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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-343 => Topic started by: skelm on December 12, 2008, 09:41:59 AM

Title: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: skelm on December 12, 2008, 09:41:59 AM

Any updates - lots of us with non-working equipment
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: pzy on December 12, 2008, 12:59:11 PM
Why bother... they're just going to lock and delete this rather than give us any information  ::)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on December 12, 2008, 02:01:45 PM
Or perhaps when a thread isn't recreated with the exact same thing in a thread below it, it will survive.

There is no final date on the firmware and when it is done it will be released.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on December 12, 2008, 09:48:09 PM
This is incredible!!! D-Link is choosing to blow off customers who have been waiting patiently with a smartass comment like the one just left by the "engineer/moderator"?!?!?! I run a tech support team responsible for billions in annual sales and I can assure you not one of my guys/gals would even think of making a dumbass comment like "there's simply not going to be any more posts on this subject...LOCK...the code will be done when it's done"...WTF?

I too have been through the endless maze of TERRIBLE phone support and have received advise from 3 upper tier support specialists that all contradict each other. I have been patient because honestly, I have a lot of D-Link gear and up until now it has been rock solid...that's a weakness I guess, I buy something, I like it, I buy more from same company, repeat. I don't think I'm alone here...

Let me make a couple common sense requests that might keep a lot of hardware from being sent back:

1) Add a comment in a prominent place within the DNS-343 Support Area that states the device is currently limited to the use of 1TB and smaller drives.

2) Grow a pair and give some broad details regarding these great new "features" you are in the process of developing. You don't need to be so specific that you ruin the surprise but anything is better than "the code will be done when it's done...Lock"...

3) Instead of sharing common sense BS like, duh, we need to test this stuff before we send it out, explain, again, in general detail, the severity of the issues you are currently encountering and give an estimate on when they will be resolved. Again, no hard date, just an approximation with a smile and a plea to "hang in there, we care".

4) Finally, remember above all else that those of us on this forum are your customers. We all have the option of returning your box which is clearly NOT labeled correctly. We are choosing to keep them instead and wait so that we can remain D-Link customers. Don't reward that loyalty by talking down to us like we are all a bunch of idiots.

Tim
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: JaLooNz on December 14, 2008, 08:00:12 PM
Why not consider releasing a minor version that only adds support for the 1.5TB HDD? (The small fix should not take that long to release given the support should already be in a beta firmware and they only need to backport some code)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on December 15, 2008, 12:11:31 PM
This is incredible!!! D-Link is choosing to blow off customers who have been waiting patiently with a smartass comment like the one just left by the "engineer/moderator"?!?!?! I run a tech support team responsible for billions in annual sales and I can assure you not one of my guys/gals would even think of making a dumbass comment like "there's simply not going to be any more posts on this subject...LOCK...the code will be done when it's done"...WTF?

I too have been through the endless maze of TERRIBLE phone support and have received advise from 3 upper tier support specialists that all contradict each other. I have been patient because honestly, I have a lot of D-Link gear and up until now it has been rock solid...that's a weakness I guess, I buy something, I like it, I buy more from same company, repeat. I don't think I'm alone here...

Let me make a couple common sense requests that might keep a lot of hardware from being sent back:

1) Add a comment in a prominent place within the DNS-343 Support Area that states the device is currently limited to the use of 1TB and smaller drives.

2) Grow a pair and give some broad details regarding these great new "features" you are in the process of developing. You don't need to be so specific that you ruin the surprise but anything is better than "the code will be done when it's done...Lock"...

3) Instead of sharing common sense BS like, duh, we need to test this stuff before we send it out, explain, again, in general detail, the severity of the issues you are currently encountering and give an estimate on when they will be resolved. Again, no hard date, just an approximation with a smile and a plea to "hang in there, we care".

4) Finally, remember above all else that those of us on this forum are your customers. We all have the option of returning your box which is clearly NOT labeled correctly. We are choosing to keep them instead and wait so that we can remain D-Link customers. Don't reward that loyalty by talking down to us like we are all a bunch of idiots.

Tim

I do not think we have blown off anyone on this forum. Had I deleted the entire thread I could understand but it was answered to the best of our abilities at the time and locked so that anyone else looking for this issue could find the current answer. If we don't we would get endless amounts of posts asking the same thing until the firmware released.

Also please quote me entirely so users can draw their own conclusion, "This is the last post on here regarding this issue, it will be fixed next firmware when it is available and until then there is no other reason to post in this thread." Although it may be blunt it is the answer.

I did not state that is that I said this will be the last post(meaning the last post I make in this thread) and that it was being locked because at that point and in that post I made, I gave the answer and there was no reason to post anything else. We do hear your complaints but we can not release any faster than we currently are. We are not a large software development team with all the resources we can get our hands on.

1. 1.5 TB drives are supported in Standard configuration. It is a Raid issue. It is too late in the game to add something like that on the website considering how close the firmware release is.

2. There was a lot more going on in that thread than 'lock done'. It was going no where other than people asking the exact same question which had already been answered multiple times. Releasing upcoming feature lists is not common practice so I don't see that happening any time soon.

3. This simply isn't going to happen. Software developers do not discuss internal issues/bugs/information with end users. There is no way to give a date, we have given approximations and that is what lead up to all these discussions. We give an approx date and don't meet it then we have unhappy forum members. We are dealing with users DATA and we will not make the mistake of undertesting. The firmware is still in Lab testing and pending it passes all tests then we would be more than happy to release it but until then there is no choice but to wait.

4. We understand you are our customers and glad that you made it to our forums. We value your feedback. I do not feel that I have talked down to anyone but if you feel that I have I apologize and it was unintended. I am simply giving you the answer that I know. I wish I could give you an exact date but it is just as much a waiting game for me as it is for you. My box at home is waiting too but I wont risk my data by putting a beta on it unless I know for sure its solid.

Quote from: JaLoonZ
Why not consider releasing a minor version that only adds support for the 1.5TB HDD? (The small fix should not take that long to release given the support should already be in a beta firmware and they only need to backport some code)

I believe we answered this in a nother thread but basically we can't do it at this time. Perhaps timing will work out better on 2TB drives or whatever comes next but when 1.5 TB drives came out we were already implementing new feature sets into the DNS-343 and pushing to get it into the lab for testing. In order to do that now we would have to remove all features we have added over the past few months and implement the fix and retest the firmware for a couple more weeks which would actually take Longer than where we currently are in development.

Hopefully this clears some things up.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on December 15, 2008, 07:38:11 PM
D-Link Support,

Ok, I get your preamble and will just let it lie under your broad explanation of being "blunt". We get it, new code is coming, you don't know when or what new things it will do, done. Nuff said.

Allow me to make just a couple comments regarding your separate answers:


1) Ok, it might be "too close" to release for a broad statement like "1.5TB drives are not supported in a RAID" but how about simply stating somewhere in the faqs something like "while 1.5TB drives are not currently supported in RAID configurations, firmware enhancements are in development that will soon add this functionality". If this is still too much please for the love of all that is holy make your phone support people aware of this limitation (ie. ref my original comment, 3 people gave me 3 different answers...1 said 1.5TB drives were supported in a RAID, 1 said they weren't and 1 said if you pressed reset, formatted as standard and then re-formatted all drives as RAID 5 it would work).

2) Understand and apologize. Looking at it now I didn't mean to come across so short. You sell a relatively inexpensive box that most of us go out and populate with much more expensive drives that are useless until we get this update, I didn't mean to belittle you in any way, just frustrated and didn't mean to take it out on you personally.

3) We all understand and appreciate the engineering AND testing you must do to ensure our data is safe...hence our universal requirement for RAID protection.

4) See 3)

New idea/potential workaround. I had a little while to play with my setup this weekend and did the following which seems to have yielded a useable RAID 5 + JBOD configuration.

a) Format all drives as standard, ext3.
b) Note all 4 drives have a capacity of 1.4xx TB
c) Reformat all drives using custom, right side option (ie. RAID 5 Ext 3 + JBOD)
d) Select 4000GB as the size for the RAID5 config and go

The above yields a 3,934,797 MB RAID5 (MS sees this as 3.57TB useable) and a 654,206 MB (609GB useable) JBOD that appears to be functional.

Note: attempting the above using 4095GB (ie. 4096-1) gave me negative numbers of garbage which is a little strange as I would think the FS limitation would be binary based but again, exactly 4000GB seems to have worked.

Does the above make sense to you? I don't know that I would trust this in a production mode but for those of us who would like to start using our new toys this might suffice until the code is released (given of course that you do NOT trust it with non-backed up data). I realize this may not be worth much for most but for me I'm considering using it as a temporary backup since I'm flying blind on some hardware right now and would like to utilize this for something while I'm waiting. When 1.03 is released I will simply re-format and re-backup on the new, larger, guarateed secure RAID5.


Appreciate your comments and continued support.

Tim
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: skelm on December 16, 2008, 09:53:23 AM
Tried the steps in Texxustim's post and got the below - no idea if it has ANY real fault tolerance - nice work though in at least getting the 1.5s to work

Total Drive(s):     4
Volume Name:      Volume_1
Volume Type:     RAID 5
Sync Time Remaining:     Completed
Total Hard Drive Capacity:     3934831 MB
Used Space:     33 MB
Unused Space:     3934797 MB
Volume Name:      Volume_2
Volume Type:     JBOD
Total Hard Drive Capacity:     654206 MB
Used Space:     33 MB
Unused Space:     654172 MB
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on December 16, 2008, 11:02:31 AM
To be honest - I'm not certain what the point of your post is, or for that matter how it relates to this thread.

What exactly did you try?

If you really want to know if there is any fault tolerance, there's one easy way to find out - put some data on Volume_1 and then remove a drive - if the data remains accessible, you have fault tolerance - any data on Volume_2 will be lost, if not immediately, after the first reboot.

Be prepared to completely re-initalize the array at the end of the exercise or to forfeit the 650 GB of space you have in Volume_2 - if you replace the removed drive and allow it to rebuild the array, it will only rebuild Volume_1 - the RAID array - you will lose the JBOD.

Oh - the numbers you present suggest you might be using 1.5TB drives - but since you neglect to provide that little detail, we are left to guess and that sort of makes the post shall we say - meaningless?
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on December 16, 2008, 01:58:30 PM
Fordem,

With all due respect how can you miss the fact that we are using 1.5TB drives? This was the second of two posts to this thread that all relate to the anticipation of the arrival of code rev. 1.03 that will support 1.5TB drives. As stated in step b) of my experiment, and in my original posting, yes, I am using 4 1.5TB drives.

This was simply an experiment to determine if my current hardware can be used in it's current state (1.02) while we wait for the release of 1.03. I certainly understand how to test it's robustness (kicked off a 1.5TB copy this am and will test when complete) and that JBOB, by it's very nature, provides ZERO data protection and noted such in my disclaimer that warned against using this in a production environment.

Finally, as also stated in my post, this would be a temporary stop-gap measure at best. Yes it's temporary, less than ideal, creates an unprotected JBOD, would require a future rebuild, etc. but if you know that going in it might be able to serve some purpose other than a door stop until 1.03 is released.

Tim
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on December 16, 2008, 03:25:07 PM
Tim

You claim to be in tech support, I don't know if you use a forum such as this, or if you're field support - but either way there are parallels.

How many times have you seen - either - someone in a forum post saying 'same problem' - or - call your helpdesk saying 'same problem' and the circumstances were completely different.

A fundamental rule in the business of tech support is NOT to assume anything - and in this case, it seems that you have assumed that I was responding to your post - I was not, I was responding to skelm - and since there was critical information missing I questioned it - his original post did not specify what steps he followed or that he was using 1.5s - that is information that was added later.

I'm going to conclude, based on the time stamps that you read my post (made at 2:02 pm) after he edited his post - the one to which I responded (edited at 4:15 pm) and so it is not immediately clear that I am addressing a specific point on fault tolerance.

Even so - take another look at my post - do I appear to be addressing any issues you may have raised - who questioned the fault tolerance - was it you or him?

As one tech support professional to another - I'm sure you know what we say about assumptions - they are the mother of all ...

Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on December 16, 2008, 09:33:36 PM
Fordem,

All I was doing was trying to answer your original question, regardless of who posted it and at what time. I know you are a "guru" and I am a "newbie" on this particular site but again, just trying to be efficient and cover all open options...that's something I'm sure you are aware of in the support business...why skip an easy answer when you have one?

We're all the same team here bud, relax.

Tim
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on December 17, 2008, 05:48:42 AM
Tim - that was a question that was not directed to you - and therein lies the problem with fora - it is not always clear who a question is meant for - or even which post you're responding to.

To be honest, were I in your position - reading the threads after the edit - I would have been wondering "What is this guy smoking?  Isn't it obvious we're talking about 1.5TB drives?"

Oh - the trouble with easy answers is that they some times assume ;) that your audience has a certain level of knowledge - which I have found can be a really bad thing to do, especially when dealing with RAID in a consumer environment - hence my signature
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: pzy on December 17, 2008, 10:29:38 AM
Am I correct in assuming we won't see the DNS-343 firmware until the new DNS-323 firmware is posted?
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: hilaireg on December 17, 2008, 11:53:38 AM
Not far off the mark ... several posts by D-Link Engineering in the forums seem to indicate that the DNS-323 f/w is first in the "Release Queue".

HTH,
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on December 17, 2008, 09:05:32 PM
Just a quick update on the experiment I described in thread #6 above (a-d) using 4 X 1.5TB drives in a custom 4000GB RIAD 5 + JBOD config.

After xfering about 1.5TB of data to the unit I mounted an ISO image over the network and began streaming the file over 1GB enet. While the video was playing I removed drive 3 and didn't even see a hiccup. The status did not show any change however but did stop at drive #2 in the list (ie. nothing below drive #2 was listed, strange and not normal). I then restarted the system and hotplugged drive #3 back into the system and the status correctly shows rebuild is in process and again listed all 4 drives. All appears to be functional with no loss of data.

Again, this is simply a test but it does appear to support the use of 1.5TB drives in a RAID5 with the 343, albeit in a non-officially supported way (read-at your own risk), until 1.03 is released.

Tim

Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: skelm on December 18, 2008, 04:35:59 AM
I blew away my setup, tried to redo the steps, and now get stuck on the dreaded 94% format, on reboot (or just re-attaching to the web inteface after leaving it at 94% overnight) it goes directly into the hard drive configuration wizard with no drives formatted...  :-[
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on December 18, 2008, 05:34:42 AM
Tim

I think you need to be very careful with how you "hotplug" those disks - it's not supported by D-Link - here's (http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=3097&question=DNS-343) the recommended procedure, taken from the FAQ list.

I especially want to draw to your attention that it says ...

Quote
Note: The new drive Should be blank with no partition on the drive The drive may still be detected and prompt to format if formatted incorrectly

as I believe neglecting this step has been the cause of the wrong drive being formatted and data lost with the smaller DNS-323.

As a practising professional, you probably followed the procedure you would normally use to replace a failed drive in a RAID array (pull the failed drive out, put the new one in - I've done it myself, lots of times), and which have worked for you over the years, however this is software RAID (and linux based software RAID at that :o ) and as such requires a different procedure.

Also - if I'm not mistaken D-Link tracks the drives by serial number, so re-inserting a removed drive has the risk of it not being recognized as a new drive and not being properly synchronized upon reinsertion.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on December 28, 2008, 04:51:37 PM
Hopefully we'll see the new firmware soon, we have multiple clients that expected one thing based on D-Link's specs on the DNS-343 but got something else.  We just mirrored for now, and granted that only gives 3TB of storage but at least it gets the device functional.

This smells strangely familiar to the iPod battery issue...
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: JaLooNz on December 29, 2008, 12:30:34 AM
I already got my Seagate 1.5TB drives in anticipation for the new firmware (next year the warranty is shorten to 3years). Now just waiting for the software to catch up.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: CyberTron on December 29, 2008, 11:56:09 AM
hmm..some consolation at least the firmware supporting 1.5tb for dns-323 is out today...so hopefully dns-343 is next...
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: pzy on January 05, 2009, 09:15:00 AM
I knew it would be 2009 before we got the new firmware :P
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 06, 2009, 12:36:02 PM
Dear D-Link Media,

I, too, used to be in technical support, having spent thirty years as Systems Programmer and Systems Programming Manager for a number of large corporations using huge IBM mainframes.  My users were mostly Application Programmers and other staff, so the required level of sensitivity was actually lower than the level I'd expect support personnel who work for a large, global corporation would use when dealing with that corporation's customers (who are always right, you might recall).

What I believe you are forgetting is that D-Link severely misrepresented this product and that misrepresentation on this scale, at least in the USA, is both actionable and, in many cases, a felony.  And, no matter what the intent, to avoid accusations, D-Link simply must issue some sort of public statement and must train its telephone support personnel.

For example, before I thought to try this P2P forum, I called phone support when I discovered, this morning, that my four 1.5Tb Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives aren't supported.  The phone support person, who said his name is Harold but who has such a heavy accent that we both had a great deal of trouble understanding each other (and I generally have no trouble with the many accents of the Indian subcontinent).  But I was, after many repetitions, able to get the idea across that I had four 1.5Tb drives.  He put me on hold for a few minutes, after making me run up and down a flight of stairs two times, first to fetch the SN and then to fetch the HW version (even though I'd registered my DNS-343 and included the full SN), and told me that, categorically, the DNS-343 is and always will be limited to SATA drives with a 1Tb capacity, maximum.

Now, this is clearly not what the D-Link marketing material states, not what the D-Link web site states and not what the shipped documentation states; all sources state "The DNS-343 requires installation of a hard drive before it can be ued.  The hard disk must be a 3.5" SATA Hard Drive of any capacity."

Any capacity means, uh, um, uh, any capacity.  And that includes 1.5Tb drives.

So, when you say that you don't want to update the web site with a warning, you should realize that it's really not up to you, for when a company is informed that it is misrepresenting a product, it must change that product's representation, nevermind that the product, itself, is in some flux.

In other words, even if new firmware to support drives in excess of 1Tb capacity is due out next week, the web site must point out that, until the new firmware is installed, one's new $800 set-up is a boat anchor.

Regards,
Jeff
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Bhavik on January 06, 2009, 10:23:04 PM
I just got my D-Link 343 knowing that the 1.5TB drives were not compatible with the device, but after researching enough I found these forums and D-Link staff working on a fix so I brought the device anyway and currently using the "workaround" that was posted on here.

If you read the compatibiliy list I'm fairly certain you should of known that a specific set of drives have actually been tested with this device.

Here is the link. ftp://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DNS-343/REV_A/SetupGuides/DNS_HDD_and_USB_Compatibility_List.pdf (http://ftp://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DNS-343/REV_A/SetupGuides/DNS_HDD_and_USB_Compatibility_List.pdf)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 07, 2009, 06:04:49 AM
Dear NeoNZ,

I forgot to mention that, before I purchased my DNS-343 at the end of December, I called D-Link for pre-sales support.  I asked if there was an upper limit to the HD size and was told, just as the documentation states, that there is no size limit.  I was told that the only compatibility issues involve older SATA drives.  Oh, and that's "should have known" and not "should of known", not that the compatibility list is meant to be definitive as the device was not designed with particular drives in mind and, as D-Link keeps telling us, it should work fine with any reasonably new SATA drives.

Regards,
Jeff

If you read the compatibiliy list I'm fairly certain you should of known that a specific set of drives have actually been tested with this device.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 07, 2009, 07:15:39 AM
Is it just me or does it seem like NeoNZ may happen to be related to D-Link?  I'm just saying that his/her first post ever on the forums supports D-Link 100%...

And NeoNZ, your statement about 'compatibility list' is actually incorrect.  The documentation (tech specs, owners manual, quick setup guide, and D-Link's website) on the DNS-343 state that it is compatible with 'Any capacity SATA drive'.  I have yet to see a document released by D-Link (other than the internal one you provided a link to) on the 343 stating that it is only compatible with certain drives.

As AZZ710 mentioned, it will be interesting to read about D-Link in the news when they get drawn into court over this for false advertising and selling a product that doesn't meet the advertised specifications.  Looks like on the iPod battery issue it only took eight people.  Too bad it cost Apple about $100m.

http://www.macuser.co.uk/news/73483/apple-facing-100-million-ipod-battery-life-settlement.html


I just got my D-Link 343 knowing that the 1.5TB drives were not compatible with the device, but after researching enough I found these forums and D-Link staff working on a fix so I brought the device anyway and currently using the "workaround" that was posted on here.

If you read the compatibiliy list I'm fairly certain you should of known that a specific set of drives have actually been tested with this device.

Here is the link. ftp://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DNS-343/REV_A/SetupGuides/DNS_HDD_and_USB_Compatibility_List.pdf (http://ftp://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DNS-343/REV_A/SetupGuides/DNS_HDD_and_USB_Compatibility_List.pdf)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 07, 2009, 08:38:36 AM
Dear E. S. Crawford,

Actually, I doubt that NeoNZ has anything to do with D-Link beyond being a customer.  Perhaps his defensiveness is due to brand loyalty.  I've found that many people seem to equate their choices with themselves and, when a company whose products they've chosen is attacked, they become defensive.

In fact, I, too, have a great deal of brand loyalty toward D-Link, especially following my experiences with Draft-N routers a couple of years ago when the then-current D-Link high-end model (DIR-635) was in short supply and I bought and rejected in turn three high-end routers from Linksys, Netgear and Buffalo, all of which were very badly flawed and, when I finally got my DIR-635, returning to D-Link was a relief.  My first D-Link product, purchased in 1999, was the ground-breaking DI-704, the world's first four-port home router and the product which defined the genre.  I purchased seven DI-704s in total and many of them are still being used by friends and family members.  My home network now includes a DIR-855, a D-Link 5-port gigabit switch and a D-Link USB hub.  As I say, I'm most loyal, mainly because I truly believe that D-Link products are generally superior to the competition in most ways.

But this doesn't mean that I support all D-Link behavior.  Specifically, my personal experience would indicate that D-Link customer support has slipped badly in recent years to the point that, now, D-Link customer support is about as bad as everyone else's, which is certainly not a compliment.

And no matter what anyone may think of D-Link, they most definitely do not have a license to misrepresent their products, and the fact that their online marketing material still states that there's no hard drive capacity limit for the DNS-343 is most definitely misrepresentation, especially as D-Link has been formally informed that they are misrepresenting.  The next step, I suppose, would be to submit an electronic complaint to the FTC, something I've found to be very effective.  Still, I will delay doing this until I see if D-Link has the corporate presence of mind to respond (non-defensively, please), to say that the marketing claims will be changed, that they will train their telephone support personnel actually to help, rather than to do whatever they can to get customers off the phone, and that support for drives larger than one terabyte will be forthcoming, sooner rather than later.  Statements such as "it'll be done when it's done" are, frankly, unacceptable.

Regards,
Jeff

Is it just me or does it seem like NeoNZ may happen to be related to D-Link?
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Bhavik on January 07, 2009, 02:04:31 PM
The D-Link 343 is the first product of D-Link I've brought, but happy with it for the time being, and there are features that are in the 323 that I would like to see in the 343. But I am  patient enough to wait for a tested version of the firmware.

I said it only lists what the 343 has actually been tested with. Not what will work with it, there are obviously more disks and devices that it will work with. That isn't a internal link I found those by going to the AU d-link site (Im from New Zealand).

There is a difference between what the tech support and engineers know, D-Link is a big company and information doesn't travel as well/fast in big companies to people who should know about things.

Did you know about these forums before you brought the 343 Jeff? If you did then you should of known about the issue before you brought the device. I think it's just lack of research and then people complain.

Also for you information, it's not false advertising, since it does actually support disks of any size, albeit needs a firmware upgrade to support the new drive capacity. ;D The ipod case is different since it cannot be fixed with a firmware upgrade.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 08, 2009, 03:47:37 AM
Dear Neo,

Actually, it most definitely is misrepresentation on D-Link's part.  For when they designed this device, they assumed that 1Tb would be the upper limit, a perfectly reasonable (but incorrect assumption) at the start of the development cycle a few years ago when 300Gb drives were considered huge and none of the players in the 3.5" drive game had yet come remotely close to 1Tb.  This information was given to D-Link marketing, but they saw no reason to state the limit as no drives were yet available with capacities near, let alone over 1Tb.

I jumped on the DNS-343 after 1) reading a number of good reviews and 2) receiving an e-mail from Newegg.com to the effect that the brand-new Seagate Barracuda 7200.11-series drive with an astounding 1.5Tb capacity (which, of course, we will think of as inadequate when the 1 Pb drives come out in three years or so) were on sale at Newegg for US$129.99 each.  I found excellent reviews for the drive, as well, assuming the current firmware level, so I purchased the DNS-343 and four 1.5Tb Barracudas.

And, no, although I did, indeed, know about this (beta) peer-to-peer forum, I also trusted D-Link implicitly.  I assumed that the claims 1) in the marketing e-mails that D-Link sent me regarding the DNS-343, 2) on the D-Link web site and, most important, 3) made by the D-Link sales representative I spoke to on the phone before spending over US$800 on this bunch of hardware, currently blinking D-Link ad infinitum but doing nothing much else, to the effect that 1.5Tb drives were supported were true.

And it's still "should have" and not "should of", and, considering the conscious 1Tb design limit, and D-Link's current awareness of the issue, it's still most definitely misrepresentation.

Jeff

Did you know about these forums before you brought the 343 Jeff? If you did then you should of known about the issue before you brought the device. I think it's just lack of research and then people complain.

Also for you information, it's not false advertising, since it does actually support disks of any size, albeit needs a firmware upgrade to support the new drive capacity. ;D The ipod case is different since it cannot be fixed with a firmware upgrade.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Bhavik on January 08, 2009, 12:14:48 PM

Actually, it most definitely is misrepresentation on D-Link's part.  For when they designed this device, they assumed that 1Tb would be the upper limit, a perfectly reasonable (but incorrect assumption) at the start of the development cycle a few years ago when 300Gb drives were considered huge and none of the players in the 3.5" drive game had yet come remotely close to 1Tb.  This information was given to D-Link marketing, but they saw no reason to state the limit as no drives were yet available with capacities near, let alone over 1Tb.


Q: Does the device support larger disk size?
A: Yes

Q: Does the device support these larger disks in RAID?
A: No

Q: Does it require firmware upgrade for 1.5TB RAID?
A: Yes

Q: Will it require a firmware upgrade for 2TB RAID?
A: Most probably, as these drives don't exist yet.

The DNS-323 has gone through the same process, when it came out it only support 500GB as the largest size, then 750, and now 1.5TB.

This is why your argument is flawed, because technicial it does support these bigger drives in RAID configuration, it just requires a firmware upgrade. It already supports these 1.5TB drives in JBOD fine.

As one of the engineers mentioned in a previous thread, they did not recieve these 1.5TB drives and therefore could not bring out the firmware before the release of the drives.

I am pretty sure, the DNS-343 will have the same issue with Seagate 2TB drives when they come out this year, unless D-Link receives them ahead of time.

But I would like a update from the engineers if possible, on the new firmware.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: uneeq on January 08, 2009, 04:12:09 PM
There have been so many of these threads slamming DLink for the present incapability of using a 1.5TB drive setup in a RAID configuration, really it is getting old.

I don't want to get into the whole arguement here, so I'm only going to suggest one thing:

I hope that hindsight has taught D-Link that it is better to be humble, in this case by putting the new firmware development on hold, releasing an interim firmware. This code could then be integrated with the new firmware being developed for an official release.

This would serve to:

1) Keep clients happy.
2) Reduce the amount of complaints on the forum that people have to sift through on a regular basis to find the more interesting information and topics.
3) Give moderators, technicians and engineers alike more time to spend on the development of the software rather than fending off unhappy customer and having to defending D-Link's position
4) Provide clients with what their interpretation of what SUPPORTS ANY SIZE DRIVE should mean, rather than the fact that they really are supported, simply in a specific configuration (which they obveously find unsatisfactory)


I don't mind people munching over the above, but please don't try to argue my points. I'm sure that D-Link and clients alike (once in a calm and rational state of mind) can agree that these are valid points. We can only hope that D-Link keep these in mind for the next time round.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: mig on January 08, 2009, 05:38:53 PM
... because technicial it does support these bigger drives in RAID configuration, it just requires a firmware upgrade...
That is totally absurd logic!  :o 
The DNS-434 does not support these bigger drives in RAID configuration, because the required firmware is not available.  >:(
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 10, 2009, 07:03:59 AM
Folks,

This is now in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), complaint number 21360930.  Now we'll see if D-Link changes their online marketing material to reflect the fact that, indeed, there are hard drive capacity limits.

If D-Link had only changed their web site in response to my original formal complaint to add a note to the effect that the hard drive size limit is currently 1Tb, I would not have submitted the complaint.

If D-Link had so much as responded to me in this forum, regarding my claim of misrepresentation, I would not have submitted the complaint.

When I originally called D-Link and was told, by a pre-sales agent, that my 1.5Tb SATA drives were supported, had he told me, instead, of the 1Tb limit, I would not have submitted the complaint.

I am still a big D-Link fan and I would hope that D-Link reconsiders their new, unresponsive customer support policies.

Regards,
Jeff
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Texxustim on January 10, 2009, 04:19:15 PM
Jeff,

Thanks for following through where others, including myself, have simply given up. As you can see from my previous posts I, like yourself, have made many pleas for at least some basic steps to be taken to at least get everyone on the same page (ie. your phone support diatribe is all too familiar to me as I'm sure it is for many). It's one thing to make a mistake, it's another altogether to actively avoid admitting it, making one excuse after another...

For what it's worth I have been using my 4 X 1.5TB 343 in a 4096 GB R5 (using the custom config previously described) for some time now and with the exception of throwing away a half a TB to JBOD it appears to be functional. I am doing this of course with no assurance that I have any real protection but I am taking the appropriate measures to ensure my data stays secure until the now infamous 1.03 code is FINALLY released. I don't like this but at least it prevents all of my new hardware from simply depreciating on the shelf...

Again, I applaud your follow through and believe it is absolutely warranted despite what heat you may receive from others on this forum.

Sincerely,

Tim
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: hilaireg on January 11, 2009, 09:05:50 AM
Documentation and product packaging are typically the last items to be updated post-product release and in many cases, they remain 'as-is' for the life of the product.  I suppose this is partly because documentation, repackaging, and in many cases, product updates are all considered costs.

IMHO, providing up-front knowledge of limitation (or maximum) would have been a better strategy.  The downside, I suppose, would be that potential new customers would overlook the DNS as viable product once large capacity HDD's would become the norm.

Perhaps what is required at this point, is more active posting from both the customer and support folks at D-Link.  At this point, my only concern with the actions taken would be that D-Link decides to shut this forum down ... which would shame.

Cheers,
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 11, 2009, 02:11:05 PM
Dear HilaireG,

Whatever D-Link's strategy, and however expensive it might be to update documentation, both printed and on shipped media, it is very inexpensive, indeed quite trivial, to add a note to one's web site when issues such as this surface.  The issue became public knowledge before I bought my DNS-343 at the end of December, 2008, but D-Link didn't even think to tell its sales personnel not to inform potential customers, just as they didn't tell me when I called, that the unit as shipped won't properly support 1.5Tb hard drives.  And, on this forum, D-Link should not be dismissing people out of hand who bring this up as an issue (the famous "it'll be ready when it's ready" post).  This is most definitely not good customer service and, as I've said so often before, this saddens me deeply, for D-Link is at the top of my list in product design and build quality and their customer service used to be superlative.

As for my formal FTC complaint, I would have made it had I merely been fluffed-off by D-Link when I discovered, before checking this forum, that there are severe known problems in the current firmware of which we were not informed.  So, then, as my FTC complaint is unrelated to this forum, I would not imagine that D-Link would shut it down, for that would surely make the news.

Regards,
Jeff


Documentation and product packaging are typically the last items to be updated post-product release and in many cases, they remain 'as-is' for the life of the product.  I suppose this is partly because documentation, repackaging, and in many cases, product updates are all considered costs.

IMHO, providing up-front knowledge of limitation (or maximum) would have been a better strategy.  The downside, I suppose, would be that potential new customers would overlook the DNS as viable product once large capacity HDD's would become the norm.

Perhaps what is required at this point, is more active posting from both the customer and support folks at D-Link.  At this point, my only concern with the actions taken would be that D-Link decides to shut this forum down ... which would shame.

Cheers,
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 12, 2009, 01:00:25 PM
Just got an email from D-Link regarding a request for a release date of 1.03:

"This email is meant as a call notification ONLY. The Case ID that references your Technical Support call is DLK400040853.

Unfortunately we do not have any ETA as to when the new firmware will be released."

Weren't they previously talking about a release date before Thanksgiving?  Nice to know that they haven't even sent out an update yet...

By the way, I used to work for a company that manufactured large scale tape backup systems and we released firmware about every 3-4 months.  There was always open communication between us and our clients regarding bugs so that we could maintain good standing with our customer base.  Too bad D-Link has taken the other route...
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: chaicka on January 12, 2009, 10:43:10 PM
It's Year 2009 now, and even Obama is soon to take over white house... So where's the new firmware for DNS-343?

Looks like D-Link just ain't there yet for NAS device... taking so long to work on a firmware and selling a product that's premature (means not ready for market, codes are of beta quality and making the consumers beta testers).

That's one bad publicity for D-Link, who spent so much effort to build up its reputation - no. 1 consumers' choice for SOHO network/wireless network products.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Migailu on January 13, 2009, 01:39:46 AM
Hi All !

The German Support told me in December, that the new 1.03 Firmware hopefully will be released
End of January, or in the Beginning of February 2009...
Hope dies at last... ;-)  But when I read the Statements here, I think it will be January 2010... ;-)


greets
Migailu
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: JaLooNz on January 13, 2009, 03:04:40 AM
And guess what? Western Digital 2TB drives are coming out soon and we are still unable to run 1.5TB drives. I bet there will be another round of waiting for other users coming soon. ;)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 13, 2009, 06:40:42 AM
The unfortunate part is that we resell the DNS-343 to clients for movie backup and with the lack of response from D-Link we have to assume the worst, that the DNS-343 will NEVER support drives greater than 1TB when combined with RAID5.

As much as I hate to say it we'll have to start moving clients over to ReadyNAS or LaCie if they need greater than 3TB of RAID5.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Bhavik on January 13, 2009, 02:59:30 PM
And guess what? Western Digital 2TB drives are coming out soon and we are still unable to run 1.5TB drives. I bet there will be another round of waiting for other users coming soon. ;)

Just FYI.

If you read the previous posts on this topic, one of the D-Link members said that they did not receive the 1.5TB drives before they were released, therefore could not work on the firmware until they were released to the public.

Hopefully they will receive the 2TB drives early and will be able to start working on the firmware and have it released by the time that the drives are available to the public. Also I hear Seagate are working on 2TB drives as well.

And also mentioned that there is no point rollback all the features they were adding to the firmware and just release one that adds 1.5TB support as they would waste a lot of development time.

I'll keep running my 4x1.5TB drives in 4TB of RAID 5 until the new firmware arrives and not planning on swapping the disks out until a lot longer in the future.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 14, 2009, 06:13:29 AM
Dear New in New Zealand,

Um, 'fraid not.  The "engineers did not receive the 1.5Tb drives in advance" argument is almost certainly a complete red herring.  In fact, what most likely really happened is that the DNS-343 was designed from the start with a 1Tb drive capacity limit for RAID and, now, they're scrambling to catch-up.  Most software like this is written with design limits, normally chosen well beyond the state-of-the-art at the time the project is started.  In other words, it is most likely that when D-Link either wrote or decided to use existing third-party RAID code for the DNS-343, the design limit of that RAID code was (and still is, apparently), 1TB per drive.

Let's consider what the difference is between, say, a 500Gb hard drive and a 1Tb hard drive.  Obviously, the capacity of the second is twice that of the first, but there might be other differences as well.  What's known as the "geometry" of the drives might well be different (bits per track, tracks per cylinder, number of platter surfaces, and many more parameters).  The beauty of modern hard drive architecture is that all of this data is self-defining.  In other words, when driver software first connects to a drive, it can read all of the drive geometry parameters and adjust its operation accordingly.  This wasn't always true, which is why one had to know one's new drive's type number when installing it in the earlier years of the personal computer era.  Clearly, the DNS-343 can tell the difference between any 500Gb hard drive and any 1Tb hard drive, this by reading the geometry parameters.

Now, let's consider the difference between a 1Tb hard drive and, say, a 2Tb hard drive.  More important, is there any significant difference between the drive geometry, as in the case above?  The answer is that there is not.  So, then, perhaps the 2Tb drive has twice the number of platter surfaces or twice the bits per track, etc.  And the DNS-343 could easily deal with a 2Tb drive as long as it can determine the drive's geometry parameters, this assuming no pre-defined hard drive capacity limit.

And why would there need to be such a limit in the first place?  That, too, is a simple answer.  For arrays of data have to be constructed, space for these must be allocated, the amount of RAM available to the firmware must be sufficient to construct such tables, and so on.  This sort of thing is much, much easier to do if these arrays of data and such are pre-allocated and pre-defined.  To do this sort of thing dynamically is a great deal more difficult (and, I must say, much more professional, especially in a case like this).

When I first read the D-Link marketing material about this device, and saw that it would handle drives of any capacity, I was surprised and delighted, for if that were true, it would have meant that this was very slick software, indeed, capable of reading drive geometry and adjusting itself, using dynamically allocated data tables, other data areas, control blocks and such, to any drive geometry and capacity, even geometries and capacities not known in advance.  In this case, there would still be a capacity limit, but this would depend on the amount of available RAM and, presumably, it would be able to determine the maximum configuration in advance (code such as this might, for example, be able to handle three drives of 2Tb each but not four drives unless the drive capacity were reduced).

Hopefully, the DNS-343 has enough RAM to deal with 1.5Tb and 2Tb drives.  If not, D-Link will need to update the hardware and, if our experience with the (now superlative) DIR-855 is any indication, we'll be waiting a long time, indeed.  But, with any luck, there's enough RAM and all they'll need to do is change some data area definitions and a little code.

Like you, I'm a very loyal D-Link customer and recommender.  I've had enough experience with non-D-Link routers and other home networking hardware to know how much better, in general, D-Link is than its competition.  But, despite this loyalty, I'm still not willing to let D-Link get away with what amounts to political responses designed to avoid admitting mistakes, flaws in their products, and so on.

Do you wonder why we keep getting inconsistent answers from D-Link support personnel, that is when they respond at all?  Clearly, D-Link is most interested in dealing with this issue as though it were our fault for buying drives of larger capacity than this device was designed to support, this in both the absence of published, well-known design limits and in the presence of much documentation (not to mention claims by D-Link sales personnel who were just reading the same specification sheets we find on the net) to the effect that all newer SATA drives are supported, than in being 100% honest.  And, as I keep saying, I really expect better customer service than D-Link is currently delivering.  Your loyalty, however, appears to stretch further than mine.

Regards,
Jeff


If you read the previous posts on this topic, one of the D-Link members said that they did not receive the 1.5TB drives before they were released, therefore could not work on the firmware until they were released to the public.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on January 14, 2009, 08:54:11 AM
Excellent theory, but somewhat dated.

The DNS-343 detects it's SATA disks as SCSI, not unusual with linux, and SCSI has never used the old CHS drive geometry - it's all about blocks.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 14, 2009, 11:21:14 AM
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.

But no matter what the driver must know about attached drives, even if it's only the total number of blocks, it should still deal with arbitrary drive sizes up to its pre-defined limit as designed.  And, again, my contention is that, probably for reasons of implementation simplicity (static vs. the more difficult dynamic memory allocation model), a well-above-the-state-of-the-art maximum drive size of 1Tb was chosen, with two facts contributing to the problem: 1) The development cycle was, perhaps, longer than anticipated and 2) drives with capacities above 1Tb came to market much, much sooner than D-Link imagined they would.  And the fact remains that D-Link was well aware of the 1Tb limit, but chose not to mention it so as not to discourage future sales, perhaps.

This works in D-Link's favor, in the short term (but not the long term, of course, if D-Link drives away its most loyal customers in the process by allowing the marketing- and legal departments to prevail over their superb engineering team), and against the customer, also in the short term.  The 1Tb limit should have been stated and, even now, whilst we're waiting for support for drives over 1Tb in capacity, the D-Link web site should be modified to state the current limit.  And, when the new firmware comes out, the true drive size limit must be stated by D-Link for, having been exposed, they can no longer rely upon stating no limit and counting upon the drive manufacturers to withhold their breakthroughs so as not to put paid to the, um, uh, inveracity of the D-Link marketeers.

Regards,
Jeff

Excellent theory, but somewhat dated.  The DNS-343 detects it's SATA disks as SCSI, not unusual with linux, and SCSI has never used the old CHS drive geometry - it's all about blocks.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 14, 2009, 01:26:40 PM
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... :)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 14, 2009, 01:29:50 PM
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*'.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: fordem on January 14, 2009, 03:05:09 PM
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: skelm on January 14, 2009, 06:02:35 PM
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...
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Edward1999 on January 14, 2009, 06:36:23 PM
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!
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 15, 2009, 07:52:53 AM
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. 
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on January 15, 2009, 03:26:04 PM

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.

Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: escrawford on January 15, 2009, 04:50:52 PM
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!
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on January 16, 2009, 09:43:29 AM
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: mk1184 on January 16, 2009, 10:31:24 AM
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.

Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on January 16, 2009, 10:49:48 AM
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: mk1184 on January 16, 2009, 11:42:55 AM
Quote
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.

Quote
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 16, 2009, 12:51:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: mig on January 16, 2009, 03:04:38 PM
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!! :o
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on January 16, 2009, 03:33:28 PM
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.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: JaLooNz on January 16, 2009, 04:56:49 PM
Finally I can proceed with my own testing.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb74/JaLooNz/Other%20Technical/Storage_1232153454778.png
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on January 16, 2009, 05:11:06 PM
Thanks for posting your results Jaloonz :). Glad to hear the format went well.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: azz710 on January 17, 2009, 07:47:47 AM
Dear D-Link Multimedia,
whomever you might be,

My format just finished, too, and all appears well.  I am greatly relieved and, like Jaloonz, I will begin my testing, now.  Thanks again!

Regards,
Jeff

Thanks for posting your results Jaloonz :). Glad to hear the format went well.
(http://clamsend.com/eBay/1.02A.jpg)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: skelm on January 17, 2009, 10:02:26 AM
Nice one ! Thanks DLINK, trying now
Title: Thank you
Post by: kontnz on January 17, 2009, 03:11:20 PM
Thank you, every thing seems fine,

I just Have one question :

I have 3 1.5G hard drives at the moment setup as RAID5, if i wanna add another 1.5G in the future, dose it automatically add the new hard drive to the array or i have to reformat all the hard drives again ?

Thank you.
Title: Re: Thank you
Post by: mk1184 on January 17, 2009, 07:05:43 PM
Quick answer is that you would need to reformat, but it's also been answered in this thread:

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=3436.0
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: CyberTron on January 17, 2009, 09:10:04 PM
Thanks! Manage to format my 4 x 1.5TB in Raid 5. Now just pray my 1.5TB will not die due to the latest firmware issue posted on seagate website...

Did anyone notice this?

When the web admin is doing a format, I noticed when it was 40% on the web admin, it shows 94% formating on the OLED screen on the nas itself...well...is minor though...glad I can finally put my 4.5TB into action :)
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: VideoGuy on January 18, 2009, 07:07:30 AM
Thanks.  Worked for me :)

I've had issues with doing a "Restart".  When I do a Restart, sometimes one of the discs in the array is not recognized.  When I do a "Shutdown" and then start from the power switch, the dns-343 finds all the drives.  Once it misses one drive, the raid array has to re-sync which takes many hours.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: Bhavik on January 18, 2009, 03:29:30 PM
Does this mean 1.03 is going to be released even later now?

I'm pretty sure there is a fix for UPnP AV in 1.03 as per http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=3196.0 which will stop the disks spining up at fixed intervals to do a refresh.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: AlsRT10 on January 18, 2009, 07:13:58 PM
Can anyone help me with this download? I am unable to connect to the ftp site.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: RogerWilco on January 31, 2009, 09:07:59 PM
Hi,

I've just installed the 1.02a firmware and everything seems fine with RAID 5 and 4 x 1.5TB drives. Does anyone know what will happen to this volume when the new firmware comes out? It would be a annoying if it had to re-format the drives to create the RAID 5 again.

Thanks.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: D-Link Multimedia on February 02, 2009, 09:59:21 AM
Hi,

I've just installed the 1.02a firmware and everything seems fine with RAID 5 and 4 x 1.5TB drives. Does anyone know what will happen to this volume when the new firmware comes out? It would be a annoying if it had to re-format the drives to create the RAID 5 again.

Thanks.

Nothing will happen. It was a scripting issue in the Web GUI not the software raid.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: JaLooNz on February 02, 2009, 07:26:29 PM
Actually is it possible to enable a telnet/ssh option in the webUI by option? We actually can get things running if we have telnet access bypassing the webGUI format process.
Title: Re: When do we get the new firmware
Post by: chaicka on February 06, 2009, 12:13:00 AM
Now that there is a fix for 1.5TB HDD issue, is there going to be a firmware revision to fix the Active Directory issue?