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[fordem]

If I was an IT director of a company spending millions of dollars on enterprise grade hardware, this NAS wouldn't be on my list. It's a "low end" SOHO device.

My thoughts exactly.

I consult for several firms who don't spend millions of dollars on hardware and I would never recommend a DNS-323 for any of them, even though I use it personally

[tfiveash]

@jamieburchill-If you had read my post closely you would have seen that I said no D-Link hardware of any kind. And believe me the DNS-323 had not even came to mind for that list.

Terry

[jamieburchell]

Without wishing to sound like a stuck record, this device does everything it was advertised to do and what I was expecting it to. It just sits there, rock solid and does it's job. I guess you can't please everyone.

Having tempted fate, I'm sure I'll see some pink/purple flashing lights on the panel in the morning and I'll be adding to the D-Link sucks argument.

[rector]

@rector I've had my NAS for about 2 years in RAID 1 with 2 Seagate hard drives. I had firmware 1.07 and 1.08. I use it almost every day to backup files, store and stream music, films, photos and have had zero issues. I really like this device from the start- which is why it's frustrating to see comments like this product doesn't work, it's junk, it's ***** etc. It is a disjustice to the product.

This isn't the best NAS on the market, the hardware specs are low end in terms of memory and processor speed, but the hardware hasn't changed considerably in 5 years so it's not surprising.

The facilities I use are FTP, SMB shares, user and group access restrictions, scan disk and a small fun_plug file to format and dump the data to an external USB drive. I've also used the iTunes and UPNP media server. All work flawlessly.

Did you try directly connecting to the NAS from your computer i.e taking your router out of play?

@terry too- while there are probably bugs in the firmware (name me a cheap consumer device without one) all these things work fine for me. I'm not really sure which of the copied text/features don't meet your expectations.

If I was an IT director of a company spending millions of dollars on enterprise grade hardware, this NAS wouldn't be on my list. It's a "low end" SOHO device.

Regarding the only part mentioned was you need a SATA drive, there's also a compatable drives list along with the product literature.

I don't imagine D-Link are going to reshoot all of their marketing videos, edit every information ever published and retract every statement ever made to include "oh, these new WD drives don't work". Hence the requirement for a list of known tested, working drives.

Gee that would be clever, connect my NAS directly to the computer. If I did that why would I want to use the NAS as a print server, why would I want to use it for FTP. I think you would understand I want access to my files and 1 printer without my pc turned on.

To use it as you suggest is nonsense, I look to low power usage, I have a spare pentium 4 pc which im sure would work perfectly well with FREENAS, maybe it would do what my DLINK 323 should do, but I purposely chose not to have this spare pc on 24/7. 

Irrespective if this product is cheap or dear, it should be capable of performing to manufacturers claims.

Maybe I should try Alt-F replacement/add on firmware, all that would occur is the possibility of making it a bigger brick?

[dosborne]

I think he was suggesting you connect it directly to your PC just as a test to rule out any issues with your router, not as a permanent solution.

[jamieburchell]

I think he was suggesting you connect it directly to your PC just as a test to rule out any issues with your router, not as a permanent solution.

@rector: Obviously. It's called troubleshooting.

What I'm trying to do is help you to resolve your problem. If you could try our suggestions it may help, rather than simply saying the NAS is junk.

By doing what I said above in an earlier post would concentrate on your NAS and one PC/laptop and would make working out where the issue is much easier. None of us know the ins and outs of your network and router, hence the suggestion. If you found for example, after resetting your NAS to factory defaults and JUST setting a static IP and setting up your shares, that you can always access your NAS shares and web interface by using it's static IP address from your PC/laptop when you have a direct ethernet connection, and it survives reboots, you know there's a problem somewhere else on your network (router, other device conflict etc).

We're just trying to reduce possibilities. If the above doesn't work, we've ruled out any additional things you may have configured on the NAS (DHCP, UPnP, LLTD, add-ons etc) and the rest of your network and can safely say, replace your NAS. If it does work, then we introduce things slowly until it breaks. We pray it's not a combination of issues, as they are harder to work out.

[fordem]

Irrespective if this product is cheap or dear, it should be capable of performing to manufacturers claims.

Agreed.  And in my experience it does.  I've been using it since December 2006 and whilst I do not use ALL of the features offered, those I do use work (I have no use - yet - for the Itunes & AV servers).

It is for this reason that myself and others with similar experiences keep on suggesting ways to help you - we're reasonably certain that the problems either with your environment or your configuration

[dosborne]

It is for this reason that myself and others with similar experiences keep on suggesting ways to help you - we're reasonably certain that the problems either with your environment or your configuration

Exactly. My 2 units have performed flawlessly since installation and perform duties every day as part of my automated processes for backup and data management. I make use of only the basic functions, but I have no issues with these and that is what I wanted when I purchased the units. I do not use or care for many of the advanced options.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I've used the FTP server, and I tried the bittorrent feature, but that didn't impress me.  Other than that, I use them for backups, that part works fine.

I would like them go to back to the old permissions scheme, but other than that, I'm generally satisfied.

[rector]

@rector: Obviously. It's called troubleshooting.

What I'm trying to do is help you to resolve your problem. If you could try our suggestions it may help, rather than simply saying the NAS is junk.

By doing what I said above in an earlier post would concentrate on your NAS and one PC/laptop and would make working out where the issue is much easier. None of us know the ins and outs of your network and router, hence the suggestion. If you found for example, after resetting your NAS to factory defaults and JUST setting a static IP and setting up your shares, that you can always access your NAS shares and web interface by using it's static IP address from your PC/laptop when you have a direct ethernet connection, and it survives reboots, you know there's a problem somewhere else on your network (router, other device conflict etc).

We're just trying to reduce possibilities. If the above doesn't work, we've ruled out any additional things you may have configured on the NAS (DHCP, UPnP, LLTD, add-ons etc) and the rest of your network and can safely say, replace your NAS. If it does work, then we introduce things slowly until it breaks. We pray it's not a combination of issues, as they are harder to work out.

Thank you for the response, and offer of assistance.

My PC has 2 network ports, what I will now do is hook up the NAS directly to the second port and see if its recognised after a NAS reboot? Should this be correct or would it be necessary to disconnect the router from the pc altogether?

Thanks

[rector]

Thank you for the response, and offer of assistance.

My PC has 2 network ports, what I will now do is hook up the NAS directly to the second port and see if its recognised after a NAS reboot? Should this be correct or would it be necessary to disconnect the router from the pc altogether?

Thanks

I have connected the NAS to my second network connection, rebooted the pc and then the NAS.
It shows a second network but, as different to the existing network 2, it says network 1 is not connected. When I click on local area network for the new network several error messages appear at the bottom of the screen. The text on these messages says "host processes for windows services blocks all inbound traffic for services that have been inbound hardened" At the end of that message which appears several times is a different number (15) (21) etc.

When I click on diagnose, after 30 seconds I get a message "local area connection doesnt have a valid IP configuration.

I turned windows firewall of and repeated the procedure with the same result.

I then tried to use easy search but it cant locate the NAS

Thanks   

[jamieburchell]

No idea what those messages mean, perhaps they indicate the problem.

The steps I would take are:

• Reset the NAS to factory defaults
• Go in to the NAS's web interface and set a static IP address that's not in use
• Setup some shares/users etc
• Unplug your PC from your network and ONLY connect it to the network port of the NAS
• Remember your PC network card IP settings and set the IP address on your PC to a static address on the same subnet as the NAS. If you have two network ports, set the other to a different IP on the same subnet (just so it doesn't matter which network port you plug in to)
• Reboot the NAS
• Try to access the web interface of your NAS by IP address
• Try to access the shares on your NAS by UNC path e.g. \\nas-ip\share-name
• Reboot the NAS a few times to verifiy correct functionality

[rector]

No idea what those messages mean, perhaps they indicate the problem.

The steps I would take are:

• Reset the NAS to factory defaults
• Go in to the NAS's web interface and set a static IP address that's not in use
• Setup some shares/users etc
• Unplug your PC from your network and ONLY connect it to the network port of the NAS
• Remember your PC network card IP settings and set the IP address on your PC to a static address on the same subnet as the NAS. If you have two network ports, set the other to a different IP on the same subnet (just so it doesn't matter which network port you plug in to)
• Reboot the NAS
• Try to access the web interface of your NAS by IP address
• Try to access the shares on your NAS by UNC path e.g. \\nas-ip\share-name
• Reboot the NAS a few times to verifiy correct functionality

Hi, Thanks for your response.
I am happy to try your suggestions, but I have some more info before I do which may shed light on the problem. What I did last night was:
Disconnect of of my networked (wired) xp pcs from the network
Connect the NAS to the xp pc direct
Reset the xp Ip address from auto to one different to the NAS
Set the subnet to the same as the NAS
Set the default path to the IP of the NAS

Set the preferred DNS the same as the NAS

No changes were made to the NAS
I can now turn my NAS off, and when rebooted its available automatically, it works without entering config.

Also, I probably should have mentioned it before, but with my previous troublesome network setup, when the NAS was booted you had to enter config/setup/and or lan settings and save settings without changing anything. The NAS then worked as per normal. If any or all pcs were switched off, when the pcs were rebooted the NAS worked. The problem was only when the NAS was rebooted,not the pc/s.

   Thanks

   

[jamieburchell]

OK, now we are getting somewhere. It sounds like you followed the crucial part of my suggestion by connecting the NAS directly to your PC. Now we've proved that works, it is probably safe to assume the issue is with your network rather than the NAS.

Does the issue re-appear when the NAS is connected to your router and 1 PC is connected to the router (I.e. ensure they are the only connections/devices on). Keep your NAS and PC addresses static.

BTW Perhaps by saving the config page you are registering the address on the network.

[rector]

OK, now we are getting somewhere. It sounds like you followed the crucial part of my suggestion by connecting the NAS directly to your PC. Now we've proved that works, it is probably safe to assume the issue is with your network rather than the NAS.

Does the issue re-appear when the NAS is connected to your router and 1 PC is connected to the router (I.e. ensure they are the only connections/devices on). Keep your NAS and PC addresses static.

BTW Perhaps by saving the config page you are registering the address on the network.

Hi, I have now connected the NAS back to my router, and have only my win7 computer connected to the router. Unfortunately the problem is the same as before. The NAS is definately set to static IP, but my PC is set to Dynamic, and I understand thats how it should be for my ISP???

I dont understand what you mean by registering the address by config page?

Thanks