Network Storage for the Home with the D-Link DNS-323 - More Setup and Performance
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Drive configuration consists of four different hard drive setups; Standard, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1, which should cover the requirements of all but the most demanding of home or small business users. Standard means that nothing is done with the drives; they are two independent disks that are mapped to your computer as separate volumes. JBOD stands for Just a Bunch Of Disks and offers a basic method of spanning the two drives into one logical volume. RAID 0, striping, also joins the two drives into one logical volume but provides improved performance for access times. If one drive fails however, the data from both are lost. RAID 1 mirrors the two drives, providing two copies of your data. If one drive fails, the data is safe.
The software feature set is equally impressive; you are able to set up specific users and user groups, with password protection and/or read/write specifications in a system reminiscent of Windows NTFS permissions. Disk Quotas can also be enabled for individual users and/or user groups to make sure no one hogs all of that new storage space. Email notifications can also be set up provided an SMTP server is available, and can alert you with general status and usage reports, or for custom events such as a space threshold being exceeded or a change in the administrator password. This is a really handy convenience feature for small-business network administrators. There are also scan disk and defragmentation utilities that can be used to maintain the integrity of the drives.
Like the SC101, the D-Link DNS-323 comes with a fully registered (for one computer) copy of backup software - Memeo AutoBackup. On the surface Memeo looks great and is easy to set up. A wizard walks you through choosing the backup destination and a series of "smartpicks" allows you to choose specific files, like Outlook pst files for example, that may be hidden away deep in the operating system.
Memeo will probably appeal to home users that just want to know their important files are backed up and not think about it. Configuration of the program is poor, you aren't given control over when the backup runs for instance, and unlike some applications, you can only back up files on the local computer upon which Memeo is installed. An interesting feature of the application is OneClick Restore, a sister application that can restore files backed up with Memeo, without even having to install Memeo itself.
Overall, performance of the device has been very good; when you access a drive on the device, the contents of the drive appear very quickly with no delays or excessive use of the hourglass. Read and write times are excellent; copying a 1 GB file from the device took just two minutes and 56 seconds, and writing it back just two minutes and 30 seconds. The stability of the DNS-323 is also excellent; I've had no issues accessing the device from any of the computers on my network, there have been no instances of the assigned drive letter disappearing and no IO device errors. The fan does make an audible sound, but only when my desktop is switched off.
Overall, I've been extremely happy with the device. My only recommendation would be to add a few more things to the installation, like a shortcut to the configuration interface, and a local copy of the user manual. The interface does include a support area, with a brief description of each of the different functions, but the manual on the CD is far more extensive.
Compared to the SC101, the DNS-323 is far its superior; it's quicker and more reliable, and doesn't generate IO errors when moving large chunks of data to or from the storage area. Using a SATA interface and Gigabit networking makes sense as these are the prevalent technologies in use today and should be around for a while yet, so it should be some time before the device is rendered obsolete by future developments in thee areas. You get tons more features with the D-Link device, but then again, it costs almost double. I managed to pick one up for 146.80 Pounds (US$287.96) without drives, which seemed a little expensive at first, but then what price can you put on reliability when it's your data at stake? All in all, it comes highly recommended.
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