D-Link DNS321 2-Bay 2 3.5-Inch Bays, SATA, RAID 0/1, Gigabit Ethernet Port Network Storage Enclosure

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Binding: Electronics
Brand: D-Link
EAN: 0790069314162
Format: CD
Label: D-Link
Dimension: 4.13 x 7.72 x 5.12 inches
Manufacturer: D-Link
Model: DNS-321
Publisher: D-Link
Studio: D-Link
Warranty: 1 year warranty

Features and Descriptions

• Dimensions (W x D x H) 4.1 x 7.7 x 5.1
• Ethernet compatible

The D-Link 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure (DNS-321) is the perfect way to store, share, and safeguard your documents, music, videos, and photos. With the D-Link tool-less installation, easily insert up to two SATA drives1 without any tools or attaching any cables. Additionally, the built-in UPnP AV media server enables streaming of digital content to compatible network media players (such as those found in the D-Link MediaLounge product line) as well as popular media player applications used in computers.

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Ratings & Comments(Average:)

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- Good low-priced NAS but performance is lacking
I bought this NAS as an addition to my file server as I don't have any more drive bays available. This unit was purchased to supplement my 3GB file server with more file space.

With my file server I am used to getting at times a max 60 MB/sec in transmit speeds but on average 30-40 MB/sec. With this unit I am only able to get 12-14 MB/sec. So when you are used to transmitting files in 1 minute and now it takes 6, it can be kind of disappointing. I should have expected that a $119 device couldn't perform up to those expectations.

I decided since I am spending the money to return this item and get a 4 bay device that gets the 30+ MB/sec that I am used to.

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- Fine for second-tier storage, but slow
I populated mine with two 2TB drives from Newegg. I configured it effortlessly from my Mac and after jumping through the needed hoops to make Time Machine work on it had it backing up within 30 minutes after breaking the packing tape.

It's a bit deceiving to have a gigabit ethernet interface on this as it looks like the unit tops out around 100Mbits/sec. I can't seem to measure more than about 12MBytes/second through this, so I'm pretty disappointed in the performance. The first, full backup ran for something like 18 hours.

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- Still trying to get it to work
Since my hard drive died and I had to go through reloading drivers, programs, etc., I wanted to mirror my new hard drive in the future. Further, after learning about RAID-1 configurations and network accessible files, I decided THAT was for ME!

The DNS-321 was recommended at a computer store, seemed reasonable, so I bought it. Beware that it comes in version 1.0 That means, as I found out the hard way, that you have to download firmware v1.03 for high volume drives (I chose 1.5T). Problem solved? No. After a while with tech support, I found I had to download the EasyLink upgrade, too, from 3.8 to 4.8. It would have solved a lot of problems and saved me a lot of time if something in the box mentioned this. Or, if the first tech support person I spoke to had me downoad the EasyLink upgrade when she had me update the firmware. So, if you buy this item, you can now have an easier time of it than I did. With the two upgrades, the installation should go pretty easy. However, the free software they provide access to doesn't seem to work, and the latest version with the free download was corrupted... It seems to go on and on, so I still haven't been able to get my first complete mirror made yet.

On the bright side: there wasn't too long a wait for tech support, their English was pretty good, but no one thought ahead regarding the TWO necessary upgrades.

I hope this is helpful to you. Factor this in with your other research, then YOU decide.

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- Perfect For My Use
This is perfect for backing up your home network and accessing files or movies through NMT or computer.
FTP option works great but keep in mind that you can only download from it as fast as your connection can upload.
It does alot compared to other expensive ones.
[...]

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- This Product is Great
I bought several of these for my extended relatives for protecting their personal photos, video, and music. I also bought it to change the way they send emails. As a RAID-1 NAS device, it delivers the protection that is so badly missing in every household. Combined with a web backup service, this device lets them sleep at night knowing that they have a RAID protected copy of data locally as well as another copy of data off site.

The setup of the DNS-321 is simple and it's integration with both Windows and Linux systems is easy. I didn't even use included Windows client, just a web browser is all you need to set things up. After setting my RAID, SMB, and NFS configurations, the NAS volume was easy to mount from every machine on my network. I tested these devices at my house using Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux before deploying them to my relatives, who had pretty much a Windows XP environment. They can be setup for DHCP or static IP, and because I am using them as webservers as well, I set them up as a static IP. This is a Linux based system and you can choose between EXT2 and EXT3 filesystems. I set mine up as EXT3 due to its improved resiliency. I also set it up to email me when certain events occur, such as disk failure, RAID-rebuild is complete, or volume is full. So when a problem occurs, I get an email to tell me that some action is required. I can remotely log into the DNS-321 using some of the hackable features, such as SSH to check things out.

Another goal I had with this device was a way to eliminate my family sending large attachments, such as photos and pdf documents. Since the DNS-321 and it's predecessor (DNS-323) have a cult following for hacking it for other functionality, it was easy to extend this Linux-based storage device into being a Lighttpd web server. I was able to easily configure it as a mail server, ssh server, and web server, with my favorite languages, such as PHP and python. So now my family emails web-links to files stored on the DNS-321, instead of fat email attachments, keeping their email "sent" boxes and their recipients "in" boxes from getting huge.

I think every household needs some kind of RAID protection and with the low price-point of the DNS-321, it was a no-brainer to buy this device. The flexibility of this device to also be a personal web-server for each of my relatives at their homes, also offered some added benefits that I've always wanted.

I totally recommend this product for anyone to use... geek or not.

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