D-Link DNS-325 ShareCenter 2-Bay Network Storage device with Streaming Apps

Pros: Quiet, cool, small footprint, 1gb ethernet. I also like the ability to setup seperate accounts with storage limits and access rights. Has FTP server built in but I don't use it.

Cons: with fan setting on auto, it never seemed to come on. My data transfers would fail at times during large transfers. Determined that the drives were too warm. Turned fan on continuous low (still very quiet) and never had problem since. Don't know what temp was, but was warm. Not sure if fault was with this box or one of the drives not liking the heat, so I can't fault this machine.

Other Thoughts: I would definately recommend this as it is nice looking and energy efficient when drives go to sleep mode while not in use after an hour or two of inactivity. Overall a great home or small office unit for safe data storage. I still back this up to an external drive in case of disaster and keep it off site.

Pros: Extremely easy to setup using the included software. Streams multimedia content all over my house just like advertised. It's very small and compact and takes up almost no space. It's quiet and works flawlessly with my WD TV Live, Micro$oft's Media Center and even my HTPC running XBMC.

Cons: The only part I can't get to work is setting up a DDNS so I can access the files from anywhere. I've followed the video instructions to the T and even went out and bought a D-Link wireless router thinking that was the problem, but still no luck. Once the DDNS is working, this device will be flawless.

Other Thoughts: Well worth the investment for a home or business. So worth it, in fact, that I had to buy another after I received the first one! :)

Pros: fast, quiet, small, easy to get out of the way, looks nice if you can't get it out of the way, works great with my Win7 box

Cons: two copies of it always show up on my Mac in finder windows, had to enable AFP on it before it would copy nested files on the Mac, generally buggy and doesn't connect properly or stay connected to the Mac, lots of vibration from it makes putting it on a desk not such a good idea...my arms kinda felt like i'd been using a weed whacker after a couple of hours of this sitting on my desk.

Other Thoughts: putting it under the desk obviously solved the vibration problems, but this still won't work correctly with my Mac. I got this for storing my code for cross-platform development projects and now I'm wishing I'd looked elsewhere. I'm pretty sure it's not the Mac as I've used SMB shares with plenty of Macs, including this one. This would probably be a great box if you only use it with Windows and maybe Linux. For those of us who also use and develop on a Mac, this is definitely not the best choice. I have not yet used this with a Linux box as the old one is elsewhere and I haven't built up a new one yet.

I bought this from what is probably Newegg's main competitor which is why my ownership will not be confirmed.

Pros: Makes almost no noise, stays cool and is very fast. It is being used as a backup system for two servers and user backups on our network and the web interface is fast and has yet to fail or have any issues.

Cons: Not really a con but when I first set up the unit only one drive showed up in the web interface with the raid setup but after a few days it started showing both 1tb drives.

Other Thoughts: The web apps are nice but I rarely use them since I only use it as a network backup system but at least its features are expandable which is a huge plus.

Pros: The hardware seemed to be well constructed and the browser interface was attractive, well laid-out, and functional. In addition to the RAID options, the box could be configured such that the two drives were independent or both drives appeared as one (JBOD). I bought the box intending to configure it as RAID 1 until I read a forum entry that suggested that two independent disks can be a better option if you manage the synchronization well (if something is deleted from one RAID 1 disk it is instantly deleted from both drives). It was easy to setup to meet my preferences and reworking the configuration as needed was simple. Once it was on the network, it was detected and became quickly accessible as one drive (RAID 1) or two drives (two independent discs).

Cons: My primary reason for purchasing this unit was the claim on both the D-Link and Newegg websites that it would run the SqueezeCenter music streaming software. I own a Squeezebox 3 which is a great device so I wanted something that was not a full-blown PC that would survive a hard drive crash (which is what put me in this market). EVERYTHING that the box was supposed to do it did as promised EXCEPT to run the SqueezeCenter application. The application installed successfully but would not start. I tried everything to resolve it including beta firmware - nothing worked. Level 1 support was a joke. Level 2 tried to convince me that the DNS-325 was simply a storage device and that the SqueezeCenter application had to run on a PC. He claimed that a developer would call me within 24 hours. No call after three days so I applied for an RMA and shipped the box back.

Other Thoughts: This box would be a great device if you don't need to run the SqueezeCenter application. It came with several other plug-in applications including a photo application but none of them interested me. I am really puzzled how a company that can design and manufacture the hardware and software for what appears to be an elegant device can so completely drop the ball on the support side. The included documentation was good so I did not need support for anything besides the SqueezeCenter problem so it is possible that support for basic functionality is good.
Newegg's customer service has been great.

Pros: Works well on a PC

Cons: Does not work well with Lion or a Mac. Purchased b/c of its compatibility with Mac OS. New Lion OS does not work well with it at all. Do not recommend

Pros: It's a nice looking box. It's quiet, and runs cool. It shuts off without actually shooting it, though that thought is ever so appealing.

Cons: A frustrating to use product, not for the faint of heart, or anyone standing near a cliff's edge.

Disk management is absolutely awful - put in a second new disk after having created the first, and it formats both, and you lose all of your files and must start all over.

Put in a first disk, and then add a second as a backup Raid1, but of a larger size, and you cannot use all the storage of the second, size being fixed by the first disk. So you cannot progressively upgrade disk size while still maintaining raid1.

The manual is awful! It monkeys the NAS online prompts with just as little helpful information available.

The photo gallery is awful - it's slow, it doesn't manage well larger images above 800x600. This is third party open-source software that dlink presents as their own. It's not their own, it's furthermore not integrated well with the hardware, and it's further furthermore not supported by dlink.

Other Thoughts: I would have added more Cons, but newegg restricts the comments to 1000 letters.

After nearly a year after product entry there are still no firmware upgrades available, and this useless product has plenty of bugs. It does not engender data security confidence, and appears quite the opposite - absolutely unreliable.

I wish I could have given this product ZERO stars!

Spend the extra money and purchase a something better.

Pros: It works and seems well built. Nice and compact and simple structure. Seems pretty quite.

Cons: Documentation, if you want to do something more than just create a simple CIFs share.

Other Thoughts: I wanted some real speed and an NFS device for a particular project. I bought two SSD drives. These were simple to put in but not what was intended as the drives are supposed to be full 3.5" I just took the face plate off and the SSD drives plugged right in. A little paper underneath to support and it was good to go.

To set up the NFS the doco could have had one piece of info that would have saved me a LOT of time on the internet researching. On Windows, once you install the Windows Support For Unix, you need to go to the CLI and do a show mount -e deviceIP to find the export directory. I couldn't find this anywhere else. Once I had this I was able to easily connect to the device via NFS.

In general, if I was using this for an iTunes library or a simple file server, it would be good to go. I wouldn't think it would work well as a higher end media server with large files, etc.

Pros: Time Machine Compatible
Inexpensive
uses any 3.5" drive, fast
low power consumption
solid metal chassis
tool free install
gigabit performance
easy software install and elegant management interface
Bundled backup software works well for Microsoft machines

Cons: Runs fairly hot, though this hasn't affected performance. I don't know if the fan is easily replaceable (I've had these little fans fail in the past).
Only one PC license for bundled backup software.

Other Thoughts: I got this as a redundant backup and file server for a small business network--we have 3 pcs and 2 macs running. I set it up to run RAID 1 with no problems,
There are too many drive options out there for D-Link to do an official compatibility check I used two SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive and they worked perfectly right out of the box. This is a "green" drive and has relatively low power consumption. If you want faster performance you'll want to spring for 7200rpm drives though it still seems to function well with multiple people streaming video.

Pros: Fast, Faster then the DNS-323. my DNS-323's I get about 20MB/sec the DNS-325 I'm getting 35 - 40 MB/sec right outta the box! Many more options some easy some you'll have 2 do research 2 learn. but 2 get the unit up and running just follow the manual. I'm running 2 HD204UI Samsung 2 TB hard drive with no problem (purchased from NewEgg (of course) just like my 2 DNS-323's.

Cons: D-link doesn't provide help or info for some of the newer items so even if u have some internet experience you may have 2 research a few of these items.
I definitely like the interface and new look. But do wish they'd provided a little more info. When i called & asked which drives could be uses Tech support couldnt answer my question except 2 say, Try em.

Other Thoughts: I expect 2 purchase at least 1 more in the ext week to add 2 more 2 TB hard drives.