Fool me twice .... About what I would expect from DLink.
350478
Java must be installed.
Java security certificate is revoked.
No default IP address provided.
Image quality is awful.

They couldn't make it where it is accessible from a Chrome web browser and it just works, like at least one of their competitors.
4695521
I purchased this product looking for a simple backup drive that could perform incremental daily saves from one computer.  The requirements are fairly simple ... just do it, at a reasonable speed, and keep working properly.

The install was no problem, and I thought the included software was installing OK.  Unfortunately it kept telling me I was probably using bootleg software.  I did the software configuration, and it took 8 hours to backup about 8 GB of data, uncompressed, and without security.  Then, each day when it was supposed to do the incremental backup it would display the unauthorized use message and hold until I noticed it and continued.

I immediately wrote both Genie ( software ) and LaCie, and neither responded for several business days.  They finally said to download the software from the LaCie site, which I did, but then it didn't read the original setup, so it didn't do any backups. Today I edited the "existing" setup and told it to do the backup expecting an incremental file based on the last backup.  No such luck. Instead, it started a full backup.  Of course he we go for another 8 hours, and although this is a quad processor, with Win 7, and 3+ GB of RAM, it just drags the performance of the machine down.

When you do register the software, you are immediately requested to upgrade to a better package.

I would like this drive to do the simple job for which it is intended, but I'm not very confident yet.
1406369
So this is what Qwest sent to me both times (different locations; had included cable between those two). THANKFULLY I didn't pay (either time) or I'd be TICKED OFF.

First, the speed. It isn't just that I came from other service providers, so let me kick that possible assumption out. We're talking identical setup--location, gadgets, router (my own N router that has kicked butt for a few years now), everything identical--with one tiny change, that being from Qwest's crapodem to the one that I used back on the east coast, a Netopia that was a slight pain to configure to Seattle but so worth the pain... seeing the difference, it makes total sense why a computer HARD WIRED INTO THE MODEM felt like it was using a long-ago-removed fax modem whenever something "taxing" like, you know, a minute long clip or a flickr album (so intense, it's almost a triple rainbow*, I know...)

Then we have the wireless. Two things awful about this: SO EFFIN EASY TO HACK INTO for one--see, when a company mass-deals the same modem to everyone, believe me, it's NOT hard to get into the IPs once you have fiddled around with it and figured out the basics (if I can figure it out, someone who actually LIKES hacking sure can, and that compromises EVERYONE's security. I actually tried it out with my neighbor's *with her permission* and yes, I was able, and I am NOT an IT nerd by any long shot). If you use your computer to access stuff like bank accounts, orders for wee little Amazon where info's stored, or even email you ever keep open longer than the session you're using it for (otherwise, you can be used as one of those mass emails for spam sites and viruses simply by leaving your email accessible through "password protected" "encrypted my arse" connections with this insult to the landfill's justified residents), DON'T get this, not with Qwest especially! If you're stuck with it, GET A SEPARATE ROUTER with top notch security options. The other awful thing is the actual wireless quality. Let me phrase that... this is a wireless hub? Could have fooled me. Oh, wait! There! It just flashed by!! Click it! Oh, and now it's gone again. Doesn't matter where you move it/point the antenna, it only seems to  connect to what it is hard wired to or what is right under it. Me, I do not keep my phone and such under the modem OR the modem on the ceiling. It is SLIGHTLY improved if you put extenders for the rubber pads (in the form of books on each side) under it to have some reception room (air) under the thing. It's total junk, though, and what's inside is so freaking hot it is no wonder they die so often, so young (and my home isn't especially warm; it's early august and 72 inside).

Then a note regarding this modem and your privacy. Forget about it. You lost it. Yep, you CAN take away its ability to send Qwest complete data on what you access with the gadget you bought off them, but every time it is rebooted/turned off/unplugged/loses power for any reason--its shoddy performance the frequent one--it is reset. I scoured forums all around and never found a way to permanently lose this ability without, yknow, losing your connection to their oh so fabbbulous service (sarcasm? Nooo, not me.)

Save yourself the headache. Find anything else they'll use and search beforehand for complaints about their data mining "service improvement" HAHA yeah, means they get to improve their profits by selling info on everything you access to marketers so they in turn can invade your space and time more, yee haw! Nothing like "quality partnerships" and Century Link no doubt will make it an even "richer" experience (for their CEO who I almost guarantee has his own fiber+T3 because he knows not to trust this junk).

*sorry if you don't catch the reference, but not sorry enough to remove it :)
45238
This has to be by far one of the WORST products I have purchase in quite sometime. The installation was pretty straightforward I was up and running in few minutes and then I began using the router... My wireless and wired computer would drop several times through out the day which was extremely annoying especially due to the fact I was working from home. I would call the help support go through the same hacking of configurations with them time and time again but to no avail. I finally lost it when yesterday evening I spoke with another "help support" technician going through the same help script that every other DLink technician took me through. She refused to allow me to speak with a senior tech, instead she simply suggested I exchange it for another one. You gotta be kidding me? I took that poor excuse of a router back to the store and gladly received my money back.

Please do yourself a favour and do not waste your time or money on this product.
121158
The DNS-323 manual (written in 2007) that is only available as a PDF download online claims that the unit supports 2 SATA drives 'of any size'. I wanted to set 2 x 2TB drives up as a RAID 1 volume. Not with the firmware level that my unit had installed on delivery! (v 1.04 from some time in 2008)

Searching the badly organized support resources on the web revealed at least 3 later firmware versions, none addressing 2TB drives. Out of the box, I could not install the 2 drives I purchased as anything other than 2 separate 'normal' volumes. The two drives showed as being formatted to 1.9Tb each.

I called D-Link Tech Support. As others here have experienced, the 2 agents I spoke to did not have a clue. After about 40 minutes at level 1, I was handed off (dumped) to level 2 - no information was forwarded (is it ever?). This agent was also clueless, telling me that 'maybe' I should install 1.03 firmware (a downgrade).

The only other option offered was for me to call the US-based Level 3 on the following Monday (it was Friday evening at the time). I decided to cut my losses, hang up and download and install firmware version 1.06 which claimed to allow the use of 1.5 TB drives. Despite the claim, it appears to allow the use of 2.0TB drives.

The crap and clueless support is a pity, because the actual product is nice - this is my second unit, but the first one uses 2 x 1TB drives so I didn't have the issue before. Oh well!
4135413
NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED:
I've watched the issue with these drives carefully for about 2 months. It looks like Seagate solved the problem and that a vocal few were ever really affected.  By few I mean relative to the thousands sold.  And I am not defending Seagate.  This whole fiasco was unacceptable.

MY SYSTEM:
I picked up 8 of these drives.  I'm running them in 4 separate DLink DNS-321 RAID boxes.  I've copied about 4TB of data back and forth across them for days. My only firmware update needed was for the DLink so that it could properly handle the new 1.5TB drives.

In the end I believe all is well with both the drives and the DLink DNS-321.  I will of course update this review immediately if I see any problems.

PERFORMANCE:
We are able to watch movies from this drive arrangement on 3 computers simultaneously across a 100mb network from the same drive while adding new files to the drive from a 4th computer.

This means I can be adding movies unattended to the system while watching an Epic Man movie on the plasma in the living room...  while the kids are watching Monsters Inc in the bedroom...  and the wife is off watching some chic flick in the Den. :)

The combination of DLink and these 1.5TB drives is fantastic and seems as stable as the WD 1TBs I was using previously.

PROPER DIAGNOSIS:
Don't confuse your drive DIEING after a week with the previous firmware problems of this particular drive.  Blame the vendor that shipped the drive like it could bounce !

ON A SIDE NOTE:
I will say I am sick of Amazon, Tiger and other vendors shipping hard drives like they are indestructible ROCKS.  Even if they arrive working, this inadequate packaging is certainly taking years off the life of our drives.  One of my 8 arrived DEAD as a brick thanks to this nonsense.  I am furious about this issue !

Will it take a class action to stop this behavior of guaranteeing future drive sales by damaging todays drives through deliberate mishandling of our purchases ?! Wake up AMAZON !  Wake up TIGER !

UPDATE: Dec 14 2009
One year later, I own 22 of these drives now. 12 are running daily in DNS-321 Raid boxes.  The other 10 are used as back up drives in a drop in SATA adapter.  No failures since 2 in the first few weeks, I believe due to poor packaging.  About 6 of my drives came with the BAD firmware.  I never had issues with that either.  Call me blessed.  I just think the DNS-321 and these drives work very well together.

UPDATE: Jan 8 2011
Another year passes and most of my 1.5TBs have all been pulled from DNS-321 RAID boxes and used as loose backup drives in a drop in SATA adapter.  I've replaced them with the larger Seagate 2TB drives for larger capacity.  NO FAILURES OF EITHER DRIVE 1.5TB or 2TB !  I have a couple Hitachi's and WD 2TBs.  The Seagate drives are quieter and come off sleep in my RAID boxes faster than the other brands.  All are used for video streaming over a network and do a fantastic job.

TIGER has been shipping drives MUCH BETTER.  Amazon packagers have sent me drives packed poorly just 2 months ago.  I requested replacements and Amazon handled the no charge exchange well.  But they should NOT have been shipped that way.
193446
I have decided that the best way to solve this issue is to stop people from making the same mistake as me. If you were hoping to use the "share port" feature to set up a wireless print server or wireless external hardrive DO NOT BUY. The Share Port program does not work and in over 2 years, dlink has still not corrected the problem. Not only that, but dlink refuses to admit the problem is their firmware and rectify it with customers. Don't believe me? sift through these two forums and 20 pages of issues reporting the same problem.

[...]

[...]
3140621
I now have two routers.  The old one, which this was meant to replace is a Netgear N900 and the new Linksys AC320.  I thought I was buying new cool tech and that I could expect great things.  Boy was I sorely disappointed.
Despite Xfinity announcing that they were increasing our speed for free, we have been struggling with connectivity and speed over wifi devices.  So, for kicks I hooked both in parallel today to see which was faster... old or new.
To give it the best chance I could, I set the Linksys up as the gateway and the old router as a slave and located them right next to each other.  Both were set with automatic frequency selection and default settings, other than a static IP for the slave.  The tests were run within seconds of each other and the results are as follows:
Netgear N900:
  DL 19.1 mbs
  UL 2.98 mbs

Linksys AC320:
  DL 2.83 mbs
  UL 3.11 mbs

I called Linksys, but they tried to sell me a support plan so that they could teach me to update the firmware.  Well, duhhh firmware is set to automatically update.  When asked why I was refusing support, I told them that I had already dumped enough money into this hunk of junk and was going back to my other router.
3049713
I bought this to function as an access point as DLink advertises that is has this capability.  I couldn't make it work as one - despite the fact I've set up numerous ones from other brands before.  The feature is present in the most recent firmware, but enabling it caused the device to lock up.  Oh well.

I set it up as a regular router to see how it compared to my Asus RT-N56U.  In comparison to that, I find that it has a weaker signal (slightly, about 2 dB in both 2.4 and 5 GHz).  The Asus doesn't have any external antennas as this does, so I had my hopes up a little I could find use for it.  But when I saw the signal strength was worse, I didn't bother.

In comparison to the Asus, the web UI is very slow and poorly laid out.  The UI would not allow Firefox to remember the admin password for some reason - it kept saying invalid password.  Changing the LAN IP to something other than the default caused the admin password to be reset to something other than the default one or what I entered.  Factory reset required to recover from that.

All in all, I can't think of anything good to say about this device.  Maybe it was cheap??  As a router it doesn't work that great, the firmware is very buggy, and worst of all, it didn't work for the purpose I got it - to  be an access point.
3473670
One thing that really misrepresents the product is that all of the reviews for different sizes of sticks are lumped into one category and it's not really explained that different sized sticks should be treated as ***completely different models***. The mistake people often make is in assuming that because all the sizes available have the same S102 model number, that the performance will be the same for all of them. This is not the case, internally each size will be using different components. The write speeds for the 16 gig model are actually quite poor while the write speeds for the 64 gig model are decent for the price.

Here's some real world performance data (not a benchmark, but real world performance results from something you would actually do (which I did because... well I needed to install Debian on one of my laptops)). The write speeds for the 16 gig stick are rather unimpressive... quite poor actually. I wouldn't buy this particular size again. So the application? Writing an iso of the Debian test image ("Stretch") to the USB stick using dd (a *NIX command line). For each test I had the stick plugged in to the same USB 3.0 port. At the end of the write, dd reports elapsed time, number of bytes written, and average write speed.

64 gig version: "3981279232 bytes transferred in 151.434400 secs (26290455 bytes/sec)"  so that's about 25.07 megabytes per second (real megabytes, not marketing megabytes... a real megabyte is 1024^2 bytes not 1000^2 bytes which artificially inflates disk sizes and performance... computers are binary which means they always work in a base 2 numbering system, not base 10)

16 gig version: "3981279232 bytes transferred in 2097.574186 secs (1898040 bytes/sec)" and that's a pretty abysmal 1.81 megabytes per second.

It took the 16 gig model almost 13.9 times longer to complete the same write as the 64 gig model. I do expect a smaller stick to be a little slower, but this is quite a huge difference.

On the Pros side... I love the aluminum case.
979994
Note that I have returned the item. I'm relatively tech savvy and can usually figure my way with these kind of things, and the install on this was one frustrating experience. First, it tells you to download an install wizard on your PC/laptop to walk you through the install. The site which it tells you to go to (dlink.com/support) results in a 404 error (aka - site doesn't exist). Poke my way around and find the site. Download the correct wizard, and its says, "Hey! make your life easy and install through the app!", I'm paraphrasing, of course. Ok, simple enough. First attempt (note that in order for you to even do anything, you need to create an account with dlink. To creat an account with dlink, you need a device to connect) to connect via WPS - after selecting after waiting an eternity for the app to try to do its thing, failed to connect. Ugh. Tried again, failed again. Okay fine, forget WPS, I'll connect it directly with included Ethernet cable (thankfully one was included). Tried again, failed again. Tried again, failed again. Backed out, thought, hmm. lets try a different device (this was the 933L, I selected the 933 LB or something). Meanwhile, I went to my laptop to try there, but while i started that, IT MAGICALLY WORKED. Ok great! I finish the process of creating my dlink account. go back to the app to view the camera - ITS NOT THERE. I NEED TO CONNECT IT AGAIN. Long story short, after several more attempt like above, I'm not even sure what I did, but it finally worked (after an hour or so? maybe more, got interrupted a few times). Only to find this was 480p (prob my fault for not checking that). But the install process was enough for me to return it. And although friends recommended dlink as I searched for a replacement, this install process was enough for me to say "no thanks".
1084446
I had purchased one of these devices to replace my old Linksys router.

This box was expensive when I first bought it but I thought, no problem, it's a D-Link, it will last a long time.  About 2 years into it, the wireless became unreliable.  It wasn't moved, nothing changed.  Several reboots, I even let it sit turned off for a weekend - no dice.

Wired worked fine, but wireless just plain sucked.  I was severely disappointed with D-Link.

I looked at the 890 router and the amount of negative reviews there are pushing me AWAY from D-Link as a company.  What ever happened to their great 895 router that was reviewed last January (2015) ?

Following is my actual email conversation with them.

*************************
Jennifer replied:
Thank you for your message. Our Customer Service Department is not privy to future inventory expansion plans at this time. We do get new items in all the time however, so it is worth checking back with us regularly.
Thank you,
Jennifer | D-Link
NOV 02, 2015  |  05:22AM EST
Original message
Carl wrote:

Hi,
When will the AC5300 / DIR-895L/R be ready for shipping?  It was supposed to ship in the 2nd quarter and now we're in the 4th quarter.  I had another DLink router die on me and I need to buy something soon (I'm using an older, slower one right now).  I'm about to buy a competitor's product if the 895 won't be out soon though.
*************************

What a useless statement.  "Check back often"...  D-Link has just gone onto my "no buy list".  Now... to find a router that will ACT like the 890 or 895 was SUPPOSED to act!
321043
Probably as good as any out there, which isn't really saying much.  It's obvious that this whole streaming/DLNA/etc paradigm is still a work in progress.

Random observations after about 10 days:

1.  WiFi works, but you definitely need a clear, strong signal - by that I mean 5 bars.  Otherwise, no connect.  You might want to invest in an extender, or else use ethernet exlusively.

2.  Disc playback - trying to fast forward, the system gets confused.  You can only go about twice real-time speed without some temporary freezing.  Never gets up to anything close to full FF  speed.

3.  Netflix app seems OK.  Good playback over WiFi.

4.  Streaming video files (MP4) over ethernet is way better than WiFi, but same issue with fast forward as above.  Reliable connection, though.

5.  For video media file playback, USB port off a thumb drive is absolutely the best.  Very smooth, and FF will go at top speed.

6.  Random lockups, requires unplugging.  Not often, but happens.  No clear idea as to cause.

7.  Have not tested other apps or add-ons.  There are a bunch.  Lack of Amazon seems to be a show-stopper for some, but I am not at that point yet.

8.  Does not play AVI, but then again few of the new ones do, regardless of brand.  I am keeping my old player for that.

9.  The included DLNA server Nero MediaHome on the CD seems flakey and unreliable.  Sometimes you can see the shares, sometimes not.  I removed it and downloaded the evaluation of the same product from Nero's website and it seems pretty solid.  I know it will expire after two weeks, but the actual file sharing capability might still remain, based on the nag screens it throws up.  I will know in a few days.  May actually buy it, but then again my router has a built-in DLNA app, so I may just forgo that.

Overall, not great, but not too bad either.  Hope some of this is useful.

Ed
2155092
The "Product Description" is just a lame sales pitch.  This is a reader for SD and MMC cards.  It plugs into a USB port.  The big advantage is that it works with Windows 98.  You have to install a driver, which you can download from the web, but it works.  Other SD readers flat out do not support Windows 98.
I have two Thuderbolts.  I bought one of them about five years ago, and I got the other from Amazon about 18 months ago.  It is plug-and-play with XP, so it allows me to transfer files between my XP and win98 computers.
The only problem I have had is that occasionally I need to reinstall the driver on a win98 machine.  It's strange, because one reader will work fine while the other does not.  After I reinstall the driver, they both work.  That has only happened a few times, so it has not been a big problem.
I notice another reviewer had a quality issue, and from the web I see that manufacturing rights have passed through several companies.  Maybe the current maker is not doing such a good job.  I plan on buying at least one more before they go off the market.
2405259
This is my 2nd DLink, the first is a simple 932L which I love. I was having trouble seeing an image on my phone and computer, some functions were not working but I got the phone working with an update but the computer was more involved. I sent an email to DLink, they responded with a "got your message, will get back" acknowledgement but did email me the next day. I was discouraged having just returned another cam for no customer support. DLink also sent me a phone number where I was promptly connected to a REAL PERSON! Ford spent close to an hour with me getting the 5009L up and running. I duplicated his instructions for my 932L after I got off the phone and can now see both cameras on my laptop!
The 5009L cost more than the first camera but I should have followed my first experience and remembered that the 932L works. If you find a brand, stick with it. I'll update this post if things go sideways down the road. Thanks Ford, AR004620, Ref #C6647212. You have the patience of a Saint!
Same day update: The 5009L connection to my laptop is lost but fine on my phone. The 932L is fine on both the laptop and phone. I'll call back in tomorrow. Going to downgrade this to a 4 star for it's instability and making me call again, alas.
Next Day Update: Tech support got me back up and running this morning. Christopher AR004301 used joinme.com and helped me with a firmware update that I only got as far as downloading 2 days ago. The firmware is a .bin file that I couldn't open and did me no good. You actually paste it into the DLink site to do the update so I'm hoping that does the trick. We also reinstalled the wireless and ran a ping test which showed me that my internet signal is not a smooth, constant connection like I thought.
So after 2 calls to tech support (which I really have to say that are some of the best for the various places I've needed help from) I'm hoping that the 5009L is as easy to own as my 932L. If not, I'll be back
3521529
I picked one of these up about a month ago because I desperately needed some serious additional storage, and once I verified that it seemed to be working as advertised, at the end of the first week I deleted from my PCs' hard drives the stuff that I had transferred to it, thus opening up a lot of space, which was kinda the whole point of the exercise.

By the end of week 2, the machine was acting very strangely, actively - no, aggressively - trying to snag the *.*.1.1 slot on my router, even if it caused an IP conflict with one of the PCs. I contact LaCie tech support, which was clueless - gee, we don't know why it would try to do that. Let us know if it does anything else weird. Trying to force it to stick to a single IP address rather than a dynamically assigned one caused different problems.

Late last week, I stopped being able to get files off of it at all, via any machine - music, video, the photos of my son's first eight months, you name it. LaCie tech support was clueless, and sent me two patches which didn't work as advertised; one caused the drive to lose track of the "shares" (i.e. directories) I had set up on it.  I finally gave up on trying to access it via the router and finally got through to the machine via a direct USB connection. Even then it's very intermittent - while trying to recover my data, I can't get at everything. LaCie sent me a return authorization number to send the drive to them for service, but they wouldn't even begin to have a conversation about recovering the data that I couldn't reach - that was clearly off the table for discussion.  I've opted instead to return it to Amazon and get my money back.  I'll probably just get a 1TB internal drive for my main PC instead of trying to go the network route, but you can bet it won't be a LaCie drive - why would I want to get a different one of their drives when they're obviously clueless as to how the thing works?

Anyone looking for a mass storage device along these lines would do well to steer clear of LaCie.
3800075
Ever get the feeling some companies view customers as a necessary evil?  Welcome to D-Link, masters of customer avoidance. These guys should make a decision.  Provide lucid documentation that gives you a clear option to use the IP address to access the unit setup (so you don't have to screw around with last century's install CD), or at least answer the support line.  D-Link magnificently fails at both.  Over a two-day period, I called support  dozens of times.  Dozens.  Predicted wait times of 10--25 minutes came and went.  Early Saturday morning, I reached a human after about 12 minutes on ignore.  All I could hear was someone madly typing in the background (no doubt pounding out, "I hate my job.  I hate my job...")  He eventually came on the line, took my number and disconnected.  Not even a kiss on the cheek.  While on hold, the automated voice said something like, "D-Link products--Set it and forget it--They just work."  In what make-believe universe?  The same voice urged me to go online to D-Link support.  Try it.  Please.  If you feel you parachuted into an Iowa cornfield maize designed by a student of Kafka, the D-Link web designers did their job.

My issues were pretty simple.  First off, the unit failed to initialize several times.  When it finally came to life, I could not access the set up via the IP address.  Still can't. I gave up on the D-Link install and instead got this little token of Third World slave labor and American Free Enterprise to work via Windows 7 Network and Sharing Center.

Why do big companies make such simple, silly mistakes when it comes to doing business?  Design products that plug in and configure themselves.  Write clear and concise documentation.  And, if you can't handle steps one and two, then answer your phone.

I bought this thing for under $40 at Warehouse Deals.  Arrived in two days in perfect physical shape.  Still trying to figure out if it's going back.  For what it's worth, it appears to run slower than the Comcast-provided router in my last house.