Step 1: Log into the D-Link DIR-685 router´s User Interface.

Step 2: Navigate to the Storage tab and select Storage Access (located on the left-hand side).

Step 3: Select User or Group for the category. Click the drop-down arrow to specify a user or a group, create a share name and click on the Browse button to specify a folder on the drive.

Step 4: A window will open showing you the root of the drive. Click the drive name to specify a folder.

Step 5: If you do not have any folders inside your root you can create new folders. Otherwise click Apply to any folder and click Save.

Step 6: Click Save Setting after applying what user/group has access to their folders.

How to enter:

There are two ways to enter; the first way is the post a reply to this news post. It is important that you post a new reply, do not reply to someone’s comment as that will not enter you into the drawing!

The second way to enter is to re-tweet this news post but you must do it in a certain fashion. After you click the re-tweet link, make sure to add @dlinkpress and @bdsams to the tweet! It is important to do it this way to make sure your information gets pulled into the pool so you have a chance at winning.

Finally, you can enter each day up until the drawing (but not more than once per day, we can tell if you do) using both methods. There are no restrictions on location either, anyone can enter and anyone can win! Good Luck!

From: http://www.neowin.net/news/neowin-giveaway-d-link-dir-685

Featuring a built-in UPnP® AV server, streaming network stored videos through a compatible media player (including PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360®) onto your television has never been easier thanks to the D-Link DIR-685.

The upright design shows off the attractive view of the 1.6 million color 3.2″ LCD screen with sleek touch-sensitive buttons that provide a modern feel to allow easy control of device functions and digital display of photographs. Easily access and share your photographs from popular photo sharing sites through FrameChannel™.

High-speed Connection

With an integrated 802.11n high-speed band and a 2.4GHz signal, you can experience full wireless coverage throughout your network. Experience faster speed and longer range with powerful internal MIMO antennas.

Share Storage Over a Network or Internet

The DIR-685 has the ability to hold a compact 2.5″ hard drive and includes a built-in NAS, which allows you to safely store files on your home network. A built-in FTP server is also included to allow you convenient access to storage wherever Internet is available.

Video Streaming

A built-in Universal Plug and Play (UPnP®) AV server allows you to easily stream video files stored on your network through a compatible media player onto your television. You can even stream files from your Xbox 360® and PlayStation3® gaming system.

View more Description visit http://www.dlink.com/products/default.aspx?pid=DIR-685

DIR-685 Firmware

version:1.01NA
Date:8/20/2009
Download site:ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir685/Firmware/dir685_fw_101NA.zip

In Windows Vista or 7 click on the start button and in the search field type in the IP address of the router and hit enter.

Step 2: A Window should pop open showing you folders you´ve created on the drive.

Step 3: Click on a folder and if you created user names and groups to specific folder, you will be prompted to enter in those login credentials.

Color screen, 2.5-inch internal hard drive bay, Framechannel and BitTorrent support, 2 USB ports

The D-Link DIR-685 is a aggregate of an 802.11n wireless router, a digital photo anatomy and a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. It also has air-conditioned appearance like a built-in BitTorrent downloader and the ability to appearance a variety of content on the awning by affairs it from the internet.

Design and Build

The DIR-685 is unlike any ordinary router and looks rather cool with its upright posture. The overall build quality is quite decent. The front face bears a 3.2-inch LCD display. It is meant to also double up as a photo frame other than displaying information. But here lies the problem – 3.2 inches is a little too small to be viewed clearly from a distance. Thus, you can only admire photos if the router is kept right next to you. Also, the glossy pane covering the display offers a slightly irritating glare.

There are touch-sensitive buttons at the side of the display. They were alright, but the UI is to accusation (more on that later). There’s also a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Security) button. At the back, we accept the regular array of ports: 1 WAN, 4 LAN, 2 USB and one power. There’s aswell a side-door through which a 2.5-inch laptop harder drive can be amid into the device, which is the different aspect of the device. It supports up to 500GB HDDs. There’s an banish button at the added ancillary to get the drive out.

Features and User Interface

The DIR-685 is an 802.11n wireless router. Unfortunately, it only supports the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Some other routers in the market have support for 5 GHz frequencies. The basic advantage of 5 GHz is that there’s less interference from other devices than 2.4 GHz (on which many cordless phones operate). As mentioned above, it supports a 2.5-inch internal hard drive – which is great. We were able to easily read/write data to the drive over all the PCs connected to the router.

The only flaw we observed is that the device supports drives only in the EXT3 file format. Linux fans would know right away that EXT3 is a popular file format used by many OS distributions. So neither can you just pop in any FAT32 or NTFS drive in there and use it, nor can you remove that EXT3-formatted drive and use it directly with Windows. But assuming that one wouldn’t be swapping drives so often, it’s something users can live with.

Moving on, let’s take a look at the User Interface on the device. It is operated using the touch buttons at the side. The main issue with it is the UI’s laggy behavior – which makes it somewhat irritating to use. On the other hand, the coolest thing about the UI is FrameChannel. It is an online content delivery service right to your device. You have to register at their website and then select from an array of widgets. Thus, you can have Facebook/Twitter updates, Facebook photos, RSS feeds, Blog updates and a lot of other stuff streaming on to the DIR 685’s screen. This feature makes best use of the screen in our opinion; now only if the device had a bigger screen.

The Statistics menu will show current internet upload/download activity. The Photos tab will let you slideshow photographs, but only from the internal hard drive. It is silly to see that you can’t just connect a USB media device at the back and view photos from it. There are a few things missing from the UI. For example, it does not display the progress of your BitTorrent downloads – which would have been nice. It would have been nicer if it let you control downloads directly via the router.

The router’s interface (accessed via a web browser) is easy to use. It has the regular array of options and settings like a regular wireless router. The built-in BitTorrent manager lets you download files directly to the hard drive – without the need for the PC to be on. This is indeed a cool feature for those who like to suck the life out of their unlimited internet connection. But the interface is pretty basic. There is no option to schedule downloads or select individual files from a torrent. Also, it is surprising to see that there’s no regular manager for downloading files from HTTP websites.

Lastly, the two USB ports at the back let you connect a storage device, scanner or printer – which can then be used over the network. But you can’t simply access it directly via Windows Networking. You need to install a bundled utility called SharePort. We would’ve rather preferred a simple plug-and-play solution.

Performance

We tested the device in three zones. We used Wireless Monitor software to test the network strength of the device. Zone 1 was when the test laptop (a Dell Studio 14) was kept next to the router, where it gave 95% range. Zone 2 was when the laptop was kept in an adjacent room about 40 feet away. Here it gave 50%. The third zone was in another section of the office, roughly 75-80 feet away. Here the signal strength ranged between 25 to 30 percent. Thus we can say that the router provides decent signal range.

We transferred a 50MB test file between the router’s internal hard drive and the laptop in the first zone to determine speed. It gave us a fair download rate of 2.6 MB/s, but the upload speed struggled at just 0.27 MB/s. Thus copying data onto the built-in hard drive was fast. But copying data from the hard drive to our test laptop was very slow.

Verdict

The D-Link DIR-685 works well as a wireless router and offers a fairly wide range. Some of the features like Framechannel and BitTorrent support are well appreciated. But priced at Rs. 15,000, the DIR-685 is priced almost three times more than regular Wi-Fi 802.11n routers. It may be a unique product – but for its asking price, it is not even close to perfect. The photo frame feature didn’t really appeal to us due to the small screen size. That, along with the DIR 685s other shortcomings and its high price tag forbid us from recommending it.

Reference:
http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/D-link_DIR_685_Storage_Router/551-108885-621-1.html