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[escrawford]

Wow, you guys have a lot of time.  I think the real point is that the DNS-343 does not support 1.5Tb drives and until D-Link tells us otherwise it never will support 1.5 or larger drives.

For those that have purchased one (or many) for this purpose, call your Attorney General, FTC (800-432-3545), and BBB and share with them the facts.

Attn D-Link:   Please, most of us are big fans of D-Link and want to continue to give you business, however when there is no response (or a different response on each phone call), it leaves us up to ourselves to try and reach a resolution.  Obviously you are having problems getting the 343 to work with 1.5 Tb drives, so just tell us!  Tell us that it won't support them but you guys are working hard to make it work.  Or tell us that you have given up and will be releasing the 353 for support of larger drives.  Whatever it is, open communication will benefit everyone.
     -And please don't delete this post too...

[escrawford]

By the way, looks like they finally got the memo.  Check the 'specs' page on the website for the 343 and the hard drive compatibility line has been changed from 'SATA-any capacity' to 'SATA*'.

[fordem]

Dear Fordem,

Dated?  Indeed.  But the lack of CHS (cylinder/head/sector) or CCHHR (the somewhat more versatile cylinder/head/record) knowledge on the part of the driver doesn't invalidate my argument, for no matter how the disc geometry is expressed by the drive, it should still be possible for the DNS-343 to deal with drives of any size, detecting all that it can detect when the drive details are fetched upon connection.  My dwelling upon the true, internal geometry betrays my early IBM mainframe background, I suppose, and the fact that I wrote native code to support the complete MBBCCHHR geometry specification back in the day doesn't help, but it doesn't hurt my argument, either.  And, of course, you're referring to SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) and not native SCSI, for SCSI is a parallel interface and SATA drives use a serial interface.

Regards,
Jeff

No - I'm not referring to SAS - I'm referring to good old fashioned, as you call it "native SCSI" - parallel or serial - it's immaterial to the discussion - you can send the bits sequentially or simultaneously, it doesn't change the content.

It may have escaped you - but I didn't say your arguement wasn't valid - quite the opposite, the adjective was excellent.

[skelm]

Bump on the still waiting Santa didn't come with new firmware for me - hopefully a new US president will do it. After that i guess, the polar ice-caps melting, oil running out, Cancer cured...

[Edward1999]

I've run out of patience and will be returning mine. I've been stuck with poor software and support from Dlink before and I'm not waiting to be taken again. The SC101 toaster was my first bad experience. After that I purchased a DSM-520. Take a look at that forum. Promises of a software fix and guess what? Never updated after that. Get your money back while you can!

[escrawford]

We are also trying to return ours.  However we are beyond the 30 day return period from the vendor so we are trying to return it directly to D-Link and get a refund for our full purchase price (we'll see).  By the way, I have a printout of D-Link's website stats from BEFORE they changed the SATA spec so if anyone needs a copy let me know. 

[D-Link Multimedia]

Attn D-Link:   Please, most of us are big fans of D-Link and want to continue to give you business, however when there is no response (or a different response on each phone call), it leaves us up to ourselves to try and reach a resolution.  Obviously you are having problems getting the 343 to work with 1.5 Tb drives, so just tell us!  Tell us that it won't support them but you guys are working hard to make it work.  Or tell us that you have given up and will be releasing the 353 for support of larger drives.  Whatever it is, open communication will benefit everyone.
     -And please don't delete this post too...

If I have not answered this previously, the answer is, yes we will be supporting 1.5TB drives and future drives in the DNS-343. No we do not currently support 1.5TB drives in a Raid configuration out of the box however we do support them in a Standard 4 volume configuration.

[escrawford]

Mr. Moderator,

Thank you for the response, much appreciated.  However, at the same time I wonder why then that the specification page does not say the same thing.

I called customer service and spoke with Ellie and she informed me that D-Link will not take any products back unless they are broken.  Net meeting specification is not considered broken.

So it looks like we have three options:
1.  Wait for the new firmware..........then wait more..........then wait a little longer......
2.  Not use RAID5
3.  Pursue other means

Thank you everyone for good fun.  Best of luck with your 343!

[D-Link Multimedia]

So as an update. I currently have a firmware that is considered as version 1.02a, a beta version of 1.02 with just 1.5TB support added to the raid script.

If you are interested in using this BETA firmware you may send a private message and I will provide you with a download site.

Beyond that, we are still working some issues out of the 1.03 firmware which is causing it to be postponed even further. If all you are looking for is 1.5TB drives in a Raid setting then this 1.02a firmware may be your answer. If this is for someone that has customers waiting on the support then you may want to wait a week before lab testing is finished on this firmware and it becomes posted officially as a 1.5TB 'patch' per say.

[mk1184]

1.5TB support as a patch sounds great to me, although I'm not personally affected at this time.  It would be nice, however, for you to offer the shipping 1.01 firmware for download on the website, thereby providing those having other issues with 1.02 (as I am) the opportunity to downgrade.  I was told by D-Link support this was not possible and my forum inquiry (see separate thread) has thus far gone unanswered.  I have since learned that downgrading is possible and therefore I must conclude that I was lied to by D-Link support and subsequently ignored via this forum. 

In conjunction with offering a downgrade option, it would also be nice to know which issues will be addressed with 1.03 and/or those which may be holding up the release (see my separate thread -- which has also gone unanswered -- regarding establishing a "sticky" for firmware issues/requests similar to the DNS-323 forum)

A little transparency, responsiveness and honesty on D-Link's part is all we are asking for here.  The forum mods sure seem to cherry-pick which issues they're willing to respond to.

[D-Link Multimedia]

In conjunction with offering a downgrade option, it would also be nice to know which issues will be addressed with 1.03 and/or those which may be holding up the release (see my separate thread -- which has also gone unanswered -- regarding establishing a "sticky" for firmware issues/requests similar to the DNS-323 forum)

A little transparency, responsiveness and honesty on D-Link's part is all we are asking for here.  The forum mods sure seem to cherry-pick which issues they're willing to respond to.

The issues are in regards to new feature sets and as such do not affect current users of the previous firmware. We don't discuss new feature issues because well..they have never been released before so you are not affected other than a delay in firmware.

I will look for the 1.01 firmware for you. I think it may have been a web development issue since we normally dont' pull old firmwares unless there is something very wrong with it.

[mk1184]

The issues are in regards to new feature sets and as such do not affect current users of the previous firmware. We don't discuss new feature issues because well..they have never been released before so you are not affected other than a delay in firmware.

IMO you may want to rethink that approach as those who frequent these forums tend to be higher-end users, or even VAR's (such as myself).  Knowing what's coming and or to be fixed could very easily become the make/break for additional sales of your product.  I am currently evaluating this product as a potential NAS solution for end-users and I must say thus far it's not getting terribly high marks due primarily to so-so support that has proven to be either blatantly dishonest or not forthcoming.

I will look for the 1.01 firmware for you. I think it may have been a web development issue since we normally dont' pull old firmwares unless there is something very wrong with it.

Much appreciated.  Prior firmware versions are offered for your other DNS products, therefore I assumed it to be either an oversight -or- there was some truth to phone support's claim that a downgrade was not possible.  May I suggest your phone support staff be re-educated regarding downgrade ability of the unit.  The "not possible" response I originally received supposedly came from 2nd-level.

[azz710]

Dear D-Link Multimedia,
whomever you are,

Thank you, thank you thank you!  My request is on its way.  I will inform the FTC that D-Link is on the case and that will be that.

Regards,
Jeff

So as an update. I currently have a firmware that is considered as version 1.02a, a beta version of 1.02 with just 1.5TB support added to the raid script.

[mig]

Dear azz710,
whomever you are,

Thank you, thank you thank you!  I believe that D-Link would have ignored  this issue until the release of firmware v1.03 (who know when?) regardless of how much users complained, unless you raised this issue with the FTC.

After several months of users complaints on this forum, it only took one week from your FTC report to convince D-Link to provide a new firmware that fixes the 1.5TB RAID problem.  Amazing!!

[D-Link Multimedia]

Firmware 1.02a BETA is now available at the following URL.

http://support.dlink.com/products/view.asp?productid=DNS%2D343

If you have any issues with the firmware feel free to let me know here.