I saw, changed back to the "FTP" folder, and all seemed well. I noticed an issue that if a folder has a space in the name, I cannot CD to it, but that could be my novice command prompt FTP skills..... My issue is this, when I use an internet browser, IE or Firefox, and put in the FTP address, the device comes up, no login prompt, and ROOT IS VIEWABLE! Is there anything I can do to correct this, or to limit FTP access to command prompt style connections only?? (doubt it but worth a shot to ask). I have not tried a dedicated FTP program yet...


For the other user asking about noise, I have my DNS-323 sitting on top of my desk. It is a cheap $40 office depot job, with my shuttle case on one side, the DNS-323 on the other. The only time this thing is audible, is when the drives spin up.


I would like to note lastly that the print server is *NOT* compatible with multifunction HP printers. I have an HP PSC2170 (I THINK, off the top of my head), and it will not allow me to set it up. I think this is more of an issue with the PSC2170 than the DNS-323, I can't seem to locate drivers that the DNS-323 will accept.


Questions cliff notes...
1. Why won't the email notificaitons work for me?
2. How do I limit access to FTP via browser, or prompt browser for login BEFORE it just up and gives read access to all?
3. Is there a D-Link hardware forum where there might be more users with solutions? I haven't found a dedicated D-Link forum yet.

lost most control of my fingers so pleaqe bear with me, it hurts like hell 2 type.

after itune server ran 4 a few hrs. drive hung. after correcting itunes no longer recognizes my dns-323
btw did u know - per tech- after u update the firmware u have 2 reformat your drives.. its kinda hidden inside the raid button

other minor problems.

Hey all fellow DNS-323 owners. Just wanted to share http://forum.dsmg600.info/ with you. It is a forum I found for the D-Link DSM-G600 and DNS-323. Some pretty good info over there. I am going to try setting up telnet access to my DNS-323 tonight (if I have time), if not, it will have to wait until Wednesday.

Further info on my previous comment is that the FTP issue is that read-only access is granted to ANONYMOUS... I verified that through command prompt FTP also. I put in a ticket with D-Link support about it on Friday or Saturday, but have yet to hear back from them.

I wanted to let everyone know that in the 1.02b firmware released yesterday, D-Link has corrected the Anonymous read access to ROOT...

I also wanted to share some good reference material I found on the DNS-323...


http://wiki.dns323.info/

Recommended this unit to a friend who needs RAID1. Just noticed that the array does not rebuild properly after a single disk fails and it is replaced. There are some indications that this might be fixed in the latest (beta) firmware release. Can anyone confirm this?

If not, after a disk fails, friend will have to take backup of remaining disk, reformat the two disks, rebuild array and restore the data. What a PITA! Negates most of the point of RAID1 :-(

Not sure what the problem was with Matthew Lemin's friend. But D-Link said that all that needs to be done if one drive fails in a RAID 1 set is to install a replacement drive and reboot the DNS-323

This may be a good NAS, but I've done the dance with too many DLink products that have been lame, especially their initial versions. Apparently, DLink needs a couple of revisions to get this right. Why DLink can't wait to get a product right before its release is beyond me. DLink makes good networking equipment, but I suggest avoid there NAS and MediaLounge products at all costs.

I have had this NAS for a while and have been having a couple of problems

1) the button the front does not work. I have had to pull the cable in the back to restart the NAS.
2) The NAS disconnects from my system periodically (every 5 days or so), and the only way I can get it to reconnect is by restarting the NAS.


Any thoughts on these? I was going to check to see if my router is dropping the connection, but I don't have a problem with other things connected to it (i.e. don't have to restart my networked printer every several days).

Thanks

I apologize for not including this originally. I meant to say that I have a mapped drive to the NAS, and it disconnects periodically. I have the NAS connected to my network through my router, not via USB.

Regards,

Good source for DNS-323 hacking info.
DNS323Wiki

Overall enjoy the product. But, the fan is a pain. It has an up and down type hum noise when idle. Very annoying.

Hi,

I recently got this for price reasons and most comments seemed reasonable on it. I am a) finding xfer rates off a USB 2.0 external 300Gb 16mb cache drive to it extremely sloooooooooooooow for one (on a 10/100 Linksys WRT850G router) and b) lost the device after saying the path was too deep....it was a couple/few directories deep from top level for gods sake! Gimme a break! I did update it to the 1.03 firmware after formatting the drives as RAID 1 for data integrity. I power cycled it and it wasn't found. I did it a second time after a bit and waited before powering it back up and now it finds the device.

So the question is would it behoove me to get the latest D-Link Gigabit router (my main PC's mobo has 10/100/1000 as well as my laptop and my other desktop is just 10/100 which is ok for the time being)? That should give me better xfer bandwidth. What I am trying to get done is copy all my mp3's to it so it can be accessed via the local home network and run the iTunes server on it. I do my backups via Ghost to another external USB 320Gb for all 3 systems as well. I am finding it to be pretty quiet and smaller than I thought it was going to be (which is good).

Thanks in advance.

Mike

I have the drive spin down time set through your interface at the default 5 minute. And in fact they do spin down after 5 minute of inactivity.

However, the spin back up within 1 minute. This is the case even if there is no requests made of them (from the attached PC's).

Tried it with:
No activity on either PC - same behavior as described above
Both PC's turned off - same behavior as described above
DNS-323 disconnected from the network - same behavior as described above

Upgraded to firmware version 1.3 - no change

As the drive lives are known to be degraded by their cummulative spin time, not to mention power/heat concerns, the fact that they immediately spin back up is of concern in the long term.

My guess is that there is some log/flag/other that the system wants to write to the drive concerning the status of the system. Since the final test
(above) was with it disconnected from the network, it can't be anything external to the box that is causing this.

Configuration is: 2 300Gb drives using RAID1

Anyone else seeing this?
JW

Yes, this problem of the disks getting 'back to life' is very annoying.
I've contacted DLINK support a number of times with no result. The problem have been "forwarded to the PM". I am very frustrated with this. If you have this problem, please contact DLINK support - maybe this will get them to fix it.

Gil

Did you see this from the DNS-323 Wiki (http://wiki.dns323.info/information:known_issues)?

"Disc Spin-up Issue

Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23 and 1.02
Severity: Medium
D-Link correction: N/A

Description: If you have, for some reason, failed to print from the unit there might be unfinished jobs in the lp-queue. The printer deamon will access this directory every 10th minute or so, causing the disc to spin-up.

Spin-ups have been reported even after the workaround has been performed. If this happens, print one succesful page and it should then be fixed.

Workaround: Remove the directory .lp in NASHDD_1 (1.01 FW) or NASVolume_1 (1.02 FW) or telnet to the device and clear the lp-queue with command /sys/crfs/LPRng/lprm. To see the lp queue, use /sys/crfs/LPRng/lpq"

The forum offers a workaround. I've tried it and it does not always work and in any case you can't use the print server if you use this workaround...
I have been in contact with Dlink. They should solve this problem - I believe it's in their software.

I'm curious if there would be any way to set the DNS-323 up so that it shuts down gracefully and safely when the power goes out if it's connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). I don't know if this would even be possible without firmware hacks and a USB connection to the UPS

Be warned, I bought one, works great, but the password length for self created users has a maximum of only 8 characters. This gives me a real pain, because I have to change all passwords in the network back from >10 chars to 8 chars. I've opend a case at Dlink for the flaw.

Please users also open cases about this, it should be fixed and allowed more then 8 chars.

I have to reboot the PC before I can access the NAS now. I turned off power option and recently added a printer to the USB port. Prior to this it was doing the same thing. I double click on the share and it says name in use and won't be reconnected. What is with this? I sent a trouble request to DLink this morning about this.

Why has noone bothered with any responses here on this item? I see others have it. Do they not have this issue for some reason? What router are you using, anything specific to change to get rid of this problem? I've filed to DLink on this and responded that the problem is still persisting even after router firmware update (which I thought fixed it because it was ok for 3-4 days uptime/connection/mounted).

Hi All
I would love to know if I can set the dns-323 up as a web server, or if there is any similar device that can do the same set of functions plus web serving?

I know this can do FTP, but I would love to be able to do HTTP as well, so I can host web pages on it rather than on my PC.

Help Appreciated!

The DNS-323 doesn't support web serving. Check out any of the Synology NASes, which include full LAMP serving capability.

The only unit at Fry's was a return.
The previous customer set the admin pw.
Several calls to D-Links script-drivn CS was useless.
1- You cannot reset the pw w/o knowing the pw.
2- You cannot flash to reset default w/o the pw.
3- There is no reset button to reset defaults.
4- You CANNOT speak to anyone that knows anything.
5- Requests to speak to supervisors always get ditched.
Going back to the store this morning.
Worse tech support I have EVER been forced through.

Not sure if this will help anyone, but it's something I've noticed.

It seems that you need a separate account on the DNS for each networked drive that you want to map to the DNS for every computer. So if you have computers name jim and bob, and directories "music" and "video" on your DNS, and you want both jim and bob to have networked drives that map to the music and video directories, you need to create four accounts on the DNS. What I've been doing when creating user accounts on the DNS is just using a pattern like "jimmusic", "jimvideo", "bobmusic", "bobvideo". On bob, I'd create a drive mapping to the DNS music directory with the user "bobmusic", then one to the video directory with the user "bobvideo".

Again, this could be totally irrelevant to anyone's problems, but it definitely didn't seem intuitive to me, since I would have assumed I could just make one account on the DNS, that has access to both the video and music directories, then used that account for both networked drives on both computers. Or even just requiring one account for each computer would have been nice (so computer "jim" could use a single "jim" DNS user account for any number of networked drives it wants to map to DNS directories.

Something else that seems to be the case (though nothing seems to be consistent with this thing) is that you can't create any user accounts with the word "root" or "admin" within the name. Not even "jimroot". Actually, I take that back. I think what was happening when I was trying this was that the users couldn't be assigned to a group. I would assign the account to a group while creating it, hit "save" and the user would be added with no group name. Weird, but "jimtop" worked fine. ha ha

Regarding Dlink DNS 323 I have set up users and passwords, groups, etc. I have also set up folder permissions. However when I try an access the folders the user name is fixed to guest and is greyed out, so I cannot change it. How do I access the folders with the appropriate user names?

Even with the latest firmware from the USA Dlink website, I experience problems to transfer a huge number of files via FTP to the device. Moreover, if you create a username like this ****admin (**** means something with "admin" at the end) and then you create a FTP account with this username,It will siply not be shown in the FTP account list. This may be the same for network share...I have not tested it. The other problem is the passwords for users....8 characters maximum. The third problem is the lack of data recovery features in case of a crash. An another problem is the lack of features for bandwith control per user...and the mac adress of the Unit is sometimes detected on the network as a set of zeros.

Hi, Just got this and first thing I did was a RAID 1 test. I put about 300GB of data in a 2 x 500GB RAID 1 configuration. I then powered the unit down and pulled out one of the drives. I powered the unit back up and got an email saying one of the drives has failed. I powered off, put a new drive in (same type/size) and powered the unit back on again. I then got a message during login that the new drive has to be formatted. After formatting, it said it need to restart. After restart I was able to login and in the status tab, it indicated that there was approx 120 min left to synchronize the drives. So far so good right. I checked the contents and # of files plus file size matched what I originally had. The next day I checked the files again, just to be sure and I had lost half my files. Ok this is worrying. I then decided to repeat the whole process again. This time, and again usually 24 hrs later, I had lost 90% of my files. Some files are always left remaining but I have no clue as to why it is losing my files. I haven't gotten to Dlink support yet. BTW I am running 1.03 firmware with Seagate drives. Also, I don't believe it loses files when i don't do the break/restore RAID.

...Mike

I plugged in a couple of SAMSUNG 500GB disks and set the box to two independent disks available separately. Setup went on well though it was not easy. Transfering about 300GB to each disk took an unreasonable long time moving the bits through a gigabite network. Basically video, music and photos. After the process completed, the files were easily readable. My surprise was that following day some 50% of files in disk 1 and 100% of files in disk 2 were not existing but they were using the "space" in the disk. Tried to recover the files in different ways -in the DNS 232 and out of the box- but failed completely (DO NOT STORE VALUABLE FILES HERE). Complete lack of support from D-Link. None knows about this product. Utilities to manage the disks are extremely poor (unclear instructions with several mistakes take you into useless loops).
The retailer won't take my unit back since I spent too long triying to recover the files. That was my last product from D-LINK.

I too tried a simple mirroring test (Raid 1 configuration) using the 1.03 firmware and two Seagate 500GB (16 MB cache) SATA II drives. After copying a substantial amount of data onto the drive pair, I then removed one of the drives, then added some more data to the NAS. I then re-inserted the removed drive, rebooted and waited for the Re-Sync to complete. After Re-Sync, the 'extra' data I had written was nowhere to be found and the extra space used was not recovered. This does not instill much confidence in the 'raid 1' configuration.

Any idea if/when the EXT3 and 'defrag' options will be made available again?

The USB print server seems to work well except that I can't seem to 'rename' the printer under Windows XP Pro to something a bit more user-friendly.

is it possible to connect more than 1 printer to the usb port using a hub?

Pros: simple and good looking device, honorable performance, no-tools needed to plug-in the 2 disks.

Cons: pathetic user and groups management, no ext3 disk maintenance tools, lousy firmware despite new versions, loud-not-for-your-living-room fan, cripple itunes server unable to handle my 60,000 mp3 collection, too simplistic FTP server with no logs, and last but not least: does it detect disk failures at all???

I found out that one of my two mirrored disk was dead but my dns-323 never sent me an email notification (geee! I don't know for how long I've been working on 1 disk, perhaps several weeks?).

The email test button does work however, but the 323 failed to sent me a notification... or didn't it detect detect the disk failed at all. The status page in the 323's admin console doesn't say.

Needless to say I don't even want to find out: I'll eBay this device ASAP and get me a Synology or a Buffalo.

I haven't tried it, but apparently DLink does not support this. Would be nice :-)

Got this small box few weeks ago, have tried various HDD in RAID 1, and got mixed results. For example with Samsung spinpoint500G drives i´ve got the same as descripted above - missing files, the same was with one WD 320 G RE disc. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 was too noicy and very often too warm. At the end i heve two Hitachi deskstar 500G from T7K500 family and it seems by good. A friend of mine has two WD 5000AAKS drives installed in this device and he is very satisfied. Seems to be a big lotto game to find suitable drives.

I'm assuming you cannot connect to your iTunes server on this DNS-323 from the internet? I found some articles on how to do this from PC to PC, but how do I enable SSH on the DNS-323 (http://sevitz.com/2005/03/how_to_share_your_music_via_itunes_on_the_net)?

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

I have tested several of the low cost NAS units, including the routers that have one or two USB ports for plugging in external USB drives. Most of them are difficult to set up, or unreliable, or too expensive for my budget.

My basic need is to have a common file storage device to be shared by three networked computers at home. Files are backed up from this unit to a USB hard drive connected to one of my computers. I already have file backup software in use.

I came across a Vantec Nexstar NST-375LX NAS Hard Disk Enclosure. It has a LAN port for plugging into my existing router. As an alternative, use the USB connection for direct connection to one of my computers. This is useful for disk defrag, which most other NAS units do not have the provision for defrag.

The NST-375LX is very easy to set up. There are no drivers to be installed on each computer, which may have some negative impact on the computer.

Please test this unit and let others know about this low cost NAS.

Looks decent but its an IDE tho, would be ideal if it supported SATA instead

Anyone else think the USB print server is unbelievably slow - is there a trick to speeding it up ?

Horrible product. The Web interface stays running. The drives lockup. I thoght it was because of 2 drives. Removed one of them. Heavy transfers lckup the drive still. Dropped seed to 100Mb/s from 1Gb/s and still having same problems. Upgraded the firmware to lates 1.03. Still same problem.
DO I need to reformat? IS D-Link going to fix this problem. At $200 in cost, this is not amusing.

The URL for the D-Link DNS-323 GPL code has changed. It is now:
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/GPL/DNS-323/

I have done everything possible to get this NAS to allow me to sign on as a user. I have configured it over and over again, and it will not permit me. It did in the begining but now no way. I have reset everything, I have restored everything, I have reformatted EVERYTHING ......

It would be nice to see an updated review discussing how D-Link removed support for EXT3 rather than fix it.

I found the USB print server to be extremely slow on Windows XP. My workaround was to map LPT2 to the shared resource (e.g. dlink323lp) which makes response nearly instantaneous. Then you need to add a local printer on LPT2 using the appropriate driver for your printer. Response time dropped from 60 secs to 1-2 secs.

Does this support streaming to XBox 360?