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[DVDmike]

I am running 1.04.  I have two 1TB drives in a Raid-1 configuration.  FTP is off.  I have about 750GB of free space on the volume.

I noticed that 323 has constant drive activity when all computers on the network are off.  Its as if the raid is rebuilding or the 323 is defragmenting or something.  All lights are blue.

Why are the drives going nuts constantly?

[fordem]

Disconnect the DNS-323 from the network and see if the condition persists.

[DVDmike]

I did htis and it stopped.  Then I rebooted and connected again and it started again.

[fordem]

Why, Lord, is it so difficult?

Why did you reboot?

If - when you disconnected the DNS-323 from the network the disk activity stopped, the probability is that it is caused by access from an external source, something on your LAN is accessing the unit - this would have been confirmed if the activity retarted when the network was reconnected.

Yes - I recognize that you said all the computers on the network are off - have you considered the possibility of an intruder - someone connecting via an insecured wireless LAN, perhaps you have the ftp server turned on and a port forwarded through your firewall.

The idea here is to isolate the problem it's either internal to the device or external - if it continues with the device disconnected from the network, it's internal - if it stops when the device is disconnected, it's probably external, and then you are left with the task of determining what causes it - use a network sniffer to examine the traffic to the device for clues.

[DVDmike]

I rebooted because rebooting equipment often solves a lot of computer problems.  But after the activity started again, I disconnected the internet from the wall.  There was no chance of something coming from the outside after this and the disk activity continued.  So the only thing connected to the 323 was the router.  And the disk activity continued with a vengeance.

While I cannot say that this was not an intruder, I am apparently not missing any files.  My internet connection speed up stream is also not fast enough to support the apparent amount of disk activity going on, based on the lights and sounds on the 323.  When I copy large 1+GB files to and from my 323 using the gigabit ehternet to a networked machine I do not see and hear this much disk activity.  If someone was doing this from the outside, they would have had to be running a program directly on the 323 to cause this much activity.  And since all of my files appear to be there, I think that its doubtful that this happened.

At this time, the disk activity has stopped.

[fordem]

Does rebooting solve the problem or simply make the symptom go away?
Does an aspirin cure your ailment or merely remove the pain?
Do you want to know what causes the disk activity or just to stop it?

I'm also intrigued that you assume that because all of your files are there, an intrusion is not a high probability - maybe you never heard of the Lowe's bust - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/13/wireless_hacking_bust_in_michigan/ - do you think that Lowe's files were deleted, no, copies were made of them.

I won't comment on the probability of an intrusion - for no other reason than I have no knowledge of how your network is configured and where (geographically) you are located - but I will say that if you have no disk activity when the DNS-323 is disconnected from the network and it restarts when the network is reconnected, there is a good probability that something connected to your network is triggering the activity.

[DVDmike]

Rebooting did not solve the problem nor did it make it go away.  When I have a Windows PC that gets hung, I don't wait around until Bill Gates tells me why.  I reboot my PC and move on.  I do not think that it was an unreasonable assumption to think that the 323's OS was going crazy and I needed to reboot it to fix it.  This is often a solution to fixing, at least temporarily, a malfunctioning OS or devise.

I really did not think that I would have anyone help me diagnose the problem other than to tell me that it was a known issue with the unit.  Since it is apparently not an issue with the 323 and I was not supposed to reboot, where you planning on diagnosing the issue for me?  Or did you expect me to hire a network engineer to troubleshoot a $125 appliance?

Although I could care less if anyone steals the files on this device, it would be a real pain if they were corrupted or deleted by a hacker.  So if you are telling me that this device is very susceptible to attack from the outside even though I have FTP turned off, then maybe I should not be using it at all.  If this is the case, please just say so.  But please do not chastise me for rebooting a problem device in the name of trying to be helpful. 

[MountainMan]

I agree with your power cycle theory.  Electronics tend to be so flakey and 50% of problems seem to disappear with a power cycle.  Its always worth a try and it will be one of the first things any tech support person will make you do before they even try to understand the root cause of the problem.

I also had suspicious drive activity at first.  Mine remained when I unplugged the network cable so it sounds like a different cause than yours.  I think I eventually figured out the cause.  I use the UPnP media server and I had it set to refresh the media library periodically.  This was probably the source of the hard drive access when all the computers were powered off and the network cable unplugged from the NAS.  Another side effect was that my NAS was never entering standby mode because the media library refresh was constantly restarting the timer.

At least that's my theory and the behavior seems more predictable now that refresh is disabled.

[DVDmike]

This may be my issues as well.  I have my media server set to refresh every 2 hours.  I've got 100+GB of music media content on the drive right now.  so this would explain a lot of drive activity and then none.  I change the refresh setting to something a lot longer and see what happens.

thanks!

[fordem]

This may be my issues as well.  I have my media server set to refresh every 2 hours.  I've got 100+GB of music media content on the drive right now.  so this would explain a lot of drive activity and then none.  I change the refresh setting to something a lot longer and see what happens.

thanks!

Just out of curiosity - does the disk activity happen with the cable unpugged?
Your earlier post suggested that it didn't.

[Banshee1971]

Rebooting did not solve the problem nor did it make it go away.  When I have a Windows PC that gets hung, I don't wait around until Bill Gates tells me why.  I reboot my PC and move on.  I do not think that it was an unreasonable assumption to think that the 323's OS was going crazy and I needed to reboot it to fix it.  This is often a solution to fixing, at least temporarily, a malfunctioning OS or devise.

I really did not think that I would have anyone help me diagnose the problem other than to tell me that it was a known issue with the unit.  Since it is apparently not an issue with the 323 and I was not supposed to reboot, where you planning on diagnosing the issue for me?  Or did you expect me to hire a network engineer to troubleshoot a $125 appliance?

Although I could care less if anyone steals the files on this device, it would be a real pain if they were corrupted or deleted by a hacker.  So if you are telling me that this device is very susceptible to attack from the outside even though I have FTP turned off, then maybe I should not be using it at all.  If this is the case, please just say so.  But please do not chastise me for rebooting a problem device in the name of trying to be helpful. 

If you having a Router compatible with the WRT Free project, flash it with TOMATO. After that, you will be able to see the network activity, and filter the result. So you will be able to know "who" or "what" are accessing you're NAS.
I'm configure this way, and their is no activity on my NAS if i don't permit them.

But if you have a device compatible with uPNP server, and you set this option "active" on you're NAS, their is a lot of possibility that you will be able to see it (like what you are experience).

note about the WRT project, i did'nt mention the compagny name.... but their is some project that involve DLINK Router...