DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

Nice tease...

No other info, no place that sells...you know what the expected street price might be?

Last thing I am looking for is double the trouble at all costs.  These 323's are not end user friendly and require a working knowledge of LINUX from what I can tell. Far above most end users heads and had I known this at the outset I would have never purchased the one I am now stuck with. IT doesn't do anything likw its advestised abilities.  It borders on fraud.

fordem wrote:

bohica wrote:

Last thing I am looking for is double the trouble at all costs.  These 323's are not end user friendly and require a working knowledge of LINUX from what I can tell. Far above most end users heads and had I known this at the outset I would have never purchased the one I am now stuck with. IT doesn't do anything likw its advestised abilities.  It borders on fraud.

I cannot agree with you - in fact I cannot begin to believe we're discussing the same device - I challenge you to show the advertised capability (by means of a link to the web page) or a scanned image (if it's a print) advertisement, that the device does not deliver.

The only thing that I'm aware of in that regard is the defrag/disk check utilities that were present on my unit when I first received it, and were removed in a subsequent firmware release.

You do NOT need a working knowledge of linux to use this - I wouldn't claim to have a working knowledge of linux - although I have improved tremendously in that regard thanks to the folks here, but the device was usable and did deliver the advertised capabilities right out of the box with no linux knowledge required.

Gotta agree with fordem on this one.  DNS-323 is a lot more user friendly than some competitor models.  I also have the Netgear BYOD product.
It is a lot less user friendly and it is not nearly as hackable is the D-link. 
As far as Linux user experience, had used LINUX years ago and I had become really rusty.  I didn't need to recall to many of my skills in order to
fix my issue.  Any how Linux is pretty easy to learn. You youngsters are spoiled, back in the old days we didn't have an auto config LINUX OS like you have to day (I had to install in LINUX by cmd line, uphill both ways in deep snow).
I'm not saying there aren't some annoying hiccups, but it's a decent product. 
What did DNS-323 advertise that it doesn't deliver on?

fordem wrote:

I challenge you to show the advertised capability (by means of a link to the web page) or a scanned image (if it's a print) advertisement, that the device does not deliver.

http://www.dlinkshop.com/product.asp?sku=3049920

This section:
===
STREAM DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT TO UPnP™ AV COMPATIBLE MEDIA PLAYERS
Back up your music, photo, and video collections to the DNS-323 for safekeeping. Then, enjoy the benefits of the built-in UPnP AV media server as you stream digital content to compatible media players (such as those found in D-Link’s MediaLounge™ product line). This feature is highly convenient as it allows you to turn off a computer that would normally be needed for the same function.
===

I can't get more than 30 items in the list of artists or albums. My music collection includes more than 30 artists and more than 30 albums, so my UPnP AV MediaPlayer can't access a lot of my music using the built in UPnP AV server.

Also the FTP server (in firmware 1.03) seemed to disconnect any file transfer that lasts longer than a few minutes. (Tested over a 100Mbps LAN with a 2GB test file, not retested with firmware 1.04).

Also that link claims 23MB/sec reads, which I think you would only be able to do over FTP, and by enabling Jumbo frames (which is usually a bad idea) and is not possible without issuing commands outside the UI. (My personal best read speed is less than half that, but I have *written* much faster than the claimed 15MB/sec.)

Now, obviously you could argue that DLink don't claim they can serve *all* my music, just some of it, but I thought that more than 30 items in a list might be a reasonable expectation.

Also, they don't state if the FTP server can transfer big files, just files.

The 23 MB/sec claim is "up to 23 MB/sec", so I guess I don't have any cause to be grumpy there either.

So did I loose the challenge because my expectations are unreasonable?

However, despite being room for improvement, I think the DNS323 is fantastic. It sits on my network quietly receiving backups, and my only configuration for that was using the default UI.

I love that it also let me install 3rd party software (twonky), and I like the potential that chroot debian offers. Running the box as a Primary Domain Controller maybe? Or light weight web application server. But I do think DLink have work to do to get the on-the-box features working as I'd expect them to, even as I'm thanking them for not locking it down so that I can mess about ...

Is everyone who got a NAS like the DNS-323 really be able to use this device?

To buy a car and to drive a car in a garage, are two different pair of shoes!

Last edited by Tilly (2008-02-12 22:33:59)

mealto wrote:

Come on gang, let's stay on course. This thread is about us poor saps who just purchased a 323 and now the bigger 4-bay unit is out! LOL j/k

Its not out yet :0.

Users assigned FTP access rights (including myself) are unable to access the DNS-323 remotely as advertised. That was an advertised feature "FTP SERVER" and the only reason I purchased the unit as it would assist me in the field.

fordem wrote:

Well - although I don't normally use ftp - I have on the odd occasion transferred files, from the DNS-323, across the internet, using ftp.  Note - from - I'm not going to say that you can transfer a file to, BUT, not because I was unable to, rather because I haven't tried, I've never had the need.

Let me see now - 1500 miles of submarine fiber from where I am to the NAP in Florida, another 22,000 miles up to a geostationary satellite and finally another 22,000 miles back down - one way total of ~45,000 miles - to a point within 2 miles (geographically) of where I started - that should qualify as "being able to access the DNS-323 remotely as advertised"

I would say the problem there is not that the device does not "do anything likw its advestised abilities" so much as you were unable to get it working the way you wanted it.

For what it's worth - there were SOHO firewalls at both ends of that link - a Cisco at one end, and D-Link at the other, the DNS-323 was behind the D-Link and port fowarding was used - and no knowledge of linux was required.

I bought an FTP SERVER, it doesn't work period ...  as advertised ... right on the box ... it came in. No linux is needed if it does what it claims to be able to do. DNS-323 is at best a beta  and we are the testers.  Support absolutely sucks, been there and done that too....


If you would like to buy my DNS-323 let me know.


For your reference BEFORE buying it:

Unfortunately, the DNS-323 isn't the perfect piece of equipment and it contains a bunch of bugs.


Printer spooler buffering issue
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23, 1.02, 1.02b, 1.03
Severity: Medium
D-Link correction: 1.04
Description: When printing via the printer server when the printer is off, and then turning on the printer, the print jobs may be buffered but never printed, or printed next time a new print job is sent to the queue.
Workaround: User may need to delete the printer spooling directory manually. Will be fixed in 1.04 according to d-link.


Character Encoding Issue
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23, 1.02, 1.02b, 1.03
Severity: Critical for international users
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: DNS-323 is unable to save all international characters. Norwegian characters such as æøå will not be saved correctly on d-link dns-323 from MacOSX
Workaround: None. Will be fixed in 1.04 according to d-link.


Daylight Saving Time Issue
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23, 1.02, 1.02b
Severity: Medium
D-Link correction: 1.03
Description: When daylight saving time is enabled in the DNS-323, every night at 01:59 AM, an at job is executed. This job executes the program /usr/sbin/daylight with 1 or 2 as argument. These arguments represents EU (2) or US (1) in WEB GUI. When the program is executed, it injects itself in the at-queue two times.

The effect of this is that every night, at 01:59, the number of at jobs is doubled. After a month, the number of entries in the at-queue will be, in theory, 1'073'741'824.

However, the unit degrades and becomes unusable after 7-10 days and needs to be rebooted.
Workaround: Disable daylight saving in the WEB GUI.


Disc Spin-up Issue
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23, 1.02 and 1.03
Severity: Medium
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: If you have, for some reason, failed to print from the unit there might be unfinished jobs in the lp-queue. The printer daemon will access this directory every 10th minute or so, causing the disc to spin-up.

Workaround: Remove the hidden directory \.lpd in \\NAS\HDD_1 (1.01 FW) or \\NAS\Volume_1 (1.02 and 1.03 FW) or telnet to the device and clear the lp-queue with command /sys/crfs/LPRng/lprm.

To see the lp queue, use /sys/crfs/LPRng/lpq or if you shutdown and startup your DNS-323 often, you can create a fun_plug with the following line in it:

/sys/crfs/LPRng/lprm allwhich should clear the print queue at start up.

Spin-ups have been reported even after the workaround has been performed. If this happens, print one succesful page and it should then be fixed.



Broken iTunes Interface
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23? and 1.02?
Severity: Low
D-Link correction: 1.03
Description: When using the iTunesServer WEB GUI, sometimes the GUI gets corrupted. After this, the iTunesServer WEB GUI can no longer be used.
Workaround: Telnet to the device and “cp /sys/crfs/default/mt-daapd.conf /etc/mt-daapd.conf”

Description: The DAAP server's database can become corrupted and needs to be deleted. Symptom: Song list loads in iTunes but can't play – songs get an exclamation point error flag. Workaround: Telnet to the device and “rm /mnt/HD_a2/.systemfile/.mt-daapd/.songs.gdb” then stop and start the iTunes server via the web interface.


RAID-1 Rebuild Issues
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23 and 1.02
Severity: High
D-Link correction: 1.02b
Description: When a failed disc, in a RAID-1 configuration, is replaced it's not properly rebuilt. Following the instructions from the unit will even destroy all data on the unit. Confirmation?!? Anyone?!? 
Workaround: (Possible) Upgrade to 1.02b firmware.

Update: 05-Jan-08 Running on the 1.03 firmware does not seem to have fixed this issue given the following steps:

Powerdown, remove a disk, powerup
Make filesystem change.
Powerdown, readd disk, powerup. (added disk should be blank and formatted: was it ?)
RAID is not rebuilt, and files added during the intermission get Input/Output errors.

Large File Issue
Firmware: 1.01, 1.01b23, 1.02 and 1.02b
Severity: High
D-Link correction: 1.03
Description: Users with Windows 2003 and Windows Vista has reported that they fail to transfer 'large' files to the unit. Some reports indicates that this is not an issue with Windows XP. Apparently files in the range 2-4Gb, 6-8Gb and 10-12Gb fails to transfer while 0-2Gb, 4-6Gb, 8-10Gb and 12-14Gb transfers ok.

According to findings by tobyg, as posted on our forum, the problem is a signing issue in the 2.x.x branch of Samba. Or to put it as tobyg says:

So go into byteorder.h and change this line:
#define CVAL(buf,pos) ( ( (const unsigned char *)(buf))[pos])

To this line:
#define CVAL(buf,pos) ( (unsigned)( ( (const unsigned char *)(buf))[pos]))

Workaround: The Samba daemon needs to be replaced. tobyg has submitted patched files and a script, which can be used at own risk. Instructions and the files needed can be found in this thread.

Mounting from Linux: Many linux distros will not mount smb default with Large file support. Use the mount -o lfs option to get Large file support. thread


Share not accessible after reboot
Firmware: 1.02b, 1.03
Severity: High
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: After the DNS was booted it is not possible to access any network shares. You need first to log on to the DNS, go to the NETWORK ACCESS section and “touch” at least one rule. Still not corrected in FW 1.03…
Workaround: telnet to the device and issue smb restart


* can anyone actually confirm this issue? My DNS-323 runs firmware 1.03 and if I reboot the machine, I can access network shares via SMB without logging in to the machine…

confirmed, did not know about network access fix, just ran the wizard every time and restarted the dns
Also confirmed - Win XP SP2 / DND-323 1.03 Raid1 500GB HDD x 2 - smb restart also works as documented.

* I have firmware 1.03 and after a “normal” reboot I can access network shares without logging into the machine, but after a power blackout I have to go to the NETWORK ACCESS section as described above. *

Update: 25-Aug-07; Paul from D-Link tech support in Australia helped resolve this issue by doing the following:
[My setup is DNS323 FW v1.03 with static IP of 192.168.1.199 and a netbios name of “dns323” going into a WRT54G @ 192.168.1.2. The gateway is set to 192.168.1.2 on the DNS323]

For my XP (SP2) box:
1. Tried accessing the samba shares using \\dns323 after cold boot. No dice. Worked by using the IP of \\192.168.1.199. Paul suggested adding an entry to my hosts or Lmhosts file. I updated the hosts file at: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ with
192.168.1.199 dns323
and then rebooted both the dns323 and my XP box. I could access the dns323 using its UNC path perfectly.


Remark: The firewall ZoneAlarm has blocked the connection, too. After setting the ip-address accordingly to the secure zone the above described steps succeeds. With an additional batch program in the folder autostart
NET USE * \\DNS323\Volume_1 password /USER:name /PERSISTENT:NO
it works automatically fine for each user

For my Vista x64 Ultimate box:
1. Ran secpol.msc. Went to Local Policies, Security Options, Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level. Made sure it was set to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated.
2. Rebooted PC and dns323 - could not access dns323 in Vista x64 Ultimate using \\dns323 or \\192.168.1.199
3. Ran compmgmt.msc. Went to Local Users and Groups, Users, Administrator. Unticked “Account in disabled” and clicked Apply then OK. (double-check the admin account is enabled by going back to secpol.msc, Local Policies, Security Options, Accounts: Administrator account status and checking it is enabled.
4. Log out of my standard user account in Vista x64 Ultimate (Start > Log Off), and click on the Admin account (it has no password by default I think). If you've never logged in as Administrator in Vista it will give you a new profile and desktop settings.
5. Tried accessing the dns323 using \\192.168.1.199 and it worked. I had to add an entry to the hosts file like in step 1 in my XP box above. Also copied lmhosts.sam to lmhosts and added the same entry at the bottom before saving and closing (one of these files was read only so I had to make it writable before saving, then switched 'read only' back on afterwards.
6. Rebooted and logged in using Administrator account. \\dns323 was now accessible.

Paul from D-Link Tech Support said the other option is to install a DNS server on your network somewhere and add an entry for the dns323 which has a static ip. He also mentioned some routers have an area where you can enter the IP, MAC Address and sometimes the hostname, (sounds like a built-in dns server on the router to me) but my router doesn't seem to have that feature. (at least with the standard firmware I'm using on the WRT54G!).
Update: 01/18/08: He is probably referring to a feature called static DHCP, which still assigns IP addresses via DHCP, but ensures that each MAC address always gets the same IP. This is typically done by providing a {MAC address, IP address} value pair in static DHCP configuration. Many third-party firmware releases of the popular Linksys WRT54G router (prior to hardware V.5) support static DHCP, for example.

Hope this helps some people - you can email me at sneakers05AToptusnet.com.au if you have any questions. Or ask the guru - Paul!

**Update: 05-Sept-07; Same problem for my network (cannot accès the DNS, no disk mapped). I fix one static IP for my DNS-323 (192.168.1.99) and all works fine !!!!!!

Thx for this issue.


UPnP AV Server issues
Firmware: 1.02b, 1.03
Severity: High
D-Link correction: 1.04b63
Description: When browsing through the UPnP AV created directory-structure using a UPnP client the server stops responding for some reason, when browsing the “files” folder. Also there are not all Artists and Albums shown even when the refresh was successful.
I have started the UPnPAV-deamon from the telnet console in order to get some debug infos and found the following errormessage:
39Execute SQL query Error
Can't Verify filename[]
After this message the upnpav-Server never responds anymore until it's restarted and has rescanned.

When browsing through the directories I also see erromessages like this all of the time:
UPnPAV: all of the data wasn't sent, so queue this up.(ILibAyincSocket_Send)
Workaround: Disable onboard upnpav and install Twonkyvision?



Email Alerts
Firmware: Prior to 1.03
Severity: Low
D-Link correction: 1.03

This is a (poorly worded) quote from an email I got from D-Link tech support about the Email Alerts not working. Got this 02/09/2007

Yes we have has some issues with the email being able to work in Raid 1 What hard drive models are you using? We have release FW 1.02b that has fixed some of this we are also releasing 1.3 very soon which I was told has fixed these issues.

Description: If you are running pre 1.03 firmware, first you will want to upgrade. If you have upgraded and are still getting failures, it is likely that you haven't put DNS information into the LAN settings. Click on the SETUP tab in the DNS-323 web configuration page, then on LAN. In the DNS1 and DNS2 fields, put in your router's IP address, unless you have your own internal DNS server.



Zone Alarm
Firmware: 1.02b
Severity: High
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: When trying to access DNS323 via Network Neighbourhood the box shows but will not open and the error message

“DLINK-XXXXXX Volume_1 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network device. Contact the administrator . . .

The network path was not found.”

Appears.

Easy Search Utility fails to map drives with the message “Failed to map drive”



Workaround: Remove Zone Alarm
Upgrade Zone Alarm: go to the firewall setting, select zones then 'open' the IP address for the DNS323, alternatively you could open a range of IP addresses.

Note: If you don't want to remove Zone Alarm you can follow the workaround for the “Share not accesable after reboot” issue above.«

No Lights on Startup
Hardware: A1
Firmware: 1.01
Severity: High
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: When the device is powered up the fan starts but no leds turn on, regardless of whether there is one disk, two disks or no disks in the device. In addition the power switch works to turn the device on but cannot be used to turn it off no matter how long it is held down for. The reset button on the back of the device also fails to do anything measurable because the only indication the device gives that it is on is the whirring of the fan.
Workaround: none
Solution: Called Tech support and will be getting a new device.
Comments: This seems to be a known problem with hardware A1. Only solution is a replacement of the unit. Since the LEDs is the only way to know if a drive is broken, the device needs to be replaced.



Scheduling Settings Issue
Firmware: Only tested with 1.03
Severity: Medium
D-Link correction: N/A
Description: When you edit a saved schedule the login method isn't properly recalled and therefore is always set to Anonymous. If you click on Account then the saved username and password are cleared and have to be re-entered. The DNS-323 also seems to randomly delete the saved schedules.

It would be very handy if D-Link provided a GUI interface to rsync for scheduling of backups in a future firmware release.
Workaround: None.

Last edited by bohica (2008-02-14 19:39:07)

This thread is for DNS-343 information.

bohica - let's keep the remote ftp problems in your http://dns323.kood.org/forum/t1543-CAnn … otely.html thread

bohica wrote:

If you would like to buy my DNS-323 let me know

bohica, check your forum messages

Last edited by mig (2008-02-14 19:54:38)

Zen Seeker wrote:

Nice tease...

No other info, no place that sells...you know what the expected street price might be?

New DNS-343 informations from the german dl-support site:

http://www.dl-support.de/forum/viewtopi … 494#134494

played around a bit today with dns-343

atm you can only access its filesystem by adding serial port.

And yes it has the 'fun_plug' but its not active. It doesnt load anything.

It will cost 3 times more than 323 (est)

mcmurphy wrote:

played around a bit today with dns-343

atm you can only access its filesystem by adding serial port.

And yes it has the 'fun_plug' but its not active. It doesnt load anything.

It will cost 3 times more than 323 (est)

dns-343 is using the same processor as dns-323 but with double the ram if im not wrong

if thats really the case funplug 0.5 should be working hmmm