D-Link DNS-312H NAS with Built-in 120GB Hard Drive $509

 

Product Features

• 120GB 7200 Spindle Speed (RPM) 3.5-inch hard drive pre-installed
  
• 2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for printer, external hard drive connection
  
• Built-in printer server function
  
• UPnP support for easy configuration
  
• System configuration file backup
  
• Security: user account database, sharing of folder access control by single user or groups
  
• System log with NTP (Network Time Protocol) support
  
• 10/100BASE-TX port to connect to Ethernet network
  
• Warning LED in case hard disk is full or broken
  
• Supported HD formats: FAT16, FAT32

Purchased this in November 2005. Noisy fan from day one and some issues initially mapping drives.

DNS-312H: Drive mapping
The default server name is \\dns-300\ and is customisable. You are able to specify the workgroup in which to use for your network.
The DNS-300 appears to use SMB sharing (\\dns-300\) and hence is streets ahead in this area.
I can access other users "home" shares by simply putting in \\dns-300\user1, \\dns-300\user2, \\dns-300\user3 etc.. even though I am connected to it as user1, prior to the disk change this just simply didn't happen. 

I just have it setup as mapped drives and i usually just type in \\dns-300 when I'm looking for it.

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DNS-312H: Drive mapping
This device supports windows file sharing. i.e. reachable by \\hd1\hdd_0 for example. To the people that think this plus the drives makes it overall too expensive, thats what I thought when I bought DLink's single-drive enclosure the GSM-D600 - after some months of using it however i've come to rely on it heavily because it's extremely handy having it attached to my home LAN via gigabit ethernet since with 8 computers including two HTPC's in the house, its the one windows share that's ALWAYS availability and you don't have to leave a PC on 24x7 to have access to the data.

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 DNS-312H: Noisy Fan

Making the DNS-300 Quiet. Options 1- Unplug the power cord to the internal fan. It works a wonder. Its so quiet but the unit gets hot. I'm thinking I could drill holes in the side and top of the case to allow air flow through. 2- remove the little Fan and make like a cardboard funnel to a bigger 2 pin fan. it would look a but ugly, but where i have it set up i cant see the back of the unit anyway. This could be done without modifying the case and voiding warranty. any other ideas anyone. ??? I'm especially interested in a way to slow down the current fan. I'm happy for the disk to get a bit hotter, as its currently kept very cool. well within HDD operating temperatures. anyone good with electronics....	anchor posted 2006-Mar-7, 8am AEST
User #7734   95 posts Naca-Yoda Forum Regular	I don't remember how the internal fan was attached... padding where it rests against the housing might help. Essentially from memory the outer casing is sort of resonating from the fan vibration. padding the contact points or buying a higher quality fan of the same size might reduce the problem. You also might be able to shut it up by sticking felt feet to it then putting something heavy on it or wrapping some rubber bands around the case. I haven't got my replacement unit yet. Will experiment then!	anchor posted 2006-Mar-7, 12pm AEST
User #111523   27 posts jasok2 Participant	I have tried the rubber feet trick, it actually made it worse. I have it sitting on a mouse mat now. the mouse mat is upside down, That helps a bit. I like your idea of putting something heavy on it that might work well. anyway. I just went to dick smiths in my lunch break and bought another fan its a "Rotary Cooling Fan" with ball bearings. Its 4 cm so i think itll fit. will try it out when i get home and update you.	anchor posted 2006-Mar-7, 1pm AEST
User #111523   27 posts jasok2 Participant	Making the DNS-300 quieter. Ok so i bought a new fan from dick smith. This new fan spun way faster and was way noisier than the one it shipped with. so no joy. I did also completely take the box apart and found that there one of the screws that holds the fan mounting plate to the bottom of the box was loose. tightening this seems to fix some of the vibration noises which was good. Noise was reduced. I then added some padding to where the fan mounts, but it didn't make any more difference, so i took it off again. Its still to noisy. I have concluded that the only way to get a good result is to reduce the voltage to the fan, hence slowing it down. and now i have a spare fan to practice with so that i don't damage the good one. I will experiment further.