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

carfac · 2008-04-21 19:18:23

Hi:

Glad I found this site. I have been looking for something like an NAS for a while. I bought one a while back, and HATED it. In fact, I just threw it out. POS. It was slow, would NOT work with Mac, and it used it's own file system rather than something that could be used like FAT or Mac Journaled. So, before I go down the wrong road again, I thought I would ask some questions.

First, I have "home-run"ed all my networking cables to to my basement. So all computers are hard wired- some at 10/100, some at 10/100/1000. I would put this in at the basement, right into the router. Cool there.

1) Does this work equally well with Mac and PC's at the same time? Any special considerations or hacks needed to make this work?

2) Will all computers see this at power up and remain connected, or will I have to (re)connect to it from all/any computers?

3) What file format is used?

I plan on using this for a couple things. Mainly as a media server. I have copied ALL my cds in WAV, so I got about 200gs there. I have also downgraded some of that music to m4a for use with my iPhones. I have copied over most of my daughters DVD's to an external I am now using on my Media Center PC- can I centrally locate these? (A bit off topic- but if I have all these DVDs on a server, can I play these on TV's w/o Media centers? How do I do this? I have heard of media extenders, I guess that is what I need- I just have never seen one!) I have also re-ripped a lot of the DVD's to iPhone format, I would put all these on there, too.

So, I would have:

1) Main Music
2) iPhone Music (subset of Main Music)
3) Main DVDs
4) iPhone DVDs (subset of Main DVD)

Could all my iTunes reference to this one Media Center- pretty sure I could do that. But would each iTunes have different play lists, and have to be all set up again, or could I somehow have a "master" play list file, too, that all iTunes would share? (FYI, I have a laptop, Media Center, and three iMac users using iTunes, and could add another PC).

I would possibly also have to add a partition to Backup Time Machine too, also.

Dang, I am not asking much, am I?

I have a server I pulled from one of my websites, and it has RAID 5. I can set that up to do just about what I want. If I did this, I would probably just pop 2 750G drives in it (can I run each individually, or do I have to RAID 0 or JBOD it?) Which way would be better?

I would prefer to run this to appear to all my computers as two separate 750G drives. Does it work this way? Can I run a second 323 to back up the first?

OK, and another question! If I load this with SATA II/300, how fast will this drive appear to the various machines? Is it pretty consistent, or does the speed vary? (I tried copying a video file today from my Media Center's external firewire drive through the network to the Mac, and it was pretty slow- like 20 minutes for a 2 Gig file....)

Thanks!

Dave

Last edited by carfac (2008-04-21 19:50:09)

mig · 2008-04-21 20:20:16

carfac wrote:
3) What file format is used?

I think you meant what kind of file system is used, and the answer is
EXT2 which is a Linux file system, not FAT or Mac Journaled, because
the underlying OS for the DNS-323 is Linux.

carfac · 2008-04-21 20:24:51

Thanks! 1 question down, 500 to go!

fordem · 2008-04-21 23:14:50

Ok - let me see if I can chip in...

I've never used a Mac with my DNS-323 so I can't answer Mac related questions, but, on my PCs, I can map it as a drive letter or navigate it to it as a share in My Network Places with absolutely no problems - obviously, if I take my laptop out of the house and down to the office, the drive will not be available, but when I get back home, it works just the same as if I'd never left - and that by the way is using wireless.

I'm not really into media and streaming - yet - (we older folks take longer to adapt) - so I'll skip the media related questions - how fast does it appear, not too bad in my opinion, a 3GB (3,276,952KB) file takes under 4 minutes (maybe 3:45) using gigabit ethernet and perhaps twice that using 100 mbps - transfer speeds will vary from one machine to the next, depending on where the limitation lies - source disk, destination disk, etc., and also the nature of the data - a 3GB iso image will transfer faster than 3GB of MP3s, for no other reason that multiple small files require more disk "house-keeping".

Oh - forget about JBOD and RAID0 - go with individual disks or if downtime is going to be a problem in the event of disk failure, RAID1 and yes, you can add a second DNS-323 to back up the first to.

Was your first "NAS" a little white "toaster"? If so, this device is way better, you're going to like it.

mig · 2008-04-22 00:47:26

carfac, maybe you could let us know what NAS you tried and disliked?

Most consumer NAS offerings are very similar in principle, however,
the big difference, between different vendors, is how the open source
software packages are implemented and how much customization the
vendor provide GUI allows.

For example, you can always buy another NAS to backup the first, but
the Buffalo Link Station has a GUI to setup this NAS to NAS backup capability.
The DNS-323 does not have a GUI for NAS to NAS backup, but you can install
the fun_plug scripts to enable telnet access and use a open source package,
or user scripts or write your own scripts to accomplish the backup.

Based on your "500" questions, I think most of what you want to do is
possible. I'm pretty sure you will need to "customize" the standard D-Link
software setup to achieve your desired results. If you are not comfortable
with telnet and working through the issues with a command line interface,
perhaps the DNS-323 is not for you, because it does not support your desired
features "right out of the box".

Last edited by mig (2008-04-22 00:49:32)

fordem · 2008-04-22 01:43:31

mig

When I goto the web admin page for my DNS-323 I have the option of selecting "Downloads" - does this not allow me to select files/folders on another device - a DNS-323 if I happen to have two - to be copied? Doesn't this count as a GUI method of backing up one device to the other?

mig · 2008-04-22 07:03:13

fordem, yes, I guess it does.
Wow, I've never actually clicked on that button, so I didn't know the capability was there.

carfac · 2008-04-22 20:34:13

Was your first "NAS" a little white "toaster"?

yep, it was the Netgear thing. Slow, did not work for Macs (but they kept promising compatibility!), Slow, loud, and did I mention slow?

Can I telent? I would not say I am really good at it, but yes, I can. I run 4 FreeBSD servers myself, so I can get around on TelNet (I use SecureCRT because for web admin, I need to SSH on).

OK, sounds like this may work. I will get that one on sale for 115! Thanks! I will be back for tweaking advice!

fordem · 2008-04-22 21:42:53

Ok - that Netgear thing is not a NAS - it's actually a Storage Area Network or SAN device, and like most SANs, it needed drivers and management software, etc., for which ever OS it was going to be used with.

The DNS-323 is a NAS device, with it's own operating system (linux) and whilst it does use a "non-Windows" file format (a standard ext2 linux format), it "exports" the shares using standard SMB/CIFS technology, and anything that uses that such as Windows, or can use it, linux, Mac OS, etc. can read & write to it - you might get some security related quirks, but generally speaking, I think this is a device is much better suited to the SOHO market than the other one.

carfac · 2008-04-22 22:18:24

Cool- so I guess I am going down a better path!

OK, I just picked it up on that 115 dollar price, and grabbed 2 750 GB Seagates. I am aware of the minor security issues- does not bother me. I plan on keeping this behind my home firewall. No Internet access for me!

So I did some reading on DLinks site. It does not show that it is OS X compatible. I am assuming that means for set up, and it will display OK on my Mac- I can live with that. I see it has an iTunes server- is that what you guys use- or do you just put the files on the drive and have each install of iTunes reference the install?

Finally, I have all my media files I will be moving to this NAS on an external drive attached to my media center. It CAN connect USB (I use firewire, but it does both). Is it better to just copy the files through the network, or to plug/daisychain the external off the NAS's USB?

Thanks again!

Oh, I am still trying to get my head around the idea of these "fun_files" or whatever they are called. What things should I look at installing?

mig · 2008-04-22 22:49:23

The DNS-323 uses Samba v3.0.24, which is compatable with MacOS, so
this should work with your Macs for file sharing.

Take a look at http://dns323.kood.org/howto:fun_plug to understand
fun_plug (I think of it as "function plug-in"). Basically the D-Link
startup scripts test for the existence of this file and execute the file
if it is present. This allows user customization to the stock DNS-323
startup scripts.

Fonz has created a very well organized and easily installed
implementation of the fun_plug with binaries for various
packages.

Minimally the fun_plug enable you to telnet to your DNS-323 and
customize the box further. You can customize your smb.conf, mount
USB drives, enable NFS and btorrent clients, media servers, setup
ssh and web servers, among other things.

If you have BSD experience, this type administration should not be
too difficult for you to master.

Last edited by mig (2008-04-22 22:50:27)

carfac · 2008-04-22 23:34:54

fordem, mig:

Thanks- you have got me started! Just got an e-mail- my 323 is shipping today!
Whoo Hooo!

Dave

gareth · 2008-04-23 15:52:56

carfac, it works very well with Macs. I only have Macs in my office and two DNS-323 units, one for data the other for backup using Time Machine, all work very well together (although I did setup Time Machine before updating to the latest Leopard patch).

I use fun_plug 0.3 and I TELNET on the NAS using Mac terminal, Fugu and CyberDuck. I use the subversion server on the NAS too. It happily chats to the MAC client.

Similarly I use parallels desktop on my MAC and run Windows XP and Vista on that. Both XP and Vista talk happily via parallels, to the NAS drives too.

The only problem I've come across is all of my music (~100 gb) is stored on the NAS I use for data. When the NAS goes into sleep mode and I start up iTunes, it marks all my tracks as missing and doesn't wake up the NAS. So I have to rememeber to wake the NAS first before starting iTunes. I'm sure theres a better way to do it but I have had much time to play recently.

Gareth.

carfac · 2008-04-23 17:43:07

gareth:

Thanks! ANything special I need to do to make this work for Time Machine, or will Leopard just "see" the drive?

gareth · 2008-04-24 15:50:32

Time Machine will only work with Leopard 10.5.1 or earlier. If you've upgraded to 10.5.2 I believe it can't create the .spare image file, although if you read the other threads there maybe some hacks to get around this.

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

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#1 2008-04-21 19:18:23

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#2 2008-04-21 20:20:16

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carfac wrote:

#3 2008-04-21 20:24:51

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