The D-Link DNS-323 is a bargain-priced, consumer-grade network storage enclosure, similar to countless others. It’s made of cheap plastic, has uninspired design, and a clunky web-based management interface. It’s also brilliant, and if you have any hacker in you at all, you should buy one.
What makes the DNS-323 so worthwhile? Well, first of all, it’s cheap. Under $120 after rebate at Amazon right now. Secondly, it’s really a lightweight server running Linux, and it’s easy to customize its capabilities by installing new software on it. You don’t have to replace the included OS or void your warranty. D-Link has included a capability for you to upload a replacement boot script that allows the device to run the software that you install when it boots.
There are a bunch of Linux-based NAS devices out there. A lot of them are very good, and the good ones are all substantially more expensive than the DNS-323. The ones that are in this price range have various shortcomings. The Linksys NAS200 is slow and lacks the robust hacker community. The Linksys NSLU2 requires the drives to be installed in external USB enclosures. The Buffalo LS-320GL only comes with one (small) drive preinstalled, and replacing it voids the warranty. Hacking consumer-grade NASes to give them expanded capability is a very popular pastime, so you can benefit from the countless hours of tinkering that others have spent, and the DNS-323 has proven to be one of the more popular platforms.
As for hardware, it’s a 500mhz ARM processor, 64MB RAM, a Marvell 88X7042 SATA controller and a Marvell 88E1111 gigabit network handler. It has two drive bays that, with a firmware update, will support 2 Terabyte hard drives in four disk modes: Standard (disks show up as separate volumes), JBOD (one large volume), RAID 0 (striped mode for high performance), RAID1 (mirrored for redundancy). Unlike many other bargain NASes, it allows the disks to spin down to save energy. It’s compact, quiet (with a speed-controlled fan that’s nearly silent), dissipates heat well. Drives are installed easily, with no tools.
On the software side, we’ll divide that into two parts. First, the factory-installed functionality, and second, the hacker-installed functionality.
From the factory, it’s got some useful capabilities:
- Windows networking
- Built-in FTP server
- USB print server (next to the printer is a great place to keep it)
- UPnP-based media server
- iTunes server
- Windows client software for automated backups included
- A built-in Bittorrent client
First of all, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest firmware because they added new functionality for a couple of years after release. I found the printserver to be very useful, and I easily set both my Windows and Mac computers to print to my HP Color Laserjet, with fewer problems than I’ve ever had with a printserver. Connecting to the DNS-323 is easy, though it takes my Mac a little time to recognize it over Windows networking. (I was able to rectify that with some hacking). I fiddled around with the media server capabilities, but found better aftermarket media servers. As for the iTunes server, it works, but what I really would like would be a way for me to play music files to speakers over an Airport Express using the iPhone Remote app, directly from the fileserver, without having to use a computer running iTunes as an intermediary. I haven’t figure out whether this is possible yet.
The niftiest stock feature has to be the Bittorrent client. This lets you download huge files over Bittorrent without having to leave your computer on. So you can find those old Airwolf episodes you’ve been wanting to watch, have the DNS-323 download them over the days or weeks, then either transfer or stream them to the device you want to watch them on.
Let’s get to the hacking. First of all, visit the DNS-323 Wiki. It’s a clearinghouse of all the information on what you can do once you open up the hood. I won’t even try to give you a comprehensive list of what you can do. Visit the site. Here’s what I did on my 323:
- Installed SSH (be default you must FTP files to the unit then reboot to make them run)
- Enabled Rsync and ipkg (makes it easier to install additional packages)
- Installed Netatalk (enabled my Mac to network with the 323 more easily)
- Installed Twonky media server (better than the included media server)
I’ve still got to do some additional work getting the 323 to emulate a Time Capsule so I can do my Time Machine backups to it.
So spend some time browsing the various expansion options at the Wiki site. Keep in mind that my Linux sysadmin skills are pretty shaky, and I was able to muddle through following instructions with some trial and error over a couple of hours. Many of the configuration instructions involve the dreaded editing of arcane config files, so if you’re a complete command line newbie, you may need to brush up on your basic conventions. This would be a great, low risk opportunity for you to learn something new.
There are a few cons to the DNS-323: Even on a Gigabit network, the transfer speeds aren’t stellar. You won’t get anywhere near the transfer speed that a directly-connected USB 2.0 or Firewire disk enclosure will get you. If you’re going to use the stock functionality, and you call D-Link for tech support, don’t expect a great experience. Remember, D-Link probably made only $20-30 profit when they sold you this thing, so they’re not exactly going to roll out the red carpet for you when you have a problem.
Conclusion
Inexpensive, highly-customizable, RAID-capable, Gigabit, printserver-enabled network storage supported poorly by D-Link but extensively by a robust developer community. 9/10
Looks interesting, I dunno why, but there is something cool about these hackable Linux devices. Maybe I will pick one up
I am also interested in the Netgear WNR3500L “open router”. I can’t find a price for it yet, but it should be out soon, and I believe it will also be near the $120/£75 price point. It doesn’t come with a disk of course, but it does have 802.11n and a USB host port so I reckon it could be converted into a NAS very easily and more besides.
I prefer Bufallo LS-XHL series (http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Category:LS-XHL): faster (1.2Ghz), more RAM (256M), and for about $200, 1.5TB hard disk is included.
Only one drive internal for this.
Anyone with linux able to test throughput on both these devices? I’d like to know the gigabit throughput numbers.
How about the same box with an SP/DIF output? I’d use one just to host my 200-GB music collection and run mpd, and hook it to my sound system. Of course, it would be even better with wifi capabilities…
It got USB. Just add a soundcard… 🙂
Am contemplating a “VIA Artigo” which allows 2 SATA2 drives and permits a gig or two of RAM along with an x86 CPU.
All these appliance computers are pared down to within a millimetres of their existence. For example: I dream of finding an ADSL router with a spare gig of RAM to run its own web proxy and its own DNS cache; but no the bland uniformity is relentless.
You would be much better with a mini-itx server and the ADSL modem on top of it. You could do anything with it: router, firewall, torrent client, nas, dns cache, proxy.
Half assed solutions like these modem-routers with so little memory and storage exist because they are really cheap for mass market, and most people don’t need more. Except when they try to download stuff with bittorrent or other p2p and then these little routers start crashing or dropping packets.
I have a via artigo and it doesn’t allow 2 sata drives… sorry
By the way, it’s kinda dead (might be something really small, it probably overheated after a friend modded it to be more silent) but I’m willing to send it anywhere (if you pail for the mail cost) and if you can revive it, you can pay me whatever it’s worth to you.
No apology – this vendor has obviously made a mistake … that even extends to their photos!
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12408
For those that are interested: the VIA Artigo range includes more than one model.
I bought a NAS Kit about 3 years ago, and I have been using that for some time. It has a 120GB drive in it (a spare HD I had at that time). It has FTP, SMB, Bittorrent, and a web server on it, and run on UCLinux. It’s a bit noise, and aside from only one drive, it ain’t bad. I like, but this ones seems really cool and for a such a good price (I paid $50 for mine). I might replace my current with this one.
It was just released, nowhere to buy yet, and it has everything I need: RAID 1, Time machine support (that hopefully works, not like the HP LX195 Media Smart Home Server, where recovery from time machine didn’t work). and it’s cheap enough as a NAS with those features and many others.
It is available in the UK from a number of places.
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase31.3&p…
Looks interesting.
There’s one very notable Linux NAS in the low $200 range (one time it was on sale for $170): Intel SS4200-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859117003
It seems to be the best value in terms of price and performance, although the webgui lacks some of the more sophisticated features. In fact benchmarks show it outperforms most NAS boxes out there costing 2-3x as much. It however lacks sata hotplug capability which can be a deal breaker for some.
4 x HD, Intel 1.6Ghz Celeron-420 (> Atom btw), 945 chipset + ICH7, 512MB DDR2 expandable RAM, 2 x eSATA to expand up to 6 x HD, GigE
I haven’t heard of any Linux hacking or custom software for it yet unfortunately.
Edited 2009-10-31 03:14 UTC
That’s just a PC in a small container, doesn’t sound very energy efficient.
this isn’t news. I’ve had one in my house for the last 2 years +/-.. Yes it is “hackable”, yes its custozisable and can use torrent but this is only news to anybody who’s never searched for nas, or been asleep for the last few years
They give You ssh, bittorrent, time machine, rsync, itunes server and much more out of the box. No hacking is needed but if that is not enough You can install ipkg in few seconds.
Actually looks very nice, like Synology DS209j, especially because it lets you use your own hard drives without voiding the warranty.
I know about these devices, but this is the first review I’ve read of a ‘hackable’ one. It looks very nice indeed!
Somebody asked about audio output… Would it be possible to plug an USB audio card in it?
I
audio?! I suppose you probably could since you can install your own kernel and modules. However I can’t see the reasoning, nor do I know of anybody who has done so
I haven’t looked into these devices for a while for a good reason: they don’t work very well under high load. But, still it has a max capacity of 2TB ?? Wow, uhm forgive my enterprise experience but that isn’t a whole lot. In fact, can’t you buy single SATA disks that are 2TB? Whats the point of buying such a limited device, when you could just build your own more capable one for a little more?
This is all well and good, but is there no NAS out there to replace my aging YellowMachine?
This device, from a now defunct company, is the ideal form of a Linux based NAS (in my opinion). It allows for 4 disks in the various RAID configurations and includes web-based remote admin of this (to some basic degree anyway).
The important part where it far surpasses all of its competition: It runs Debian Linux. When I got it I ssh’d in, disabled telnetd, apt-get update, apt-get install and now I have whatever I want. Years later, the company defunct, I can still get additional software from archive.debian.org. I’ve installed this and that, such as rsync, making it do just what I want.
Replacing failed disks, which I have had to do all of once, requires some disassembly, but otherwise the modability is quite high. I don’t need a dedicated community of hackers: it’s simply Debian.
The small weakness here is that the OS itself is installed on a RAID1 made out of a small portion of each disk. This works well enough but is not ideal from a reliability standpoint. Yet, the flexibility is so much better than any mere firmware base system.
This may be too pricey (or not have enough disks for you) but I ran across this brand sometime back, and it seems to match some of your criteria:
http://www.thecus.com/comparison.php?set_language=english
There is a 2 disk unit which sells for $199 bare (add your own drives)
I’ve read online that people got either Debian or OpenBSD on the older N2100 model. Seems they changed the model lineup somewhat, and replaced it with the N2200. No idea if guts are the same or totally different though.
Edited 2009-11-03 02:37 UTC
Price isn’t really the issue (within reason) though of course I prefer to purchase my disks separately (I, like everyone I suppose, have a particular preference and dislike for certain manufacturers).
When I bought the YellowMachine I didn’t know what software it had other than that it “runs linux”. It came with 4 250G disks and was advertised as having terrabyte capacity (albeit only in raid0 and not counting filesystem overhead). At the time this cost $1300, which was a bit higher than build-it-yourself but not by a lot.
Thanks for the link. You’re right, 2 disks isn’t enough for me (got to have raid5). The company offers other models, though, and the chances are that they’re all configured similarly. The key thing I want is the OS on the disks and not firmware/flash/some tiny place that’s “just enough” for what they want the device to do. At first glance I don’t see anything that says how their devices work, but given that the advertised filesystems are ext3, xfs and zfs I’m going to guess they run Linux or FreeBSD and that’s good enough to take a chance on.
Of course with YellowMachine there was no hack-it-yourself… it came with Debian. Since Debian is my distribution of choice that just cannot be beat!
Why not build your own using FreeNAS?
Building your own NAS is not very rewarding. Either you do it the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is just buying cheap hardware, slapping it together and configuring. Time consuming and pretty cheap, but you’ll probably wind up consuming far more power than an off the shelf NAS. The hard way would be to do your due diligence, get the right components and build something that’s about the same as what you could get in an off the shelf NAS (minus the molded plastic, maybe) but by now you’ve spent more than you would have on the OTS device.
Bottom line: Don’t do it if you need a NAS, do it if you love doing stuff like this and need a NAS.
Edited 2009-11-03 22:28 UTC