We love network attached storage (NAS) – sharing hard disk space on your network without using a full-blown computer as a server. By using a NAS device to store your media, you can have access to media, files, photos from any computer on your home network with increased reliability and speed with the added benefit of lower power consumption.

In our recent article, Help, My Hard Drive is Full!, many of you requested a review of the D-Link NAS, the DNS-323. At the low-end of the NAS market, the DNS-323 is a decent offering for home use. We take it through its paces.

Read more for details.

DNS-323 Back

You might think that shipping without drives is a negative. Nope, it's a good thing. Drive prices are dropping so fast it doesn't make sense for companies like D-Link to inventory drives and sell them to you at what would have to be premium prices. Also, it gives you the flexibility to buy drives that match your needs in size and speed, or even use drives you may already own.

Setup

The DNS-323 comes with a 3-lb enclosure measuring 4.1" x 7.8" x 5.2", a power connector (unfortunately with an inline power brick), an ethernet cable (not CAT 5e or 6 – which is necessary to achieve gigibit Ethernet speeds), a printed Quick Install Guide and a CD with a PDF user manual, the D-Link Easy Search Utility and a licensed version of Windows-based Memeo AutoBackup.

Hitachi Deskstar 500GB SATA Drive

Before you get started you must install one or two 3.5" SATA hard drives. In our test, we used two Hitachi Deskstar HDS725050KLA360 500GB SATA hard drives. Installation of the drives is easy. After slipping off the front cover, just slide in each drive and replace the cover.

Software

The D-Link DNS-323 defaults to using an existing DHCP server on your network. What that means is that the IP addressed is automatically assigned to the DNS-323 by your router. In order to access the web interface using Windows, you have to run the D-Link Easy Search Utility included on the DVD. For Mac OS X or Linux, you must figure out the IP address by either looking at your DHCP server or by running a utility like IP Scanner. If you run IP Scanner, you'll see the DNS-323 as a Windows server with a name like d-link-73C3DA. Once you find the IP address, use your web browser to go to that IP address using a url like: http://192.168.1.15/ (where 1.15 will likely be something different). While initial setup is easier with Windows, once set up with a static address using the web interface, the DNS-323 will work equally well for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux using CIFS/SMB.

D-Link Easy Search Utility

In the web interface, the software will guide you through a basic wizard that will help you set the admin password, choose your time zone, set your LAN connection type (dynamic vs static – we recommend static) and finally Windows Workgroup and host name.

DNS-323 Wizard Overview

DNS-323 Wizard LAN Connection Default

DNS-323 Wizard LAN Connection Recommended (be sure to pick an unused IP address)

Drive Formatting

Drive formatting is an important step. This is where you make a decision you'll have to live with unless you reformat the drive. Your choices are:

• Standard: each drive is separate and treated as a separate drive.
• JBOD (Linear): treats both drives as a single drive with no redundancy. However, unlike RAID 0 it does not split the data across both drives. In theory this will provide lower performance than RAID 0; but in the event of a drive failure, the data from the non-failed drive would be able to be retrieved.
• RAID 0: RAID 0 uses a technique known as striping to split data evenly across both drives. In theory, this provides the best performance of the formatting options for the DNS-323. However, the downside is that if either drive fails, all your data is gone.
• RAID 1: RAID 1 mirrors data on both drives to provide full redundancy in the event of a drive failure. However, unlike the other DNS-323 formatting methods, only 50% of the native drive capacity will be available.

Therefore, if you are most concerned about data redundancy and backup, RAID 1 is your choice. If you are most concerned about maximum space JOBD is your choice. If you want to eek out the most speed (in our tests, no different than JBOD) then RAID 0 is your choice. Standard would only make sense if you want to regularly take drives out of the enclosure to swap in different data sets.

DNS-323 Wizard RAID Configuration

Depending on how you will use the DNS-323, you may want to consider RAID 1 (for the most redundancy). While RAID 0  is known to generally provide higher performance, in our tests using the Hitachi Deskstars with a gigabit Ethernet interface on the DNS-323, the read and write performance difference between the four formatting methods is minimal. Read speeds varied from 14.5MB/s to 15.5MB/s and write speeds from 15.5MB/s to 16MB/s, depending on the formatting method used. In our discussions with D-Link, the narrow variation between the various methods is due to the fast speeds of our Deskstars – we're probably hitting limits in the DNS-323. Therefore, in our experience, the very minor performance benefit of running RAID 0 compared to JBOD isn't worth it. Because JBOD will give you access to a non-failed drive (whereas if either drive in RAID 0 fails, all your data is gone), JBOD is a better solution for most users than RAID 0.

Once the decision was made on how to format the drive, formatting the two 500GB SATA drives in the DNS-323 took us less than 20 minutes to complete.

Configuration

If your NAS is behind a NAT router and firewall and you aren't worried about users/passwords, you can now start using your NAS. If you need to protect the files from computers on your network, then you'll first want to set up users and passwords using the web interface. The permissions system employed by D-Link leaves a bit to be desired. We recommend keeping it simple using one or two groups and few users.

Mounting a Volume

To mount drives on Windows computers, you'll access it either using the D-Link Easy Search Utility and mapping a drive, or just using Windows to map the network drive by right clicking My Computer. You can map using either the IP address or the name given during setup. When mapping a drive in Windows, you will have to specify the host name as well as the volume name. For example \\NASDLINK\VOLUME_1 or \\192.168.1.245\VOLUME_1. In Mac OS X, you can press APPLE-K in the Finder and then input connection method and the host name (e.g. smb//nasdlink/ or smb//192.168.1.245/), you will then be prompted for the volume to mount.

D-Link Easy Search Utility Drive Mapping

Once mounted, files can be copied, opened, deleted, etc.

Extras

In addition to basic file access, the DNS-323 provides a few nice built-in features:

• An iTunes server so that you can serve up iTunes clients with compatible files without having to mount volumes. It shows up under the SHARED heading on iTunes Windows and Mac clients.
• A UPnP AV server for UPnP compatible devices such as the D-Link MediaLounge media players and other UPnP compatible players from other companies.
• An FTP server. With all the obvious security caveats, this can be useful for remote access.
• A DHCP server which will dynamically assign IP addresses to other computers on your network. Just in case your router doesn't provide DHCP or you don't want to use your router as a DHCP server. Most users will want to leave this off.
• Quotas. By User or Group, you can define how much space is allocated on a given volume.
• Scheduled downloads. Automatically download files from ftp, http or local drives to a local path. Unfortunately, there is no sync downloading – it's all or nothing.

D-Link iTunes Server and Other Extras

Power Usage and Noise

One of the benefits of a NAS is lower power usage. During operation, while using both drives, our monitoring showed the DNS-323 using between 24 and 26 watts. When the drives spin down, the DNS-323 used between 14 and 16 watts usage. Your specific wattage results will vary depending on the hard drives you use.

Compared to other devices:

• Media Center PC without a display was over 125 watts during use.
• A Mac Mini without a display was between 30 and 40 watts during use.
• The Infrant ReadyNAS NV with 2TB of disk space was about 60 watts during use.

Based on these comparisons, you can see that the DNS-323 uses electricity quite efficiently.

In terms of noise, while it has a fan, under light use conditions the fan generates less than 40 decibels at 2 feet. Under full strain or if your hard drives run hotter, the fan speed will increase and generates about 50 decibels at 2 feet. That's fine for any home office and while it can get louder than a TiVo Series 3, it is quieter than many standard PCs and very manageable in a home theater. Overall, the fan noise level is good.

TechDigs.net Opinion on the DNS-323

At this price point, as a basic shared disk on a home network we like the D-Link DNS-323. While not as full-featured as some other products on the market, the ~$200 price for the enclosure and very respectable performance make the DNS-323 a solid product for home users.

Pros

• Low cost – enclosure has a street price of about $200.
• Decent performance for price. A one terabyte NAS setup at current drive prices ends up priced less than $480.00.
• Doesn't come with hard drives – use existing SATA drives or you can find great hard drive deals at sources like Newegg.com.
• Easy configuration – fast, easy-to-use web configuration.
• FTP support.
• Supports printer sharing.
• Supports limited user/group permissions by folder.
• Space quotas by group or user.
• Elegant SATA drive support without the need for mounting drive trays.
• Gigabit Ethernet support.
• UPnP AV Server
• iTunes Server
• Decent network support with DHCP, static IP, NTP time server and Windows workgroup support.
• Hard drive power management support.
• Email alert support for various functions.

Cons

• Initial setup far easier with PC than with Mac to find initial IP address
• Only supports RAID 0 and RAID 1. Because it only has two drives, won't support RAID 5.
• Does not support domain authentication. Will work with a domain, but does not leverage the users and groups.
• Does not support AFP protocol, only SMB/CIFS.
• Does not support auto shutoff from UPS – with all the great inexpensive (<$60) UPS solutions available, we would like to see UPS monitoring support.
• Volume name(s) cannot be customized, but shares based on folder names can be.
• Permissions system could be improved. Multi-user permissions don't work as well as simple models – basic family-type models work fine.
• We're not wild about a power brick in the power cord and would rather see a power cord with a standard connector.
• It would cost D-Link nothing more to include a CAT6 Ethernet cable.

If you are looking for a price-competitive, easy to use home network attached storage device. The D-Link DNS-323 is an excellent choice.

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Fred from NYC said:

Thank you for this detailed and informative review.

May 16, 2007

Data Driller said:

Does this use a disk format that is unreadable in a Windows machine? Most of these NAS boxes format the disk in a special way and if you need to take the drive out of the box for data recovery purposes, you are hosed; it is completely unreadable. Is this one of those?

May 31, 2007

Me said:

The NAS runs on an internal linux based system. FAT32 or NTFS file systems are not supported. I'm not sure which linux file system it uses (ext3 probably).

June 01, 2007

TechDigs.net said:

Data Driller: The latest firmware is the Linux-based EXT2. So, if you format each drive individually and then get EXT2 drivers for Windows or Mac (which are available), you can read the drives separately. We tried it and it works. However, it's not as straightforward as it would be if it were a more desktop-friendly format.

June 01, 2007

HELP said:

CAN YOU HELP TO BUILD A FTP SERVER USING D-Link DNS-323 ? WHEN I CAN PUT THIS WORDS? FTP.EXAMPLE.COM??

June 02, 2007

TechDigs.net said:

HELP: If I understand what you asking, there are a few steps to getting a DNS-323 setup as an FTP server. - D-Link manual covers most of the FTP configuration beginning on page 30 of the user Manual (PDF/ZIP). - What that manual focuses on is setting up the DNS-323 with a local IP address (behind your firewall/NAT router). At this point you can get to the DNS-323 using that local IP address. Something like: ftp://192.168.1.249/ - To make this available from a host name that is public you must make the DNS-323 available on the public internet in order to put in addresses like ftp.example.com. To do that, you must configure your router to point your public IP address to the DNS-323 with the FTP port (21) open. Then, you must set a public DNS (Domain Name Server) server to the host name you want (ftp.example.com) to point to your public IP address. Doing that is beyond the scope of our review, I suggest you contact your ISP if you are unsure how to do this. Good luck.

June 02, 2007

Chris said:

There shouldn't be a problem with multiple computers on the network accessing the files stored on the drive at the same time, should there?

June 06, 2007

TechDigs.net said:

Chris: With the DNS-323, there's no more trouble accessing the same files at the same time than on any other server setup. However, it depends on the file type and software being used.

June 11, 2007

Chris said:

I keep getting error messages on various computers on the network, after which the program (word) either freeze, or crash completely, loosing anything not saved. Any ideas?

June 14, 2007

Can't Log In said:

Hi, I got this box a few days ago.. been trying to get it to work, but had some problems. 1. I created a folder, and assign 'Pete' as the only user with access (Pete user already created). Tried to access the folder from Windows XP and Vista. Couldn't log in. Keeps popping up the enter password dialogue. I am using firmware 1.03.. any ideas?

August 05, 2007

ChodaBoy said:

"Can't Log In", I do not have one of these (yet), but have read the password is limited 8 alphanumeric characters. Do your XP and Vista passwords follow this limitation? If not, you may have to manually authenticate. Just an thought.

August 13, 2007

Deividas said:

Hi, I got another quastion about this device. I have plans of using RAID1 (mirror), so there to ways of crashes: 1) HDD - in this situation there is now big problems - the storage is still working, and you can back-up your data; 2) Controller - what if main board crash? How to read data from HDD?

September 11, 2007

Chase said:

Theoretically, the DNS323 should be much faster than FireWire 800 external drives. I didn't notice any mention of access speeds & realistic transfer rates. Is this a much better way to go than FireWire 800 ?

November 16, 2007

HK said:

Hi, i just bought a dns-323 and I ported over an existing WD 250GB hard disk with FAT32 configuration along with it. However, I kept on receiving a message that the formatting process during initial set-up had failed. Any idea how can I fix this? Thanks much.

December 01, 2007

Duke Malisto said:

excellent review, you guys are actually really good at this. seriously ive been in IT for 10 yrs now and this is one of the only reviews I actually enjoyed reading versus the other crap biased and ill performed reviews with 20 different bar graphs. all of my questions were asked, from watt usage to capability to mount the ext2 devs. Thanks guys.

December 01, 2007

noise said:

Be warned, in my experience, all these low end NAS drive systems that promise GIGABIT ethernet are so under powered in terms of CPU and RAM that the actual throughput is around 100 ethernet performance. It may not matter to the user, but its smacks somewhat of false claims to me.

December 19, 2007

al said:

hey, does this appear as an icon on my osx desktop ? I mean not to sound nooby but i¨ve been using a cheapy nas i can only access through my browser and I cant stand that. I´d somhow like to believe I can throw 2 500 drives in it, format it as a "data-guard" or mirrored through osx, hoping it then appears as an hd icon on all 3 of my mac machines, and treat it as such. Is it like this ? or am I dreaming ? Thnx respects al

December 30, 2007

Clowny said:

anyone tested it with 2 750gb HDD ?

January 07, 2008

eddy said:

hi, i use a low cost nas 323 without any problems. backups with 60 gb on serveral systems i have tested. speed is about 10 mb/s writing and 15 mb/s reading. and i think its ok. speed is not running down when more people are working on it (so its better than 100 mbits) lots of answers are: what when then mainbord burns und i cant read the hd. wake up guys... you have to make an backup! on another hd each day. raid is not the thing when the room is burning. i have a usb-hd 500 gb on another pc in another room and i make a backup with robocopy automaticly each day at lunch time. every month i take a copy and took it into a safe. thats it. dns 323 its a very good thing and its very easy to let it work fine (you have ever installed a f.. w2000 server? fff... never again. for 5 or 10 persons in use of it? and the cost of the licenses of fff. w2000?). my first try with dns 323 was installed and usabel in about 15 minutes without any knowlage about it and my mouth were open after that. if you have a standalone office, its the best i have seen in the last years). bye ed

January 15, 2008

djrobsd said:

Earlier in this thread, you mention that it's possible to mount these ext2 formatted drives outside of the DNS-323 environment. Does this only apply if you're using a certain format? I am using RAID1, and I'm concerned that if the DNS-323 blows up, I won't be able to get my data back - and given the short life cycle of these products, I am tempted to buy a spare DNS-323 in case that happens. My PC does have SATA raid built onto the motherboard, so could I plug these drives back into the PC and somehow mount them in Windows in the event that the DNS-323 dies?

June 30, 2008

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