John

A few days ago I purchased a D-Link DNS 323 and a 1TB Western Digital hard drive to go along with it. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed. The initial setup took five minutes. I simply took off the front cover of the NAS, inserted the drive (no cables), plugged in the RJ-45 and power cables, and it was all set.


The purpose of a NAS is to provide network storage. The D-Link NAS 323 extends beyond this default requirement and offers an abundance of applications such as a built in FTP server, UpnP support, and iTunes server, moreover it features a built in BitTorrent client and download manager. Since the NAS runs an embedded version of Linux I found it odd the web interface was built in ASP, nonetheless, it works well.


After searching around, I found out that when the when the DNS-323 boots it reads /etc/inittab which will execute the /etc/rc.sh script. The /etc/rc.sh script calls the /usr/sbin/chk_fun_plug script which gives the user the freedom to start their own services. Someone by the name of Fonz has created several scripts for the fun_plug package which includes telnet, ssh, lighthttpd, and many others. Installing this gives you much more freedom to use your device and does NOT void your warranty. I will be it's rsync capabilities to backup my home directory every night. I have also installed the Twonky Media Server which gives the NAS better UpnP support for my Xbox 360. I can now download torrents directly onto my NAS and stream the videos directly to my Xbox. It is a flawless media center.


The only issue I had was connecting the samba shares on my Ubuntu 8.10 machine. From what I have read, this is because Ubuntu 8.10 uses a newer authentication method than the one recognized by the NAS. To fix this, you need to edit your smf.conf file:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

In the [global] section add

Code:

client lanman auth = yes

and you should then be able to connect.


Although I have not used any other network storage devices, if you are in the market for a cheap ($180) one that works really well, I would recommend the D-Link DNS 323.