| Article Index |
|---|
| D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure Review |
| Page 2 - Drive Installation |
| Page 3 - Configuration/Performance |
| Page 4 - Security/More Features/Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Security:
The DNS-323 seems to lack any form of physical security, as mentioned earlier there is no way to lock the unit down, and as there’s no way to lock the front cover, or even lock the drives in place, someone could walk up, open it up and walk off with the SATA hard drives in about 3 seconds flat.
It does a fair bit better in the area of data security, firstly you have the option of setting the drives up in a mirrored RAID 1 array, to protect against drive failures. There is also the option of creating individual user logins and/or groups with private folders and different levels of access (i.e. read only or read/write), as well as storage quotas, which would be useful in an office or school environment, however only 64 unique users can be created, so it is somewhat limited. The built-in FTP server is of course user name and password protected.
Additional Features:
The DNS-323 includes a few other nifty features, the first is its ability to act as a UPnP AV server, able to stream photos, music or videos to UPnP AV compatible devices (such as D-Link media players of course). An iTunes server is also included, which means any computer running iTunes will be able to automatically detect and connect to the DNS-323 and stream music and video files. The DNS-323 also has the ability to act as a DHCP server if your network doesn’t have one already.
Disk utilities are also included and accessible via the web interface, such as scandisk and defrag, to keep the drives healthy and performing their best. Basic power management is also included, to shut the drives down if they’re not in use for a certain period of time.
Conclusion:
The DNS-323 is a well priced NAS device that has more than enough features for the majority of users, it’s fast and very easy to setup and use, but it’s lack of any sort of physical security is a big letdown. The fact that it can only use its own type of file system on the internal drives is very annoying, best suited to home or small office use.
OzHardware Rating – 7/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
