cover
James I.

James I.

Joined on 05/02/06

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 14
Most Favorable Review

2 TB NAS!

D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure
D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

Pros: For the price, this is fastest NAS I could find, and according to my measurements, actually does writes at a sustained 13.5MB (a single drag-drop multi-file copy in windows). It works just fine with two Seagate 1TB drives. It was VERY easy to install. I had the drives installed in seconds and had it formatting them in less than 3 minutes (Now I could do that in seconds as well).

Cons: With the latest firmware (1.03 at this time): 1. The security used is NTLMv1, not NTLMv2, so to use from a Vista client you have to change the Local Security Policy settings (search for "Local Security Policy" in the start menu, select Local Policies/Security Options on the left pane, scroll down to Network security: LAN Manager authentication level, and change to "Send LM&NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated). 2. There doesn't seem to be a way to set the volume name, and the share is always the name of the directory (with numbers appended if there is already a share by that name), so I just created a directory with the name I wanted and use that as the main share. There is also no way to assign R/W access to one group and R only access to another group on the same share, so you have to have different share names for each access type.

Overall Review: I'm very pleased so far. Hopefully the built-in backup will be as pleasant and functional as the rest is when I set that up tonight.

Most Critical Review

Cables will cost you

StarTech.com SV431USBA 4 Port Steel USB KVM Switch with Audio and USB 2.0 Hub
StarTech.com SV431USBA 4 Port Steel USB KVM Switch with Audio and USB 2.0 Hub

Pros: Appears to be a nice KVM. All connectors are on the back.

Cons: No cables included, and requires MALE-MALE VGA KVM cables which will cost you another $100--the cheapest ones here are MALE-FEMALE so you can't use them.

Great for Dish Hopper

Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop External Hard Drive STBV3000100 Black
Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop External Hard Drive STBV3000100 Black

Pros: This is the perfect drive for the Dish Hopper DVR. It is one of only a few 3TB drives that will be recognized and fully usable by the Hopper.

Cons: Not the cheapest 3TB drive.

Flaky

Seagate SV35.6 ST2000VX000 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Surveillance Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate SV35.6 ST2000VX000 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Surveillance Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: The drives still function intermittently, so I may be able to get my data off of them.

Cons: The primary drive stopped booting about a month ago. Now that I've got some time to attempt a recovery, the backup (because they wouldn't work mirrored) is failing intermittently, making restoring the data very painful. Here's hoping I don't lose most of the data.

Overall Review: I've had two of these drives for just over two years. I originally tried to set them up as a mirrored pair, but that failed spectacularly. They do not support RAID.

Delayed Illumination

Collection LED CL-G60E-6W (W) 40 W Equivalent LED Light Bulb
Collection LED CL-G60E-6W (W) 40 W Equivalent LED Light Bulb

Pros: Inexpensive LEDs, decent brightness.

Cons: Not quite soft white--a little blue. Takes about 1/4 second to light up--noticeably slower than most lights, especially if mixed in the same fixture.

Nice Enclosure

USB 3.0 HDD Hard Drive External Enclosure 2.5 Inch SATA HDD Case Box Black
USB 3.0 HDD Hard Drive External Enclosure 2.5 Inch SATA HDD Case Box Black

Pros: USB Powered, Fast

Cons: Requires two USB ports instead of just one

12/18/2013