D-Link Forums
D-Link Network Video Recorders => DNR-322L => Topic started by: domelsnake on March 26, 2015, 08:40:02 AM
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Hi guys,
I'm planning to buy DNR-322L but have heard some bad comments in regards to the device so I was wondering what is your experience with it.
Currently my setup is very simple. I have DCS-7110 camera (100Mbps) connected to D-Link PoE switch (1Gbps switch), to the same switch I have a Dell 780 USFF PC connected (1Gbps) with HDD of 320GB, 4Gigs of RAM and D-Link ViewCam software installed. The software is configured to record when motion detected. What I have realised is that the software stops recording after few days, maybe week - even if there is space left on HDD, if there is no space left it supposed to delete the old files so it shouldn't really be a problem, also some of the records are missing frames so for example if there is a car passing by sometimes it jumps (usually when something moves quickly). I have decided to migrate to more stable solution and this is where DNR-322L comes into the picture but please share your experience.
I'm planning to buy more cameras in the future (max up to 4) and install HDD 4TB WD Red so what are your thoughts?
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"more stable solution and this is where DNR-322L" ;D
you are lucky with your setup... with our DNR-322L... no recording at all >:(
just look our posts...
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I recommend that you phone contact your regional D-Link support office and ask for help and information regarding this. We find that phone contact has better immediate results over using email.
Let us know how it goes please.
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I have registered on this forum solely to answer your question.
Do not even consider buying this unit. I am an IT professional, I bought the unit (stupidly, in hindsight). I have three D-Link cameras, all supposedly compatible, all the devices are updated to the latest firmware. I have spent days trying to get this system to do anything useful. I can make it record 24/7, but that is useless as it fills disks too quickly, and if anything happens who wants to sift through days of video? Trying to make it do anything "on event" is simply impossible. The event configuration screen doesn't even report the existence of cameras (though the so called "help" seems to suggest it should), all it will do is email me when the disks are full! Even a basic function like "start everything now, I'm going out" is missing. Everything has to be done camera by camera!
D-Link seem to be spending a great deal of money and time advertising and pushing their home security products, but sadly they don't seem to actually work. Each product is slightly different, each works with one browser and not another. A DCS6004 at the same picture settings (resolution, fps etc.) is reported by the DNR322L as using 10% of the bandwidth that is used by the exact same settings on a DCS5222. Why?
All these products seem to be big promises with nothing being delivered. So far I have spent a fortune and not got a usable system. And D-Link support (at least where I am) is utterly hopeless.
Waste of time, steer well clear!
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What region are you located?
What FW version is loaded on the cameras?
What size drive do you have installed on the DNR?
There maybe some camera settings to help limit the bandwidth that the cameras generate that is causing the drive to be filled up. Maybe using a lower resolution setting may help.
Sorry for your frustrations, however let us help you and see if we can figure this out and get you a better experience...We have some good users on here that can probably help you with this...
I have registered on this forum solely to answer your question.
Do not even consider buying this unit. I am an IT professional, I bought the unit (stupidly, in hindsight). I have three D-Link cameras, all supposedly compatible, all the devices are updated to the latest firmware. I have spent days trying to get this system to do anything useful. I can make it record 24/7, but that is useless as it fills disks too quickly, and if anything happens who wants to sift through days of video? Trying to make it do anything "on event" is simply impossible. The event configuration screen doesn't even report the existence of cameras (though the so called "help" seems to suggest it should), all it will do is email me when the disks are full! Even a basic function like "start everything now, I'm going out" is missing. Everything has to be done camera by camera!
D-Link seem to be spending a great deal of money and time advertising and pushing their home security products, but sadly they don't seem to actually work. Each product is slightly different, each works with one browser and not another. A DCS6004 at the same picture settings (resolution, fps etc.) is reported by the DNR322L as using 10% of the bandwidth that is used by the exact same settings on a DCS5222. Why?
All these products seem to be big promises with nothing being delivered. So far I have spent a fortune and not got a usable system. And D-Link support (at least where I am) is utterly hopeless.
Waste of time, steer well clear!
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If you already have an external USB HDD, an alternative (less costly) product is the DNR-202L. The DNR-202L is not a HDD enclosure, but rather requires externally connected USB HDDs. Functionality is similar to the DNR-322L, but has its differences.
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What region are you located? .....
I'm in Australia, the DNR322L and all the cameras have the latest firmware versions (as there are several cameras I won't list them all, but each is the latest I can find on either the Australian DLink site or the Australian mydlink site). The DNR has a matched pair of 3TB WD Red drives. Using disk space quickly is a function of the constant recording (i.e. the failure of motion detection based recording to work), there is no point in buying a hi-res camera and reducing the resolution to that of one half its price, and in any case I don't want days of footage of my hifi, I only want the bit where some tries to steal it!! Why a DCS6004 and a DCS5222 have a 1:10 bandwidth usage at the same settings is beyond me, but so is most of this system.
On my machine (Windows 8.1 64bit, Java 32bit and 64bit, latest versions and patches etc.) IE11 "crashes" - actually it catches and halts a loop - with a C++ 2005 error. Why it is using C++ 2005 these days is also beyond me, from memory won't even install on Windows 8! The latest version of Firefox works to some extent but, for example, lists no cameras in the event setup screen. A virtual Windows 7/IE system gives fewer options on some of the DNR322 screens then Firefox does, and more on others. I have no idea what it might do from Safari on IOS, which was my original "away from home" management concept.
I purchased this system with the intention of using it for home security. My thought was that when I leave my home I could switch it all on such that any motion triggered the DNR to record video and then email that video to me. At present I can see no option anywhere to enable the system with a single keypress (as you would with any normal security system), and it seems I have to enable recording for each camera. Because the motion detection is so broken, any options relating to that function seems to be out of the question. I did manage to get the DCS5222 cameras to record "sporadically", indicating that the system might be trying to do something based on motion (although viewing of the bursts of recorded video seemed to have no motion in them), but after a few hours of sporadic recording they both went back to recording 100% of the time, with no config changes (so DNR still set to motion based recording). I can manually configure the DCS6004 to do motion detection and email me directly, but the DNR never records from it when set to motion detection. When the DNR is set to do motion detection, at this stage I have never seen any changes to any of the the camera's settings so I can only assume that it is doing the motion detection itself rather than using the cameras motion detection functions. Manually setting the motion detection parameters on any of the cameras makes no difference to what the DNR does.
D-Link help in Australia take about 9 days to answer a support ticket, and no matter how much information I give them they never provide any help, just ask for more information (usually trying to find another vendor to blame). With a 9 day turnaround in question/response, that's a waste of time.
At this point, given the hours I have already spent trying to get the DNR322 to work, my best option seems to be to remove the disks and throw it away! I have a QNAP NAS that works better - it uses the cameras motion detection to trigger recording via an FTP login, but it isn't compatible with some of the cameras and it provides other (non-security) functions so I'd rather not use it. But unless I can find a way of getting the DNR to do what it is advertised as doing, either the QNAP or the direct to myDLink options look better. myDLink seems to require UPnP to be configured on the router, which is a massive security hole that I'd rather avoid, but I'm sure I can find the ports that need to be open and get around it that way.
However at present the DNR is junk. What scares me most is that it has been on the market seemingly for several years, and yet D-Link seem to have made little attempt to make it work!
If you already have an external USB HDD, an alternative (less costly) product is the DNR-202L. The DNR-202L is not a HDD enclosure, but rather requires externally connected USB HDDs. Functionality is similar to the DNR-322L, but has its differences.
Anything that provides "the same functionality" as the DNR322, based on my experience can be considered to be a brick. A better bet is a QNAP NAP (one of the more powerful ones with a bigger CPU) and ensure the cameras are listed as compatible!
Having *****ed and moaned (oh, my preview says I can't say b-i-t-c-h, good job I'm not talking about dogs!), please understand that it is only out of utter frustration. I am perfectly willing to try any ideas to get this thing to work. My next approach will be a 100% reset of the DNR322 and one single camera, and start from scratch on a virtual "old" PC with Windows 7 32bit and an old version of IE. But really I shouldn't have to do this!!
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I've passed this along to D-Link for review last week. They will be reviewing all of this new information as well. You may want to contact your regional D-Link support office and ask for an elevated support person and refer them to this thread for review and so they can start to collect this information and see if they can reproduce this issue in there labs. I hope something can be figured out for you.
Keep us posted on how it goes.
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I've passed this along to D-Link for review last week. .........
Thank you, I have also received a PM from a forum admin. I will open a ticket with D-Link Australia, but from past experience I do not anticipate getting any useful reply.
What would be useful to me, in my attempts to get this all to work, is if someone could tell me what operating system and browser (make and version etc.) is known to work. At present I have established that Windows 8.1 64bit with the latest IE doesn't work at all, and that other variations of OS and browser all do slightly different things. If someone could give me a known 100% working set of version numbers I could build such a machine and then at least that variable would be removed!
Equally for the DNR322, could someone provide a link to the recommended "best" firmware? Mine is running v2.1 from a file called DLINK_DNR-322.2.10b02(2.10.0612.2014).bin. That version is dated June 2014, and whilst it is the latest version offered by the Australian D-Link website it seems so buggy that I can't believe that no changes have been made for an entire year!
Edit: It's also strange that I have v2.1, and there is a thread on this forum discussing betas of v2.00!
Further edit:
OK, I've spent some more time looking around. The US D-Link website also offer the v2.1 firmware, so why the 2.00 beta thread on this forum is still being used is slightly confusing. The release notes for the v2.1 (June 2014) firmware state that it supports Windows XP, Vista and 7 in 32bit versions. All of those are dead operating systems, one at least has actually been officially EOL'd. So then I went and looked for apps for the iPad. And the latest version of that app is dated July 2014. So it's basically a year since D-Link made any updates to the firmware of this product, or any improvements to the app and they've made no attempt to allow for Windows 8 or 64bit systems.
I'm starting to think that this is a dead product and that D-Link have moved to cloud based systems and simply abandoned the DNR's.
Unfortunately, having been tasked by a client to make it work (and having purchased one for me too), I guess I'm going back to Windows XP to see if that works with it!
Thanks!
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Oh it just gets better.
I dug out a copy of Windows 7 32bit and created a virtual machine. It came with IE 8, so I tried it. Got the normal "needs to install Active-X" D-Link messages, together with the "download Visual C++". No joy, after installing all that I got the same crash and endless_loop_prevention as with W8 64bit. So I thought I'd try another IE...... IE 9 will not install on Windows 7, IE10 has been removed from the Microsoft web site and is not available. So IE 11 is the only choice. And it crashes after the username and password screen, exactly as it does on my Windows 8 machine.
Remember this is all with a freshly built "standard" installation.
OK, so no currently available Microsoft software will talk to the DNR322 as far as I can see. Next I'll try Firefox on Windows 7 32bit........
Installed the latest version of FireFox and Java on this W7 32bit machine, and I get exactly the same as on my W8 machine. I can watch live video, I can record 24/7. Motion detection does not work, and the "event setup" screen does not show any cameras on the camera list, so the only "event" I can configure is the disk drive becoming full.
Gotta think the DNR is just junk! Still trying though....
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Thank you for this information, i'll forward this to D-Link.
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I'm starting now to think that at least the event notification has been disabled deliberately, or never fully added. For example, the screen description of the process is:
"Select the camera from the Camera List, and enable the event by selecting the checkbox of Hard Disk Space Full. Then, select Add and then Email. Last, select the pre-set email address/ contact who will receive the email notification (action)."
The first part of that doesn't really make sense. It sounds like perhaps it started off talking about camera's, but then was (with no attention to grammar!) abruptly modified to refer to the "disk space full". It looks like the kind of thing that happens when the original concept is, for some reason, abandoned and a half-baked version is thrown in. Most of the screen describes (and appears to be designed around) a fully fledged notification system, but the actual functionality is much less.
I've raised a ticket with D-Link Australia, I do not anticipate any useful response, but they might just prove me wrong.
The good news is that I seem to now have motion event recording working with a DCS-2132L. Still doesn't appear in the event screen (as mentioned above), so I can't get notification but at least it's not recording 24/7. If I can get this working with the other camera's it better than nothing, and perhaps I can do the "direct from camera" notification in parallel.
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I've been using MyDlink for a little while, as part of the attempt to configure this system, and suddenly a few minutes ago it said my DNR322 needed a firmware upgrade. Hmmm. OK, I downloaded the file, which despite what the instructions said was not actually zipped (just a straight .bin file). It has the same name, size etc. as the one I have already downloaded and applied, but the last modified date is August last year. Having "upgraded" to this new version, my DNR322 reports the same version details (v2.1 June 2014) as it did before. And exhibits the same lack of functionality. So that's a 52mb download wasted!!
But maybe it suggests somebody at D-Link is actually doing something?
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OK, first response from D-Link Australia support only took 3 days which is a miracle.
Sadly it was a useless response, being advice to upgrade to the latest firmware even though I had stated in my original ticket that I had already done this. It then included a cut'n'paste of the "how to configure recording" section of the FAQ. Clearly my suggestion of reading this forum thread (which I linked to) had gone unheeded.
It did, however, perhaps disprove my theory that the first and second responses from helpdesks are simply computer generated, because the number of typo's and spelling errors was enormous! But to further undermine my confidence in D-Link, the "downalod" link supplied for the "firmare" was to a server called "d2okd4tdjucp2n.cloudfront.net" and everyone knows that you never click on links to weirdly named servers on domains that don't relate to the company you are dealing with.
It should be basic customer service to read the ticket, assess the user's level of experience together with what they have already tried, and then reply at an appropriate level. Get the spelling and grammar right and use URLs that are clearly your own. I owned an IT company that (amongst other things) provided user support staff. If any of mine had sent the response that I received from D-Link they would have been in deep trouble!
However, I replied that I was already using that firmware, and that my main issue is with the event system. We'll see if anything more happens!
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OK, first response from D-Link Australia support only took 3 days which is a miracle.
Sadly it was a useless response, being advice to upgrade to the latest firmware even though I had stated in my original ticket that I had already done this. It then included a cut'n'paste of the "how to configure recording" section of the FAQ. Clearly my suggestion of reading this forum thread (which I linked to) had gone unheeded.
It did, however, perhaps disprove my theory that the first and second responses from helpdesks are simply computer generated, because the number of typo's and spelling errors was enormous! But to further undermine my confidence in D-Link, the "downalod" link supplied for the "firmare" was to a server called "d2okd4tdjucp2n.cloudfront.net" and everyone knows that you never click on links to weirdly named servers on domains that don't relate to the company you are dealing with.
It should be basic customer service to read the ticket, assess the user's level of experience together with what they have already tried, and then reply at an appropriate level. Get the spelling and grammar right and use URLs that are clearly your own. I owned an IT company that (amongst other things) provided user support staff. If any of mine had sent the response that I received from D-Link they would have been in deep trouble!
However, I replied that I was already using that firmware, and that my main issue is with the event system. We'll see if anything more happens!
Warb,
Thank you for trying to keep everyone here updated as you work out all your issues with this product. If you are truly dissatisfied with the service your regional support group is providing, make sure to find a way to let them know... Posting here is NOT the way to do it. Our US forums are not roamed by members of other regional D-Link support offices, but highly active members of our community, US D-Link team members and several other international community members that are willing to assist on issue related to products, there is a very good chance of getting help here, from the community.
In regards to the link you were provided for acquiring firmware (although I do undersand your are runnning the latest), the cloudfront.net hosting service is part of D-Link's "mydlink™ services" cloud solutions and yes you found our cloud.
CloudFront.net is not a web site. It is a redirect to Amazon CloudFront. Amazon CloudFront is a web service for content delivery. It integrates with other Amazon Web Services to give our developers an easy way to distribute content to end users with low latency, high data transfer speeds and easy management. You are in IT, so you would understand, with millions of users of our mydlink™ services world wide, we need an infrastructure that we can rely on. So, I can see their mistake was sharing the direct link (that and not giving you other support options), but you can get to this and other resources using their support site (just with a few more clicks to find the correct resource) http://support.dlink.com.au/Download/download.aspx?product=DNR-322L&revision=REV_A&filetype=Firmware (http://support.dlink.com.au/Download/download.aspx?product=DNR-322L&revision=REV_A&filetype=Firmware)
I like to reiterate that staying in close contact with your regional support team is the best way to get these issues worked out. It's how we handle issues here in the US. If for some reason you believe you have reached the wrong support level, ask to be escalated, there is alway someone that can assist in issues like yours. This community will alway benefit from you sharing the solution to your problems, whether it was configuration, understanding of the function, or simply a broken firmware code that was fixed. You are welcome to come back once your issues with the product or configuration have been resolved. If the issue is service, I hope you understand there is very little our community here can do for that.
Thank you again.
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You are quite right, of course, but I figured that if I vented here I might just get either some direct assistance (seeing as you must have the exact same issues as you have the same firmware) and/or someone from D-Link USA might just give someone in D-Link Australia a nudge because as far as I can find there is no way to get a ticket escalated. It is simply bounced from person to person, each just cutting and pasting a different bit of a FAQ, none even reading what has been written previously.
I shall post again if the problem is ever resolved, and in the meantime do my venting somewhere else.
IF someone in the US ever manages to get this device to work with Windows 8/IE11, or can tell me how to get the "events" system to allow cameras to be selected, please PM me!
Edit: One last comment/question. I've been writing a review of this product, based on actual use (not just reading the datasheet) and I've come across an anomaly. The current firmware worldwide seems to be 2.1, and I have reviews and D-Link datasheets that talk about the motion detection alert email function. Yet the Australian datasheet does not mention this function at all, nor does D-Link Australia's description. It is clear from the configuration screen that camera motion alerts were (or were supposed to have been) implemented, but equally clear that they are simply not there on my device. Can someone save me a lot of time and grief and just tell me whether they were removed and/or never fully implemented? Do motion based alert emails exist on the US version?
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I know I said I'd only post if this got resolved, but just in case it prevents anyone else struggling to get event notification to work...
The answer I have received from D-Link (Australia) about the event notification system is, and I quote:
"There was a typo on the manual and from the web interface of the DNR-322L. The event setup from the DNR-322L is for when the HDD is full. To configure motion detection, you need to set it up from the camera/s under Setup->Motion Detection. For event or email notification, you have to go to Setup->Snapshot (enable it) and you can select the trigger by and set the target e.g. ftp or email. This is in the case for DCS-5222L. Other models maybe called slightly different. "
So, even though I have D-Link "data sheets" that say the DNR322L will send emails when motion is detected, and even though the units on-screen assistance talks about selecting a camera (for event notification), in fact that was all a "typo" and in fact the unit doesn't have this function. It will record when motion is detected, but will not provide any notification. Notification must be configured on the camera itself. This brings up two important points:
1/ Why are there so many glowing "reviews" of this product that talk about this function, when the function doesn't exist? Are they really "reviews" or just reprints of marketing? Should I in future trust any such "reviews"?
2/ What are those of us who, like my client, have multiple cameras supposed to do? She doesn't want to have to individually enable/disable event notification on each of her 7 cameras every time her building is left unattended, but equally she doesn't want constant emails with movie clips when people are working there! The entire reason she purchased this unit (and I purchased mine) was for this centralised notification control, as mentioned in many "reviews".
The browser issue was answered thus:
"I have tested it with DCS-2132L camera and was able to login to the DNR-322L and able to see liveview from it. I used Windows 7 x32 IE 11."
No mention of Windows 8, event though that is the OS I stated I was using.
The DNR322L was half developed, and then abandoned. D-Link should not, in my opinion, still be selling it. It does not work as advertised (or as it was clearly designed to) and it doesn't seem to support Windows 8, even though that has been the only official consumer grade "new PC" operating system since October 31st 2014.
To those who have PM'd me, I thank you, but (venting again, excuse me) this whole experience has taught me that D-Link are more interested in a glossy brochure than a product that works. The real shame is that the DNR322L could have been marvellous. It still could with a bit of work. Perhaps D-Link could make the source code "open" so that an interested developer could finish it off for them?
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Thanks for your replies guys.
I have seen so many bad comments and feedback across the Internet in regards to DNR-322L so I have decided to go for Synolog 215j with WD Purple 6TB HDD. It work pretty well and both my cameras (2x DCS-7110 D-Link) are fully supported by the surveillance station software. Unfortunately my problem is still there and I keep loosing frames...
My network is very simple. I have 2 cameras connected by CAT.6 cables to 1GB PoE D-Link switch where my NVR is also connected (CAT6). I have 1Gbps connectivity across my network and when checking the stats on NVR HDD is hardly even used... I have recently been told this is the problem with D-Link cameras itself... Need to get rid of these cameras and got them replaced by some more reliable devices.
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We are glad you found something that works for you.