D-Link DNS323 (DNS 323)

Disclaimer: These pages are provided 'as is' without any liability or any kind, if you decide to follow these steps it is your responsibility.

Allowing MS Windows to access the DN-S323 using the Zone Alarm firewall

Zone Alarm is a firewall that puts you in control of access in and out of your computer. This can be a little intimidating at first, but put simply it means that you can stop programs from accessing the internet and you can prevent malicious software from accessing your computer. The details are beyond the scope of these pages, but you can read all about the threats and how to combat them at Zone Alarm. I would not run my computer connected to the internet without Zone Alarm. It's worth visiting the Zone Alarm site to read all about internet security and find out what they can offer.

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You can think of a firewall as a brick wall that your computer sits behind with just a couple of bricks partially removed, through which things pass. Whenever some software on your computer wants access to the internet you can allow it or deny it. To make life simpler you can tell the firewall to remember which software is allowed internet access.

The same thing applies to your local network where your router and DNS323 sit. You might not think of it as a network, but it is.

Firewalls are very effective at preventing access to parts of your network, so much so that they can easily stop the D-Link Easy Setup Utility and MS Windows from accessing your DNS323. This page shows how to tell Zone Alarm to allow MS Windows to access the DNS323.

Other firewalls are not yet covered.

How can you tell if Zone Alarm is blocking access to your D-Link DNS-323?

If you can not access the DNS323 on your local network and you have Zone Alarm installed (free version or professional version) then it's possible that Zone Alarm is blocking that access. Here's how to test that.

First - unplug the network cable that connects your computer to the internet. We're going to turn Zone Alarm off for a short time, but during that time your computer will be exposed to attack from the internet, removing the network cable (or closing the wireless connection or you may need to do both) will prevent attack be removing the path to your computer.

Turn off ZoneAlarm

This example shows the free version of ZoneAlarm.

Start by clicking on the Z (for Zone Alarm) icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your PC screen. This will show a menu - see next screenshot.

Look down the list and select the 'Shutdown ZoneAlarm' item and left-click it with your mouse.

When the confirmation dialogue box appears, click the Yes button. This will shut Zone Alarm down.

If you don't like the idea of having your computer connected to the internet without a firewall running then you can unplug the ethernet cable that connects you cable modem (or ADSL modem) to your router. This will leave the router running but as there is no physical connection you will not be exposed to internet traffic.

Having turned off ZoneAlarm repeat the attempt to map a drive using the D-Link Easy Search utility, if you find that you can now access it you know that Zone Alarm was the cause. An example of how to configure Zone Alarm to allow access follows.

If you still cannot access the DNS323 it looks like there is a different problem.

Don't forget to restart ZoneAlarm and reconnect your network cable.

Telling ZoneAlarm to allow access to the DNS323

Begin by opening ZoneAlarm and selecting the Firewall tab on the left, then the Zones tab from the main area

 

As you can see from the screenshot the configuration has already been set to allow access from the computer to the router and a couple of other places, now we are going to add the DNS323.

Click the Add >> tab in the bottom right, a small menu will appear, select IP Address and you should get the next window

Enter the ip address where the DNS 323 is, if you are following the example then it will be 192.168.0.100 otherwise it will be wherever you put it on your network.

Put an appropriate description into the last text box so that you will know what this entry was for, then click OK.

Finally you should click the 'Apply' button in the bottom right.

Re-test and you should find that the DNS323 is now accessible.