Anthony Caruana10 September 2008, 10:54 PM
D-Link’s experience with network gear shows with the DNS-343.
D-Link’s been a mainstay of the home and small business networking market for some time now. The DSN-343 is a refined product that reflects that experience and shows why D-Link is a leader in the networking game.
Setting the DNS-343 up was very straightforward. Our review unit came without any pre-installed drives, but installation is 100% tool free. Simply lift the front cover off and slide the drives into place. There’s no caddy system and no screws.
Once the drives were in we plugged the DNS-343 into our router and powered it on. The accompanying CD comes with D-Link’s Easy Search Utility. This scanned our LAN and detected the DNS-343 in quick time. Configuring the RAID was simply a matter of clicking the Configuration button and following the prompts. Most options were given in both technical language and in plain English.
Before we get into the DNS-343’s performance, it’s worth noting that this unit is quite loud. We simply couldn’t work with it on the desk within a couple of metres of our work area. It might be possible to have the device run a little quieter with different hard drives.
The DNS-343’s OLED screen provided realtime feedback on the device’s status. Interestingly, while we were formatting the four drives we’d installed, its progress indicator was a few percent different to the progress bar in the desktop software. It wasn’t a big deal but we did notice it.
The D-Link software was easy to use, as most options are clearly labelled. The menu system requires that you select a specific option from the top menu. Then, you’ll be able to access specific actions from the left-hand side menu. It’s reasonably straightforward and those who have used D-Link’s routers will find it familiar.
As well as basic support for shared folders, the DNS-343 can be used as an FTP server and for sharing media as an iTunes server or via UPnP. All those functions worked as expected through our testing. It also supports DDNS so that it can be accessed from outside your local network. This is facilitated by integration with D-Link’s free DDNS service.
In testing, the DNS-343 performed well. Data transfers from our test system to the unit, connected to our LAN via its Gigabit Ethernet port, were fast. Video playback via Windows Media player using UPnP or the iTunes server was flawless. The DNS-343 appeared almost instantly on our Windows system in Explorer and our Mac’s Finder.
We kept the DNS-343 running for several days and it didn’t miss a beat. In the case where something does go wrong, the DNS-343 can be configured to send an email alert. Alerts can be sent for a number of events such when there’s no remaining space, there’s been a disk failure, or if the administration password has been changed. It can also notify you of remaining space regularly, although this could only be set to be daily or more frequently.
One of the greatest enemies of the modern hard drive is heat. With ever-increasing capacities, there’s less margin for error in the design and operation of our storage media, and heat can distort a drive leading to a failure. The DNS-343 can be set to send an email when the operating temperature reaches a specific threshold you can set and then close down automatically.
Home and small office NAS devices need to be easy to set up, simple to use and reliable. D-Link’s DNS-343 ticks all the boxes and, other than being a little loud, could find a place in most homes or offices.