Get the power of four in the latest D-Link storage appliance
D-Link’s DNS-343 is a four-bay network storage appliance that is easy to set up, with a good choice of Raid options to enhance both performance and reliability.
However, its lack of external expansion, backup and other features is likely to put business buyers off.
The DNS-343 certainly looks the part, housed in a smart black metal casing with a bright organic LED information display at the front.
Power comes from a somewhat large external AC adapter with a single USB port and a Gigabit Ethernet connector round the back.
Unfortunately you can’t use the USB socket to plug in external hard disks as you can on storage appliances from vendors such as Lacie, Netgear and Synology just a limited range of printers or an Uninterruptible Power Supply.
That is a real shame as it limits the options when it comes to expansion and backup. Indeed, it is now common to be able to both expand storage by plugging in external USB or eSata disks and take backups to those drives using built-in software. With the DNS-343 you will have to make separate arrangements to take backups over the Lan.
Disks aren’t included with the DNS-343, but that is not a problem as most 3.5in Sata drives will work and won’t add hugely to the overall cost. Moreover, they’re very easy to fit, with no need for any tools. Just slide the front panel off the box, push the disks into the bays and you’re done. Getting them out again is just as easy, thanks to small ejection levers at the rear. You will, however, need to power down should you want to add or swap disks around.
Once installed the disks can be formatted separately or configured as a single JBOD volume with Raid 0, 1 and 5 configurations also possible to enhance performance and/or reliability. Choosing one of these is pretty easy, but if you change your mind the disks will be reformatted and any existing data destroyed. For best results matching drives of the same capacity should be used.
