D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

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This unit is awesome. If you're looking for something simple, fast, and effective while being inexpensive enough and easy to setup, I absolutely recommend this unit. It's fast, but not extremely so. I get about 8-15MB/s write speed, so it could be faster, but for the average user, works perfectly and quickly enough.

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I have three of these and, while not the fastest out there, they do what I need them to. They're dead easy to manage and popping drives in and out is simple. I've had a couple drives die in RAID1 configs and it doesn't always rebuild properly. I've never lost data but the mirror just doesn't want to rebuild (and using identical drives, too). Definitely add fun_plug if you want to tweak (setting up NFS was a breeze). This review was modfied by poster @ 04-23-09 11:32 AM

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I bought this unit with two 1T drives and had absolutley no issues getting it up and running. My home network has 4 Ubuntu and 1 Vista machine connecting to this and except for having to change a setting to let the Vista box get the data at a reasonable speed, it has been totally painless to run as a Raid 1. I use the FTP functionality to access files remotely, have set users rights for each of my children on various folders and use the Itunes server on the Vista box. My only complaint is I should have bought 1.5T drives instead of the 1T's.

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I've had this running for some time and it's a great little unit. Very simple to install drives and access the admin website. As far as I can tell, you can set up user access to either read or read/write but I can't find a way to prevent users from reading specific folders. As a result, you can't keep files isolated from view from specific user groups.

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Great little device, very stable. It has lots of tweaking capabilities once you install fun_plug. One of the best 2 bay NAS.

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I got this on sale around New Years for $129.99. this is the second one I've purchased and they work wonderfully. I especially like the option where the hard drives power down after 15 minutes when not in use so you don't have to listen to them running 24/7.

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Purchased this as part of a new network set-up. Easy to install the drive, just set the sata drive in. Software allowed each computer to recognize the drives and map to them. Would recommend to anyone who is just setting up a network or needs to expand their storage.

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I have 2x1TB hard drives in there for RAW photos, HD movies, 3DMax files.I can easily share files across the network and or restrict permissions to the folder level.The web interface is simple and not cluttered. I like the fact that it has a USB print server port so I could access the printer on multiple computers. It was very affordable and provided what I needed. (mind you, this depends what kind of hard drives you get)It's good for the home, but I wouldn't recommend it for the enterprise office.

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I have used this NAS for a number of months now. It is my first NAS, and I have 2 640 gig drives in RAID. I primarily use it for storage of pictures and music. My peace of mind in storing media here (versus on my PC) has gone up immeasurably. My wife and I can both sleep a little better at night knowing that the chance of data loss (barring a physical disaster) is next to nil.For a first time user of a NAS like me, it has been a dream to install the drives and to configure for our home network. Currently have on PC, a laptop, and a media server in my home theatre connected to it. All tends to work very smoothly, particularly for media streaming.

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I've been using this nas for a few months and I've been quite happy. I use it in a basic configuration (i.e. non-RAID setup) and the unit just works. Not much to complain other than to say that 2 bays is starting to limit me and I should have gone with the DNS-343 unit.

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I got this on the boxing week sale along with a pair of 1500GB seagates. I haven't experienced any problems yet. This is almost as useful as my file server, it just can't host games on a LAN (obviously).

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if u got a lot of data like i did , about 800gb , dont use the lan port , i just formated the drives in this unit and then hooked them to my pc with sata cable and booted from a ubuntu live cd and copied all my files the the dlink unit drive , way faster , not sure how this would work on raid though , might be able to drop  in second drive in dns323 for raid 1 without formating first drive , not tied yet This review was modfied by poster @ 01-21-09 05:52 PM

Comment:
I mainly wanted to get this so i can store files on different HDD's which does the job fairly well. Really slow transfer speeds though which is kind of a pain if you have a lot of data to transfer. Was not too happy when i found out that i couldn't just plug a HDD that already had data in it as i would've had to format it.

Comment:
Neat little unit. Im not sure if its just me or not, but with the Seagate 7200.11 500gig hard drives, the front of the case doesnt close properly/tightly, so there is a bit of noise vibration. Not that big of a deal. Another problem is I have had was having it sync with the ps3. The firmware (1.06) which supports the uPnP for the ps3/xbox360 isnt all that great and has caused me a bit of headache. Other than that, i've had no problems with it

Comment:
Good as a network file server - useless as a UPnP server, despite their claims on the spec sheet.I have stayed away from DLink in the past, largely based on their reputation for releasing buggy, half-baked devices. This is my first DLink device: I should have known better.

Comment:
Excellent product. The initial access time seems a bit long (first time I use it in a while) but then it's fast enough after that.Perfect for what I want... a more secure way of storing my photographs, video/audio work, etc.

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I was thinking of purchasing an external hard drive. But this will limit me to only one computer to back up. I need a backup for all other computers in my house but cannot afford a server. This really suits my need. It's fast and reliable. And you can set it up so that you and other people in the household can use it securely.

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*** Warning *** - I had to file a 45 Degree angle on the extruded case of the DNS-323 in order to get the Seagate 500 Gb drives (Part # 27144), I ordered along with it, to go in.

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I bought this unit so I could share my email profile, other files and a printer between my desktop and notebook computers without needing both running at the same time and without having to continually be concerned with synchronization. I also wanted to use it for backups. For the most part, it serves these purposes very well.When I followed the setup instructions, my router would not assign an IP address or register the default address that the DNS-323 assumes, so I had to set it up manually, a bit of a challenge for this relative networking neophyte. I imagine I might have the same issue with any NAS on my network.Accessing files on the NAS involves a distinct delay, comparable to when networking directly between my two computers. My 10/100 ethernet undoubtedly is the limiting factor so I'm really not testing the capabilities of the NAS. If the unit is sleeping there is a delay of a few seconds while it wakes up. High quality standard definition video streams without dropped frames or other issues.Printing with my printer attached to the DNS-323 works fine with just a brief delay before a print job begins. However, the Epson status monitor won't work with it so I have lost monitoring of ink levels, print job progress and error messages and other alerts.I wanted to use the NAS for a Windows Complete Backup of my Vista laptop. No can do: Windows doesn't recognize the disk format for this purpose.I frequently experience an issue starting Thunderbird on my XP desktop with my email profile on the DNS-323. The program can't find the profile and delivers a cryptic message that it can't start. Navigating to the profile in an explorer window before starting Thunderbird resolves the issue and I have placed a shortcut in my quick launch bar to expedite this, but it is a bit of a nuisance. This issue does not occur when I access the profile with my Vista computer.I find the DNS-323 commendably quiet, at least with the single Seagate 1 TB drive I'm currently running in it. It disappears beneath the moderate commotion that emanates from my desktop tower upon which it sits and otherwise whirrs unobtrusively when that computer is turned off. The one exception I have noticed is a brief whining phase shortly after it wakes from sleep mode that would be annoying if it was louder or more persistent; I hope that doesn't worsen over time. Though the fan keeps running in sleep mode it is only audible in an otherwise silent environment. I am more annoyed by the overly bright blue indicator lights. When the main indicator flashes rapidly on boot-up it is enough to trigger a migraine.

Comment:
A single unit can easily stream ripped dvd movies to both my HTPC's at the same time, no lag (same movie or seperate movies doesn't matter). I have two units totalling 4.0 TB's in drive space all connected via a Gigabit ethernet. If you are looking for media storage and streaming I would highly recommend this product.

Comment:
Great product overall. I bought one along with two Western Digital Green Power drives as an inexpensive backup system for my wife's company. It is far cheaper than full commercial solutions and outclasses its more expensive competitors by a good margin. D-Link could probably sell this unit for $250 or more.People with Linux experience should definitely take note. There are multiple web sites set up where tinkerers have figured out many of the internals and provided easy-to-follow instructions for setting up sophisticated backup solutions. You can create  an Apple Time Machine with more storage at a lower price. See http://wiki.dns323.info/Obviously, if you're looking for a NAS, you're probably fairly experienced. But if you're thinking of setting this up for a non-technical person to use, it will need some administration work.

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I've had this box for a few days and already updated the firmware. It works fine but what's missing is that you can't change the http port. Its always default to port 80. Only supports ftp, doesn't support secure ftp or web file station. I hope they add these features in future. Other than that, its all good.

Comment:
First: is this thing ever slow. I put in two Seagate 1TB drives in Raid 0; the device is connected through a D-Link router to an all-GB network. With the very latest firmware (1.0.5) Vista barely achieves speeds of 3-5 megs/second. Abysmal. The fan is also a bit noisy.On the good side: the online control panel is very much full-featured. Installing drives is extremely easy. This device gets you up and running very quickly.Edit: with a few driver updates on Vista this thing ramps up to about 16 megs/second. Still slowish, but great value. This review was modfied by poster @ 12-31-08 10:32 AM

Comment:
It is a great network storage device, it can put upto 2 sata HDD. also fast transfer speed... we all can trust d link

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Purchased this with a 1tb Seagate drive. Installation of the drive was straightforward. Vista recognized it after I installed the PNPX driver. XP however would not even recognize it (let alone ping) until I changed lan manager setting to NT&LM which took a lot of searching through google. Tech support wasn't very helpful. The included manual is very basic and not very helpful if you run into problems configuring the device.I'm also experiencing an intermittent vibration of the metal backplate of the front cover which is somewhat annoying. Once it's running, however it runs nicely. Speed is about 20-25MB/s over gigabit when reading files from the unit. Writing however is slower at around 18MB/s.