So we connected the DNS 323 directly to the mac airport router (which is the wireless router, not the router that is directly connected to the internet. the one that is directly connected to internet does not have any ports available...goes straight to the airport.)
used the airport utility on the mac and NOTHING showed up. ugh!
When you have more than one router in a network, it's very easy to end up with more than one network - because that is what routers do, they link separate networks together - and if your NAS is on one network and your computer on another, they are not going to talk to one another unless the router is specifically configured to permit it.
there is a USB port on the back of these drives, if i plugged that right into the computer, would it see the drive? (I would need to go buy one, as I don't have one on hand, which is why i am asking and not just trying it.)
any other ideas about how to make the drives visible to the computer? i can plug it (ethernet) straight into any machine too (PC or mac) does that give me any other options?
USB doesn't work that way - did you notice that the USB port on the drives is an "A" port, same as that on your computer rather than a "B" port like you would find on a printer? USB is a host/peripheral technology, with the "A" port on the host and the "B" port on the peripheral, you cannot connect two hosts directly or two peripherals directly.
You can plug it directly into another machine via the ethernet and make it work provided you know how to set static addresses on both, and to do that you'll need to know what address the NAS is at, which I believe takes you back to square one.
My suggestion is that you set the NAS up as DLink intended it - plugged into the back of a router and try to connect to it from a computer also connected directly to the back of the same router.