Fitting drives into the DNS-325 is easy. Just slide the
sleek metal faceplate up and push the disks into place. The system is screwless
but still feels secure. The DNS-325 has fewer ports than many of its similarly
priced rivals, but the USB port on the back and the user configurable USB
Copy/Unmount button will be sufficient for many users. You can use this to
attach extra storage or share a USB printer across your network. The power
switch is activated by pushing on the device's fascia, and the absence of a
visible switch makes it look even sleeker.
D-LINK Sharecenter shadow DNS-325
The installation disc leads you through the process of
installing your drives, setting up an admin password and giving the device an
address on your network. It also prompts you to set up a DDNS account using
D-Link's free DLinkDDNS.com service, which makes it easier to access your
storage remotely if your ISP only gives you a dynamic IP address. An optional
step lets you configure the DNS-325 to send alert and notification emails to a
designated address. Finally, you’re prompted to format and configure the drives
and map the location of the device's share to a drive letter. The application
then offers to set up a range of add-on tools, including an audio streamer,
photo centẻ and Squeeze center media streamer.
At $109 and with a
good range of features, the DNS-325 is perfect for re-using any old hard disks
you may have
The web interface lacks the polish of those from Synology
and QNap; it has big chunky icons, dated styling and small text. However,
everything is easy to find. There are three main sections, but one is a
customisable favourites tab that’s empty by default. The Management section is
the most immediately useful, and provides access to disk and volume management
tools so that you can reformat the hard disks and change your RAID settings.
You can also run the setup wizard again, use the Account Management settings to
create users and assign permissions, and configure local network and Dynamic
DNS settings. There's also an Application Management screen and a separate tab
for installed applications. These include services such as ¡Tunes and UPnP
media streaming, a BitTorrent client, a basic web-accessible file server
interface, an FTP server and a management interface for backups to and from the
device, including Apple Time Machine. It also comes with Farstone’s Total
Recovery Pro backup suite for Windows.
The DNS-325's performance in our tests wasn't particularly
impressive. It can stream media to several clients without interruption or
dropped frames, but if you want to carry out large, frequent and fast backups,
look elsewhere. Its Raid 1 performance was rather poor in our large-file
transfer tests at 16.8MB/S but it proved itself in our small-file test with an
average of 11.9MB/S. Its Raid 0 scores were much faster at 14.1 MB/s for small
files and 24.4MB/S for large files. The slower Raid 1 speeds may cause dropped
frames when streaming HD video to multiple clients.
At $109 and with a good range of features, the DNS-325 is
perfect for re-using any old hard disks you may have. It isn't fast, but it's a
decent file and media server, and a great budget buy.
|
Info
Price: $109
Details: www.dlink.com
Summary
Verdict: An incredibly low price makes up for slightly
slow transfer speeds and a drab interface in this budget NAS enclosure
Network storage enclosure: 10/100/1000Mbit/s network
connection, 1 USB port, UPnP media, iTunes, print, USB disk, FTP servers
|
