D-Link NAS 2-Bay SATA Enclosure

The best network HD I ever used.

Posted Jul 10, 2007 - Just returned WD MyBook World II Edition and bought this D-Link DNS-323. The WD MyBook bundle software doesn't support Windows Vista for one, the MyBook tends bulky, loud and hot. On the other hand, the D-Link DNS-323 has metal cover and very quite fan built-in. There are two things need everyone's attention: one is DNS-323 only come with enclosure without any HD. You need to buy either one or two SATA (Yes! SATA, not the slow EIDE!) It's way easy to install by yourself without tools. Two, if you upgrade your DNS-323's firmware to 1.03, you need to download the newer vision of "Easy Search" from D-Link's website. Otherwise, the older vision won't recognize your HDs in your DNS-323. Remember!

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Great Home Networked Storage & Backup Device

Posted Mar 6, 2007 - Overall, I think this is a great device considering how critical it is for home networks to easily protect and share their valuable data (photos, music, videos, financial records, etc.). And with 5 computers in the house working over a wired and wireless network, this was a great option to quickly and easily set up a device that can store data that can easily be shared and provide a way to continuously back up data on many computers to this centralized network storage device. The supplied Memeo AutoBackup software is amazing, and I have tried a number of free and not-free backup softwares. Memeo is designed for a home user that needs simple yet effective rules for selecting specific locations (folders) or types of data (docs, pictures, financial data) to back up -- and then runs easily and efficiently in the background. Back to the network storage device, where I ran into problems is when I tried to get fancy with my setup, adding users and groups, setting disk space quotas, and restricting network access (passwords, specific folders, etc). That was a bit of a challenge, and the instructions offer just the minimum of information and no real guidance on how and why you would do certain things. And I ran into a bug when trying to map the network drive in Windows XP Pro after adding advanced features-- not sure if the bug is XP or the NAS device -- but in any case I had to delete all the advanced set-up and return back to the default (wide open access from all my computers) to be able to get it to be mapable again. I just hope the device cannot be accessed from outside my LAN firewall since I don't really have any password or access restrictions (other an admin configuration) in place now. Given my problems with advance features, I decided not to open the device up to access from outside my LAN firewall so am not using the FTP capability for remote access. Still, I would highly recommend this device -- it is great for the basic home user and protecting your data and sharing across your home network. I will just look forward to a better manual and for all the quirks to be worked out in the upcoming firmware updates so I can kick this thing into higher gear.

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Excellent Product

Posted Feb 6, 2007 - I was looking to setup a NAS on my network and after looking at a few devices out there....this seemed to be the best one. It took me about 15 min to get it set up and start formatting the drives (I used an EXT2,Linear setup - that's all I needed). I then proceeded to load my data on the drives without a hitch. This is where the gigabit port comes in handy.:-). It was a snap to set up the upnp server and my media lounge player (dsm-520) found the server instantly after I did a rescan for servers. If anyone is looking for an easy-to-use NAS enclosure...they should seriously look at this product (IMHO).

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Best bang for the buck NAS

Posted Jul 31, 2007 - I had been researching for a moderately priced NAS that would provide both redundancy (via RAID) along with print server functionality. The DNS-323 provides both. You can get NAS (network accessible storage) ready units of other brands, but most provide one option or the other, and not both. Additionally the drive is scalable, so you can use twin 250GB HDDs (as I do), or install 750GB+ HDDs as others have, or other sizes. FTP functionality is just the icing on the cake. For those concerned about the Linux file formatting, and accessibility with Windows - fuggetabboutit. Default formatting of EXT2 is easily accessible if need be, outside of the RAID within windows using a number of 3rd party apps (search for linux ext2 IFS). Very easy to install. Follow recommendations and upgrade the firmware before you do anything. Keep in mind there are newer versions of the Easy search tool if you need it, available on DLink's website. There is a beta firmware 1.04 in the works as well that uses windows passthrough authentication. Highly recommended.

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Little NAS that could

Posted Jun 19, 2007 - This is a great little NAS server. For a minimum price (under $200 plus the prices of the drives), you can get a reliable and fast RAID1 (mirrored drives) array that is accessible throughout your network./ I have not tried all the bells and whistles available, but I can attest that you can transfer a 1GB file to this NAS in under 4 minutes from a WinXP PC. Too bad it cannot be expanded... Note: Make sure you upgrade the firmware (in my case to 1.03) BEFORE using it. The firmware upgrade may force you to reformat your drives...

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Nice NAS

Posted 1 year ago - This NAS replaced a Linksys NAS-200. This one out performs the Linksys in every category. File xfer took hours on the Linksys with speeds up to 4MB/sec. This D-link with it's Gigabit connectivity has speeds up to 20mb+/sec. I can actually bare to watch the file xfer now. It's so easy to setup too. I was up and running within 10minutes. Mapping out drive letters to folders on the NAS is a breeze. It has a built-in print server, ftp server, Upnp server and it even has iTunes server. Another good thing is that it does not have any software that needs to be installed. Not even a driver like the Linksys. Well worth the price! For Mac users: It works well with TimeCapsule.

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Very good product

Posted Jan 4, 2008 - I choose D-LINK over Linksys on this NAS product, which is cheaper but has been reported many problems. I only got this one yesterday and I put 2 WD 500GB HD into it. I put into disc and it found the device, then I set it up with RAID 0. The setup was super easy. I only got a problem with some non-English files

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Neat NAS Drive

Posted Jul 11, 2007 - So far (knock on wood), this s a pretty neat device. I upgraded from the SC101 (which wouldn't recommend buying). The drive/access speed seems decent, but I haven't experimented with it too much. One thing that does seem a little odd is how the User ID/Groups are set up for remote access. I seems a little like MS Active Directory, but if I play around with it a little more I'll probably figure it out. This is definitely a nice tool, and seems to be worth the $$.

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Dlink DNS-323 SATA NAS

Posted Apr 15, 2007 - This box is easy to install, no tool required. It has all the major features I am looking for : central storage for data, audio, video, ftp access, upnp server. I am not sure the usb port supports usb storage, and multi-function printers with scanning over the network. It even has iTunes server, and DHCP server, which I am not interested in. It's a lot quieter than previous NAS boxes I owned like Netgear SC101, Dlink DSM-G600, Lacie Ethernet. But the noise is still there, and it's low mainly from the fan. I wish there's zero-noise NAS box out there. The price is still pricey, 180.00, but I take advantage of 30.00 promotion of Amazon Visa card. I would recommend it if you have multiple computers at home, making store data and share printer much more convenient.

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Great NAS enclosure

Posted Dec 19, 2006 - Configuration in my case: DNS-323, one Seagate 500G SATA HD, DLINK wireless router, three computers with WIN XP. The system works very well right after installation. Strongly suggested. Very good look.

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Good Home NAS

Posted Apr 23, 2007 - Good NAS for home based use. 2 drive RAID 1 was a key selling point for me so I can store files, access from my desktop, laptop, or MCE and not worry about losing data. A few more firmware updates and this might be a great product.

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Bad then Good

Posted May 16, 2007 - Overall a good product. Took a bit to get it running fast. I experienced horrible slowness however that was resolved by placing the DNS-323 directly on the router verse on a switch port. I could have had a bad line running to the NAS but didn't have time to check. I would recommend this as its a quick setup (configuration is very basic).

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Very Disatisfied

Posted Dec 23, 2006 - Setup went smoothly. Pair of WD 250GBs configured for raid 1. Copied a couple MB onto it and it seemed to be working. Started moving a 50-100 MB onto it and directories/files just started disappearing

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DNS 323

Posted 1 year ago - Running two 250 GB SATA WD drives striped with gigabit router. Very impressive performance. Be sure to update the firmware to 1.05 as it addresses some of the other reviewers comments concerning auto shutdown and Bit Torrent. D-Link's website talks about Ext3 format, but there are no options for it on this device.

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Dlink DNS-323 SATA NAS device needs improved firmware/ better documentation

Posted Mar 14, 2008 - I brought two seagate 500gb drives and the DNS-323 NAS device. Upgraded firmware to 1.04 and utilty to 3.8 then setup as raid 1 storage. Everything like good until setup advance features with username and password logins to map drives/ folders under windows xp home. Able to map drive using windows explorer, but has problems with opening sub folders within windows explorer. windows explorer become un-responsive and hangs. this happen with serveal windows XP machines. after three weeks of power on time, while still attempting to figure out the hang problems the dns-323 locked up and cannot be discovery via the search utility. After spend time with dlink support, the unit needed to be RMA. Problem was that it could not be reset back to default in order to access the device. I've shipped the unit back to the online vendor. I'm waiting for the new unit to arrive. In summary, I still like most of the features of the DNS-323 but I believe that Dlink needs to upgrade firmware/hardware or both in order to improve this product. I will not attempt to use user login features with the RMA replacement unit. Another user has previous posted issues similar to what I've experienced.

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