Why I buy this one ?
- Secure and share your digital files
- Insert one or two internal 3.5 SATA hard drives without tools or cables
- Protect your important files with mirrored hard drives using RAID 1 technology
- Access stored files over the Internet
- Hard drives not included

J&R Music and Computer World offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $174.99 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Price : $181.94 Usually ships in 24 hours

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Electronica Direct offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

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What our customer's say!

"Best budget NAS for home use", I have my unit with 2 X WD-500G RAID 1 setup for a month now and no any issue.

-- Solid built
-- very quiet (after upgrade firmware to 1.06,it shuts down the fan totally if temp is below 104F, great!)
-- easy setup, I have XP, XP+SP2 and Vista, all work fine.
-- great community (google DNS 323 wiki, check it before you buy!)
-- speed is also OK. I don't have any other NAS to compare, but it's faster then my shared disk from my other PC.
-- suggest to get a cheap APC UPS to protect the hardisk in case of power outage.

So it's a great unit for the price. ( Amazon price is too high. I got it from local store for $140 CAD)


"Good hardware, maddeningly unpolished software/admin tools", Bottom line: gets the job done (although not very gracefully) for a decent price.

Great hardware, smaller than I expected. Physical installation nearly idiot-proof. Quiet. Relatively low-waste packaging. Probably the best value for a multi-bay NAS right now, all things considered.

BUT the admin tools are very version-1. Critical and basic oversights include inability to rename the shared disk (you're stuck with "Volume_1" like it or not) or configure email alerts for modern mail servers (no way to specify SSL or non-standard SMTP port, required by most spam-conscious ISPs). A host of other small but annoying head-slappers like that take a big bite out of the otherwise positive impression I have of this unit.

Clunky user interface reminds me of the early days of small routers before they hit the consumer mainstream and companies realized they had to hire someone to make things look right and work for average folks. Since more and more 'average' folks are indeed looking at NAS products, these admin/UI problems really need to be addressed.

The vibrant community of linux geeks/gurus out there with sites dedicated to hacking and enhancing this device is evidence of the 323's versatility and potential...and the shortcomings of its out-of-the-box features. Maybe D-Link should hire some of these talented people to exploit its potential.

Macs see and use the shared disk fine, and web-based admin tools are platform-agnostic. D-Link's Quick-Start CDROM and printed instructions are Windows-only, however, so if you're setting this up with a Mac you will have to take a few leaps of faith to get things up and running. It's do-able, but you're on your own.

iTunes server is fun in theory, but not sure it's worth the effort to set up and manage an additional music library when iTunes on my laptop shares itself just fine.

Not sure if drive mechanism would be readable in a standard USB/Firewire drive enclosure now that it's been formatted in 'EXT-2' format. That slightly concerns me should I ever need to abandon the Dlink box for some reason.

I thought this unit was unique by featuring "WAN" access. Turns out this functionality is by way of an oh-so-very-1993 FTP server. If you're going to open a port on your router to allow FTP access anyway, you may as well direct inbound SMB or AFP traffic to your NAS and access it as a shared drive. That technique will work with any NAS.

Prior to this purchase, I experimented briefly with an Apple Time Capsule and found both the admin tools and Finder/Desktop integration to be smoother for both Mac and Vista workstations. The D-Link box clearly has more features (not the least of which is a dual-bay enclosure), and I know RAID features are important to many NAS consumers. But since I already have a reliable offsite backup solution in place, if I had it to do over again, I think my modest home storage needs (and a desire for fewer electronics, cords, power bricks, etc) would be better served by the all-in-one TimeCapsule product.

"Great NAS, but Vista user watch out....", Purchased this NAS about 3 weeks ago and it works exactly as advertised with two terabyte drives. Bit torrent software in the current build is particularly useful. Unit is whisper quite, but has big blue lights that I wish you could dim. Biggest issue may not be Dlink's fault, but Windows Vista's. My primary computer is a Vista laptop which does not want to log on to the mapped drives from sleep or remember passwords. My XP machines work like a dream in this respect. Units other limitation, so I've heard, it won't turn on automatically after a power outage. In all it was just what I needed.

"Works Great!", I got this two weeks ago. Set-up couldn't have been easier. I bought two 1TB 32MB buffer drives to put in it set up to mirror each other for data security. I have four computers on my home wireless network and after copying the instalation software onto a thumb drive it was a simple matter of running it once on each computer. Now everyone has access and their own folders on the network. We don't have to mess around transfering files and data via thumb drive or CD-RW anymore. The i-Tunes server works flawlessly as well.

"OK, but needs some improvements", I purchased this to take the place of an old LaCie external drive that was connected to one of my PCs, and to act as a print server (which that PC was already doing.) I wanted to be able to print, back up, and transfer files from my laptop without having to have the other PC running constantly.

I received the DNS-323 before the two Western Digital 500GB HDDs arrived, so I connected it to my router, connected the printer (HP DeskJet 1220C) and tried it out sans drives.

Setup was a snap - the device was detected by the EasySearch software provided. I changed the IP address (originally obtained via DHCP; I changed it to a static address). The unit saw the HP printer.

However, I couldn't print. It turns out (and this is NOT shown in any documentation for the unit) that the print server functionality requires a hard drive to be installed. Apparently the unit caches print data on a drive.

So I waited for the HDDs. When they arrived, I installed them (very simple), powered up the unit, and configured it for RAID1. It took about 30 minutes for it to format the drives, after which it restarted and was ready for use.

I was still not able to print, but found a solution on the dLink forum: Add a new local printer on a new Local Port named \\\lp. After doing that it worked fine.

All in all the unit seems to be working fine for storage. The Memeo Auto Backup software provided is simple to configure, runs in the background and performs near-realtime backups of changed files. (I also use SyncBack periodically to ensure things are staying up to date.) The unit is very quiet, does not get hot even after several hours of data transfer, and is unobstrusive on the desk.

The iTunes server works without a hitch - the unit shows up as a shared device in iTunes. I have not used the FTP server or any of the torrent download features.

Things went swimmingly until I installed the latest firmware, 1.06. The upgrade went fine, but after completion, I can't print. Still working on a fix for that (and trying to avoid downgrading the firmware.)

All in all I'm happy with the unit's file storage capabilities and data transfer rate. It remains to be seen how reliable the Linux EXT2 file format is, how well the RAID1 configuration maintains synch, and how stable the unit will be over time (I've only had it just over a week).

PROS:
- Small form factor
- Quiet, cool operation
- Very easy drive installation
- Simple to configure via browser interface
- Free Memeo Auto Backup software (which has been working well for me)
- Linux-based, and if you're inclined to you can "hack" into the unit and perform mods (promptly voiding the warranty)

CONS:
- Limited control of Print Server function (virtually none, actually, except for a "Clear print queue(s)" command)
- Spotty support from DLink - I recommend using their forums first, because actually talking to them on the phone is infuriatingly frustrating.
- No support for Gmail when using email alert function
- Firmware 1.06 upgrade broke Print Server
- HUGE power adapter
- File/folder security is limited, difficult to configure and non-intuitive. If you want serious security, this unit is NOT for you.
- No NTFS support
- No Linux EXT3 support, even though documentation and manufacturer's description claims it has this. EXT3 support was removed in firmware 1.05 (which mine shipped with).

I'm giving it only 3 stars because of the print server issues (a major reason I purchased this unit) and the lack of NTFS support (something not clearly indicated in the documentation). Since this is my first NAS device, I'm curious to see how reliable it will be and how long it will last.

I highly recommend a trawl through the DLink forum at http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?board=155.0 before purchasing this unit.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Do Not Buy This Item", This product has many bugs. Even if you upgrade to the newest firmware (version 1.5), it still has issues. The USB Print server does not work on either of my new all-in-one HP USB printers. I spent two full days. I have over 20 years development experience with windows, networks, firmware, and networking. I had to waste my time returning it...

I also 'tried' for two hours to contact dlink support, but they never answered the phone.

The Dlink DP-301P+ works excellent, and I set it up on three computers in under 10 minutes.

"I love this thing!", This is a great backup/redundancy device. I bought this to backup my 100 gigs of photos with redundancy (RAID 1). The startup is quite fast. You can hear the drives spin up. Sharing this on the network using the D-Link DIR-625 was a breeze to setup. The software for the drive is excellent. The price was great too. I was looking at many different NAS devices, and the DNS-323 gives you the best with the lowest cost.

I just want to praise Amazon's customer service. My first unit arrived DOA. They replaced it with no questions asked. The second one came in about 3 days, and it works beautifully!

"Great speed, quiet - overall VERY Pleased", I purchased this along with 2 X Seagate ST31000340AS 1TB Barracuda Sata 7200 Rpm 32MB Cache 8.5MS Hard Drive
to create a 1TB Mirrored system.
Wow- am I impressed with the speed. Maybe I was used to my old NAS that was that slow, but I am really impressed with the speed.

Set up was really easy, but when I was copying 400 Gig to it- it got HOT. I kept a fan on it over night to make sure it did not to hot. Normal operation, everything seems nice and cool. We will have to see how time goes on.

Overall - this is a great system and met my needs perfectly.

"The perfect server", Edit: Two and one half months later and it continues to do it's job flawlessly. I love it.

For a while now I have had several directories shared on my Mandriva Linux powered desktop. They worked well and could be accessed in-house by any gadget that I wished to use to interact with it. However that machine pulls ALOT of electricity and must be left on all the time. I just didn't want to run a machine that complex to share music and movies and documents.

Then I found the DNS-323 NAS and I hoped it was the answer I had been looking for. It was. This is a gadget you won't out grow for years and years. How many gadgets can you say that about? It does a job and does it well.

It's a little smaller than a half-gallon of ice cream. The square cardboard container kind. It holds two of your hard drives - whatever you have on hand, or whatever you want to buy. I nearly put two of my largest older hard drives in this NAS but decided to splurge and buy two Western Digital Caviar 1TB "green" drives which promise to use less energy. Good thing too because this gadget uses the newer SATA interface and my old drives were IDE drives. Wouldn't have worked at all.

Mine runs cool as a cucumber. Nearly silent when it is working hard. I was moving files from three computers to it simultaneously and it just got the job done plenty fast. It's gigabit network interface is faster than any of my other network equipment so it didn't even have to work up a sweat. Once for a minute or two I heard the fan come on and then it tapered back off. When not in use the hard drives go to sleep as well and save energy which also makes me happy. I have several external drive enclosures and this always has been a shortcoming to me. I want to save energy and have the lower noise levels. It is as quiet as the hard drives you put into it. If you put two noisy hard drives into it, you'll get plenty to hear with both drives running. My hard drives are nearly silent and this is an important purchase consideration when shopping for drives.

I'm using mine in the RAID 1 mode where whatever information I store to it is mirrored on both hard drives. That means if one drive croaks, then my data is safe on the other drive.

If hard drives make a big leap someday to ~5TB capacities then I'll likely be able to put those new drives into the then old DNS-323 and keep on working.

It's internal software is Linux based which makes me, a big fan of Linux, very happy. I tested the DNS-323 with Win98, WinXP, Mac OSX, various Linux versions (Knoppix, Mint Linux, Mandriva Linux, TinyME Linux), a Nokia N810 and a PalmPilot TX. All were just happy with the DNS-323.

The software included with the DNS-323 is Windows-only but really you can just interact with it via the Web-interface through any browser. I tested it with Safari, Konquerer (Linux), Epiphany (Linux), Seamonkey (Linux and Win), Firefox (Mac, Win and Linux), Opera (Mac, Win and Linux), and the Nokia Maemo Linux browser. I did not check it with Internet Explorer b/c I refuse to use that browser (brought me grief in the form of viruses more than once) but I'm sure it works too.

IF somehow I out grow this NAS I'll purchase another one just like it. I'll put it side-by-side with this current one. My current D-Link wireless router has room for 3 more. :)

Am also considering purchasing one for my workplace. We could use a departmental server and this NAS would be great.

"So far...So good", I purchased this unit about a month ago from Amazon. The delivery was prompt and the unit arrived with no issues. I've purchased many things this year from Amazon and continue to be a loyal customer.

I installed two 1Gb drives in this unit. My initial intent was to use it in a mirrored configuration but I ended up configuring it where it offers 2Tb of storage. I'm still 'playing' with this unit and still in the deciding mode as to what configuration I will ultimately settle with. I have a massive mp3 and photo collection that this device will for. I have a handful of 'ripped' DVD movies on this unit and experimented as well over wireless and wired network. I noticed no delays or any sort of issues (video or audio) while watching the movie.

The unit itself was a breeze to setup. I had it up and running within minutes. It has a pretty small footprint, the picture makes this unit look bigger than it really it. I purchased 'green' hard drives so they spin down if there's no activity. The unit is fairly quiet and gets warm to touch after being on for a while.

I currently have 7 pc's (5 using XP and 2 using Vista) around the house (4 desktops and 3 laptops) Each PC can access this unit with no issues. I have a 1Gigabit speed network so the throughput seems fast, at least for my use. I haven't tried accessing this unit simultaneously from two pc's (for example, streaming mp3's from on one PC and doing a photo slideshow on another pc) I'm hoping it won't be an issue but thats something I would rarely do anyways. The sole purpose of this unit for me is to have the music/photos available, not matter what PC I use. I'm currently configuring yet another desktop which will have the Red Hat Linux installed on it. It will be interesting to see if I can make this unit work with the linux installation.

Prior to buying this unit, I had researched other similar devices. My decision was based on the positive reviews at other sites, the price of the unit, and the rebate that was available for it at the time when I purchased it. Overall, I'm very satisfied with its performance and recommend this to anyone who has similar needs as mine.