Thursday, August 02, 2007
Dlink DNS-323: good kit, horrible setup
John's notes (from bitter experience) on setting up the DNS-323 under Windows XP.
Setting up the DNS-323
There seems no way to set up separate drive partitions within a single volume on the DNS-323, but you can set up different folders and give these different permissions. To set up, rename or delete folders, you need to set up a user-name and password - which you get to under the Advanced tab on the configuration menu - which you get at by using http://192.168.0.xxx where xxx is whatever you have set it up, or the default (which I think is 32). That user needs to be given Network Access (also on the advanced tab) to the top-levle of the volume. Then go to any PC on the network, navigate to the DNS-323 ("My Network Places" etc) and you should see the device and the volume. You will need to enter the username and password when you try to open the volume.
Providing un-passworded access to a folder is easy - there is an ALL option in the Network Access dialog. But if you want different people to be able to use different folders, then you have to be careful with passwords.
You use the http access to the DNS-323 to set up users and to add Network Access permissions for folders. Note that giving permission for a user to access a parent folder restricts you to mapping a Network Drive to the parent directory - you cannot use that permission to allow separate mapping of subfolders to different Network Drives. So if the boss can see FolderA, FolderB and FolderC, then either set up separate permissions for each folder and map them to separate drives - or map a single drive to the folder that contains these three subfolders.
Setting up user PCs
The EasySearch software seems to need to run from a local hard disk. If it doesn't find the DNS-323, check for a Windows Firewall dialog box sitting hidden behind other windows. I found it as easy to set up Network Drive connections using Windows Explorer.
If users have a Windows Login with a password of 5 to 8 charactes, then things are quite easy. Set up a User for the DNS-323 with the user's logon name, and use the same password.
If users have a Windows Login with a password greater than 8 characters (the limit for DNS-323 - dumbly), then create a different user name for them on the DNS-323, and when you map a Network Drive for them, choose "Connect using a different user name" and specify the DNS=323's username and password.
If users do not use a password to log in to Windows, and you are sure they are not going to do so in future, then you can use the same username for the DNS-323 (invent a password) and for Windows XP, but when you use Map Network Drive to map their folder, choose "Connect using a different user name". Then enter the SAME user name as for Windows login, and use the password you have set up for that user on the DNS-323. Note that if you do later add a Windows login password for this user name, then that password will be used by Windows to try and access the DNS-323 even though you have specified a different password in the Map Network Drives dialog.
Good Luck!
Postscript: December 2009. Just got this working properly under Vista - it seemed to need the update to 1.7 firmware ... which (without warning) wipes the Network Access setup (ie who gets to see which folders). But whilst I succeeded in setting up the DNS-323 as a Mapped Network Drive (using the utility on the D-link website - make sure you run it from the client PC's local disk), I failed to get Acronis TrueImage to work with the drive: it DID see the drive, but failed when I actually ran the backup. Reading around suggests that there is a fundamental problem (related to the operating system used by the DNS-323) and not just a glitch.
Setting up the DNS-323
There seems no way to set up separate drive partitions within a single volume on the DNS-323, but you can set up different folders and give these different permissions. To set up, rename or delete folders, you need to set up a user-name and password - which you get to under the Advanced tab on the configuration menu - which you get at by using http://192.168.0.xxx where xxx is whatever you have set it up, or the default (which I think is 32). That user needs to be given Network Access (also on the advanced tab) to the top-levle of the volume. Then go to any PC on the network, navigate to the DNS-323 ("My Network Places" etc) and you should see the device and the volume. You will need to enter the username and password when you try to open the volume.
Providing un-passworded access to a folder is easy - there is an ALL option in the Network Access dialog. But if you want different people to be able to use different folders, then you have to be careful with passwords.
You use the http access to the DNS-323 to set up users and to add Network Access permissions for folders. Note that giving permission for a user to access a parent folder restricts you to mapping a Network Drive to the parent directory - you cannot use that permission to allow separate mapping of subfolders to different Network Drives. So if the boss can see FolderA, FolderB and FolderC, then either set up separate permissions for each folder and map them to separate drives - or map a single drive to the folder that contains these three subfolders.
Setting up user PCs
The EasySearch software seems to need to run from a local hard disk. If it doesn't find the DNS-323, check for a Windows Firewall dialog box sitting hidden behind other windows. I found it as easy to set up Network Drive connections using Windows Explorer.
If users have a Windows Login with a password of 5 to 8 charactes, then things are quite easy. Set up a User for the DNS-323 with the user's logon name, and use the same password.
If users have a Windows Login with a password greater than 8 characters (the limit for DNS-323 - dumbly), then create a different user name for them on the DNS-323, and when you map a Network Drive for them, choose "Connect using a different user name" and specify the DNS=323's username and password.
If users do not use a password to log in to Windows, and you are sure they are not going to do so in future, then you can use the same username for the DNS-323 (invent a password) and for Windows XP, but when you use Map Network Drive to map their folder, choose "Connect using a different user name". Then enter the SAME user name as for Windows login, and use the password you have set up for that user on the DNS-323. Note that if you do later add a Windows login password for this user name, then that password will be used by Windows to try and access the DNS-323 even though you have specified a different password in the Map Network Drives dialog.
Good Luck!
Postscript: December 2009. Just got this working properly under Vista - it seemed to need the update to 1.7 firmware ... which (without warning) wipes the Network Access setup (ie who gets to see which folders). But whilst I succeeded in setting up the DNS-323 as a Mapped Network Drive (using the utility on the D-link website - make sure you run it from the client PC's local disk), I failed to get Acronis TrueImage to work with the drive: it DID see the drive, but failed when I actually ran the backup. Reading around suggests that there is a fundamental problem (related to the operating system used by the DNS-323) and not just a glitch.
# posted by John Geddes @ 12:37 pm 
