D-link DNS-323

I picked up my new toys on thursday night. That was the first day of the Comex 2010. I only managed to get the D-link DNS-323 and a portable 1TB hard drive (Made in Japan).My initial impression of the device is it is very well built. It did not feel cheapskate like most of the things “Made in China”.

D-link DNS-323

After some lengthy backup of my Tera-Byte data, i moved the 1.5TB hard drives into the DNS-323. The installation guide was simple to follow. Now i am restoring my data back for the RAID1 protection. My router is transferring data at 30GB in 30 mins. Another 64mins to finish the transfer, maybe i should get a Gigabyte switch or router next.

So far i have encountered a problem. Problem 1.

When i shutdown my PC and the DNS-323, i will not be able to connect to the mapped drive. I can ping the IP of the DNS-323 but i just could not connect to the previously mapped drive letter. I noticed the DNS-323 is missing from my network neighborhood. I did some check and suspect it was the hostname to IP resolution. I saw it has appeared in the network neighborhood. I will reboot my PC after the current data restore. Yes! It fixed the problem.

I encountered the next problem when i tried to restore my data back to the DNS-323. Problem 2.

The transfer is super slow. I got close to a Tera Byte to transfer! Another idea appeared in my mind. Why not i upgrade my LAN to gigabit network? I checked the cheapest D-Link gigabit switch and found a 5 port D-link DGS-1005D at $65 to build my data super highway. Hey! I am becoming a D-Link supporter. Off i go to Comex 2010 again. Hit and run and also picked up 2 CAT5e cables. The crowd was terrible.

D-Link DGS-1005D

Just for laugh:

While squeezing in the crowd, you get to hear and see strange things.

1. “Did you smell something? I think someone just fart.” “A lot of green vegetable smell…”"

D-Link DGS-1005D

So i got home and plug in my new Gigabit switch and try again. No improvement. I did some calculation, the uploading speed really sucks! I am uploading at 6.67 Mbps only! I start to do more research online. See my other article on “Going from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet”.

Just i thought i have wasted my $65 on something that can’t improve my situation, i managed to track the problem down to the firewall. The Zone Alarm firewall was causing all this upload slowdown. There were many articles online by other users. After i disabled it, my upload speed jumped more than 10 times. YEAH!

Related posts:

1. Going from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet
2. What to buy next and reasons