D-Link DNS-321 Diskless System 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

Pros: Deviced worked as expected for about a year

Cons: AFter a year, the device stopped working, determined it overheaded because the internal fan stopped. I used compressed air and blew it out and it worked again. Then started cleaning quarterly, just after 2 years, fan stopped agian, and can't keep it going. Device continuously stops working now.

Other Thoughts: It would be nice to know if the fan can be replaced, or if the drives can be dropped into similar NAS and start working. I currently have them in RAID 1 in this device.

Pros: Bought two of these NAS' from the other online marketplace about 9 months ago...they are still going strong with no problems. Both NAS' have two 2 TB drives inside that I bought prior to the flood in Thailand. One drive is setup in RAID 1 format, the other as individual disks. One computer uploads data to one of the 321's every minute or so, writing approximately 15 mb every time...this has been going on for about 8-9 months straight now with no problems. I must say, these devices are an excellent value for what you get. Although there is a noticeable slowness with regards to transfer speeds (see cons), my operation doesn't require super-fast data speeds, so this isn't really a bother to me...the devices work, which is the main thing.

Cons: Only one: transfer speeds. I docked one egg for this. For those who require fast access and upload/download speeds...forget about this NAS. However, if you just need access to files and aren't streaming data at a super-fast rate...you'll love the features of this NAS.

Other Thoughts: I know these are out of stock at this time...but if you can find a new or slightly used/like-new DNS-321 AND you don't mind the slow data transfer speeds...GET THIS NAS...you won't be disappointed!

Pros: Welll...Where to start i spend good 4 Hours trying to set up did not work... after swapping several HHD it finally detected my 100G drive but it wont detect 500G nor 1TB HHD which sucks.. i tested the 500 n 1TB drive work find on pc.

Cons: Since this is my First RMA From D-link NAS i'll give it the benefit of a doubt that unit was defective. soo... will try another one...!!!! see how that works out...soooo you get Only 2eggs D--link no more.

Pros: Price, ease of use, good basic functionality incl. basic FTP.

Cons: firmware is a little buggy. FW interface is really clunky, but usable.

Other Thoughts: I get about 65 mbs transfer from my WinXP machine to the NAS. I using WD advanced format 2GB drives (WEARS) which are not recommended, but are working fine. I haven't really gotten the internal backup function to work, so I use Acronis for all my backups. FTP function works fine. The interface DLINK uses for its NAS boxes is really archaic, primitive, but it does work.

Pros: Very very easy setup and install. Had iTunes and several uPnP devices setup in minutes. Never touched the included software, included web interface is very easy to use like all D-Link web interfaces.

Cons: A little slow on transfer speeds, but that can very easily be Windows. I always have troubles getting Windows to move data across the network at gigabit speeds. Ignore the MIR, just got a rejection letter today, apparently I'm an organization. Who knew? Lost an egg right there.

Other Thoughts: If you don't plan on honoring your rebates, please don't offer them.

Pros: Looks pretty. Cheap.

Cons: I figured the negative reviews about performance were due to bad networking or general ignorance, but no, they were all absolutely correct. I had the DNS-321 and two standard Windows 7 desktops on a 1GB switch. When I copied a file from one Windows computer to the other I'd get about 90MB/second. When I copied to the Dlink I'd get 12MB/sec. No matter what way I setup the DLink it acted like it was on a 100mbit connection, although all evidence was to the contrary. I bought two so I tried the other one with the same result.

I tried different RAID configs, different hard drives, all to no avail. I can only think that the network component of this box is defective.

Other Thoughts: Avoid! Spend the extra $70 and get a better enclosure.

Pros: - 2 1TB HDDs with RAID1 configuration (Bought seperately)
- Nice online UI
- Very easy to set up
- Uses much less power than my old setup (External 1TB USB connected to Mac Mini)
- Works great between Windows 7, XP, and OS X
- Hacks available for it in case it's standard features aren't enough for you
- Fast enough to support video and song streaming over wifi
- Quiet enough for me
- Able to watch a movie with very few hiccups, I imagine there'd be 0 if I had an 802.11n router.
- Emails you if there's anything that requires your attention.
- UPnP software, iTunes Library, etc.
- User accounts with configurable permissions

I could go on and on about this thing, I'll stop here though.

Cons: - Speeds right around 2.5 MB/s over wifi (Wifi limitation, no fault of DLink)
- Speeds right around 9 MB/s over Ethernet

The somewhat slow speeds are the ONLY thing keeping the DNS-321 from getting 5 eggs in my book. As far as I know, I could squeeze a bit more speed out of them, but it really isn't something that I've felt the need to look too heavily into.

Other Thoughts: I didn't buy it from Newegg, I was going to, but found an offer for a used one that I couldn't pass up. So far I've been extremely satisfied with this unit and would recommend it to anyone looking to get a NAS, while keeping the somewhat slow speed in mind. If you're going to be constantly transferring hundreds of gigs of files constantly, you'll probably require something else, but for the average user who just wishes to keep a backup of his documents, media, and other files, this machine is excellent.

Speeds over Ethernet are only around 9 MB/s, which isn't fantastic considering that I've got Gigabit Ethernet all around, but it's still fast enough for anything I'd need it for after the initial transfer of all my data back onto it. You can mess with Jumbo Packets to increase the speed a bit, but I haven't gotten around to it.

Something else to keep in mind, if you're planning on putting a hard drive that you've already got into it, back everything up first, it WILL format it.

Pros: FTP, bittorrent, and other apps onboard.

Raid 1 (redundant) capable

Cons: Very slow tansfer speeds over ethernet. Not sure why they even wasted time advertising gigabit, nowhere near gigabit speeds (4-9MB/s TOPS, not even great by 100 Mbps standards). Every owner I've read on their forums and elsewhere online complains of this, it's a poorly implemented network controller likely limited by an already overtasked processor.

Other Thoughts: If you don't need blazing access speeds to the data and want to use it for archiving lie I do, or have a very small office environment with small spreadsheet use only, then this will work for you. If you're expecting $300 NAS features, speeds, and quality then you'll need to spend the coin on a $300+ unit.

Pros: solid unit, easy to set up, all needed items included.

Cons: not thrilled with file transfer speed - probably network issue - not sure this item is what I expected/wanted.

Pros: *Easy to setup and configure.
*Low Cost
*Support for uPnp, ftp, smb, nfs
*Low power consumption
*Hibernation mode
*Small footprint
*Shares files between windows systems just fine.
*Good for backing up PCs on your network.

Cons: *EXTREMELY low file transfer rates. I currently have a gigabit network and am able to transfer files between PCs consistency around 15-25 MB/s.
I was not able to get any more than 6MB/s with any network configurations either on the device (jumbo frames) or on the client hosts. Tech support was no help and the person on the other end kept calling it a router.
*No resource monitoring. There is no way to tell how much CPU/memory usage is allocated when the device is running.
*Only 400MHZ CPU
*Can't stream HD video media. I can easily stream a 720p file from one PC to another on my network. When I try to stream the same clip from the dns-321 the output is very choppy and unplayable. Support was no help on that either.

Other Thoughts: If you are looking for a basic NAS device to share files or backup local PC data on your home or small business network, this may work for you. I was looking for a centralized device in which I could hold my music and video library and stream to various devices in my home. Unfortunately, the low CPU power and slow transfer rates botched this plan. I am sending this unit back and going to try the Synology DS211J which seems to have received many good reviews.