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[perfectdark]

I don't understand this

I google'd dns-323 usb port external hard drive and if you install fun_plug and a usb driver you can mount an external hard drive, and use it as another mapped shared drive. So why can't d-link make this work



anyway, I installed shreport v100 and my PC shareport software now detects my 1TB external usb drive but when i try to connect it's a windows message appears telling me that if i want to use this drive i need to format it why? Its already been formated and now has allot of my data on it, so why does it have to be formated again? doesn't sound right

[AKFubar]

I agree.  That's what I don't understand.  Just having an available port at the end of my network is of very little use to me.  Simpler to just use the usbs on my PC or hang a usb hub on my PC if I need ports.  It is much faster that way.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm guessing that installing the Sharepoint app will disallow the usage of the internal print server, correct?  I'm guessing it would also prevent you from using the UPS sensing as well?

I have also never seen an answer to the question of connecting multiple devices using a USB hub to this port.  Say I wanted to connect two printers for use throughout the network, would that work?

[klein]

hey gunrunner ...

i seen a post somewhere, can't find it now where dlink says it will work but that is not the intended use for the port ... so yes it should work according to dlink

[gunrunnerjohn]

Which part of my question was that referring to?

[fordem]

I don't understand this

I google'd dns-323 usb port external hard drive and if you install fun_plug and a usb driver you can mount an external hard drive, and use it as another mapped shared drive. So why can't d-link make this work

They probably could - but that's not what Shareport is intended to do.

D-Link marketing will make their own decisions based not only on what they think the market wants, but also on how they choose to segregate the products.

[fordem]

I agree.  That's what I don't understand.  Just having an available port at the end of my network is of very little use to me.  Simpler to just use the usbs on my PC or hang a usb hub on my PC if I need ports.  It is much faster that way.

You're still missing the point of the SHAREport - which makes me wonder - how many computers and users are there in your house?

Just as an example do you have a scanner or an all-in-one printer that includes a scanner?
What do you do if the scanner is attached to your computer and someone else needs to scan a document?

Without Shareport you either let the other person have access to your computer, which means interrupting what you are doing - or you connect the scanner to their computer, or you buy another scanner.

With Shareport - you can plug the scanner into the DNS-323 and you can both use it - one at a time.

[AKFubar]

You're still missing the point of the SHAREport - which makes me wonder - how many computers and users are there in your house?

Just as an example do you have a scanner or an all-in-one printer that includes a scanner?
What do you do if the scanner is attached to your computer and someone else needs to scan a document?

Without Shareport you either let the other person have access to your computer, which means interrupting what you are doing - or you connect the scanner to their computer, or you buy another scanner.

With Shareport - you can plug the scanner into the DNS-323 and you can both use it - one at a time.

Just a single user here but I do have multiple devices on my network other than printers/scanners.  I understand your point - it appears my interpretation of the sw is out of whack.  Thanks for the explanation.

[perfectdark]

They probably could - but that's not what Shareport is intended to do.

D-Link marketing will make their own decisions based not only on what they think the market wants, but also on how they choose to segregate the products.

Then obviously D-Link is not listening to the market, since and correct me if I'm wrong, the mass majority would like this USB port to be activated to allow USB external hard drives that can be mapped the same as the 2 internal VOL_1 & VOL_2 bays. A shareport is not a bad idea, but it only allows 1 user at a time which defeats the one purpose. For example with a printer. I print, while my wife waits upstairs for me to finish and then she prints. it would almost save more time for here to transfer the print document to my PC and print everything from the one PC. And in that case the Printer can be connected directly to the 1 PC, so why a shareport? And for a USB Hard Drive (still not understanding why it is telling me i have to format mine and lose my data, unless its because its NTFS) what's the point on having an external hard drive that only 1 user can access? Shareport sounds good in theory but in actual real life it's pretty useless.

[gunrunnerjohn]

While I agree with much of the criticism of Shareport, I have to point out an inaccuracy.

You can both print, the Shareport software on your machine manages the printer connection automatically.  It should work just like a locally connected USB printer as far as your computer is concerned.

[D-Link Multimedia]

Then obviously D-Link is not listening to the market, since and correct me if I'm wrong, the mass majority would like this USB port to be activated to allow USB external hard drives that can be mapped the same as the 2 internal VOL_1 & VOL_2 bays. A shareport is not a bad idea, but it only allows 1 user at a time which defeats the one purpose. For example with a printer. I print, while my wife waits upstairs for me to finish and then she prints. it would almost save more time for here to transfer the print document to my PC and print everything from the one PC. And in that case the Printer can be connected directly to the 1 PC, so why a shareport? And for a USB Hard Drive (still not understanding why it is telling me i have to format mine and lose my data, unless its because its NTFS) what's the point on having an external hard drive that only 1 user can access? Shareport sounds good in theory but in actual real life it's pretty useless.

What mass majority are you referring to exactly? The forums? Please keep in mind only a FRACTION of the sales of our units ever show up as users on the forums. Normally the most techy end up here but not your ever day mom&dad that need to share their printer/drive/etc over the network with their house hold. They want it to be simple and with very little work needed to share out these USB devices and that is exactly what SharePort does.

[perfectdark]

What mass majority are you referring to exactly? The forums? Please keep in mind only a FRACTION of the sales of our units ever show up as users on the forums. Normally the most techy end up here but not your ever day mom&dad that need to share their printer/drive/etc over the network with their house hold. They want it to be simple and with very little work needed to share out these USB devices and that is exactly what SharePort does.

Understood... I stand corrected 

[fordem]

A shareport is not a bad idea, but it only allows 1 user at a time which defeats the one purpose. For example with a printer. I print, while my wife waits upstairs for me to finish and then she prints. it would almost save more time for here to transfer the print document to my PC and print everything from the one PC. And in that case the Printer can be connected directly to the 1 PC, so why a shareport?

As gunrunnerjohn pointed out - the shareport allows for a printer to be shared automatically - but even if that were not so, using the shareport to manually select & deselect which computer is connected to the printer is quicker and more convenient than transferring the file or physically disconnecting & reconnecting the printer.

In the case of a physical disconnect/reconnect - someone is going to have to get up out of their chair and move the printer from one location to another - I don't think there is going to be any debate on time & effort saved there - so let's look at transferring the document.

You're in the middle of doing whatever you're doing - surfing the net - and she calls you and says "Honey, print this for me" and you have to stop what you're doing, open up Word or whatever and print it - and then go back to what you were doing.

There is a whole market segment built around printservers - just to make that particular interruption go away.

[gunrunnerjohn]

FWIW, I've used the built-in print server on the DNS-323 for over a year, and I've very happy with it.  The capability I would like to see is the ability to continue to use this print server as is and connect a USB hard disk for secondary backup using a USB hub.  Shareport doesn't really do it for me.

I'm curious about one thing with Shareport.  Has anyone actually connected a USB hard disk to this unit and done some benchmarks?  I have a Belkin Network USB Hub F5L009 which does basically what Shareport does and includes a bunch of USB interfaces.  The only issue is that it's pretty slow.  The printer support worked fine, but USB access was about 4-5mbytes/sec, less than 1/4 of what I'd get with a direct connection.  I'm wondering if this hardware/software combo offers better performance.

[perfectdark]

FWIW, I've used the built-in print server on the DNS-323 for over a year, and I've very happy with it.  The capability I would like to see is the ability to continue to use this print server as is and connect a USB hard disk for secondary backup using a USB hub.  Shareport doesn't really do it for me.

I'm curious about one thing with Shareport.  Has anyone actually connected a USB hard disk to this unit and done some benchmarks?  I have a Belkin Network USB Hub F5L009 which does basically what Shareport does and includes a bunch of USB interfaces.  The only issue is that it's pretty slow.  The printer support worked fine, but USB access was about 4-5mbytes/sec, less than 1/4 of what I'd get with a direct connection.  I'm wondering if this hardware/software combo offers better performance.

I conencted a USB hard drive to the shareport and i can see it with the shareport utility on my PC, but when i try to connect to it, it says i have to format the drive.. do you know why? is it because its NTFS