D-Link DNS-323 NAS Review
The setup
A remarkable point about the D-Link DNS-323 is how easy the set up turns out to be. Opening the device is fairly easy, just gently slide the front panel upward, and then pull towards you. The hard drive installation is also very simple: just slide the SATA drive inside until it connects on the power and data connector, and after that just reposition the front panel back to the original state. As we saw above, D-Link created an easy-to-use NAS solution, offering an easy installation and use, featuring a single control button.
With the Hard drives installed and Ethernet cable connected you just need to power it up. The DNS-323 will automatically assign an IP address via DHCP, which is 192.168.0.32 by default. In case it does not receive an IP address automatically, a small Application – D-Link Easy Search Utility - which comes in the CD supplied by D-Link will help you to identify and configure the NAS-323 on your network. This utility allows you to easily locate the DNS-323 anywhere on the network. Once located, use the utility to map the hard drive(s) so they will appear in My Computer on your PC. Backup software is also included on the CD. This will allow the back up of valuable files from a computer to the DNS-323 manually, by a schedule, or in real-time. Real-time backups are a great way to safeguard against unfortunate accidents that may result in the loss of precious information.
Through this application, you’ll have easy access to a web-based utility where you will be prompted by a setup wizard in order to configure the RAID array. The availability of four different hard drive modes (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID1) allows you to choose the configuration best suited to your needs. Standard mode creates two separately accessible hard drives. JBOD combines both drives in linear fashion for maximum space efficiency. RAID 0 combines both drives in a ’striped’ configuration, which provides the highest performance, enabling speeds up to 23MBps-Read and 15MBps-Write (MBps: Megabytes per second) when using a Gigabit Ethernet connection. RAID 1 causes the drives to mirror each other, providing maximum protection. If one drive fails while configured as RAID 1, the unaffected drive continues to function as a single drive until the failed drive is replaced. The new drive will then be remirrored, allowing the DNS-323 to return to its full protection.
After selecting the RAID mode, the utility will format the drivers and be ready to use. You can always go deeper into the configurations, including setting up user accounts, groups with different privileges, a FTP server and also an iTunes Server.
