Residential Router with Remote Hard Disk Drive

[jlgurr]

Anyone here using a remote hard disk on a wireless router in their house?

We have an older router that works OK but wanting to upgrade so that I can do laptop backups without directly connecting the backup disk to the laptop. In other words I was hoping to have a router that a hard drive (or two) could be connected to it and be accessible by other users on the router.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[k0ua]

Anyone here using a remote hard disk on a wireless router in their house?

We have an older router that works OK but wanting to upgrade so that I can do laptop backups without directly connecting the backup disk to the laptop. In other words I was hoping to have a router that a hard drive (or two) could be connected to it and be accessible by other users on the router.

Thanks,
Jeff

It is called NAS Network Attached Storage. They are readily available. The hard drive is stand alone on your network with its own IP address. Another way to accomplish this is to have a desktop on your network with one or more hard drives attached to it and share those drives to all the workstations (like your laptop) on your network that you want. This is perhaps a more cost effective solution for a home user. Because you may likely have such a PC on the network already. Cost could be zero if its internal hard drive is big enough, or add a simple USB hard drive, for a low cost. or like I do, have several cascading hard drives that back each other up. All rather easy and inexpensive to do.

 

[jlgurr]

The breadth of knowledge on this forum never ceases to amaze me.

James, I want exactly what you described I just didn't know what it was called. Thank you!!

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

 

[mapper]

Seagate makes a nice 2TB NAS, as I recall it was a bit north of $100. It originally came with some backup software that was not compatible after upgrading to WIN10. I switched over to Windows backup, which has worked without any issues since.

 

[hawkeye08]

Some of the current routers have USB ports for printers and disks. I have one setup this way and it works fine. There are also NAS disks as mentioned above that connect to the network. I also have one of these connected to my router. It also works ok.

The disk connected to USB port on router that I have has NAS and FTP and Media server available in router for it.

 

[jlgurr]

Seagate makes a nice 2TB NAS, as I recall it was a bit north of $100. It originally came with some backup software that was not compatible after upgrading to WIN10. I switched over to Windows backup, which has worked without any issues since.

Are you still using the seagate, just without their software?

<CSIHelper: 0x145e0d50>

 

[jlgurr]

Some of the current routers have USB ports for printers and disks. I have one setup this way and it works fine. There are also NAS disks as mentioned above that connect to the network. I also have one of these connected to my router. It also works ok. The disk connected to USB port on router that I have has NAS and FTP and Media server available in router for it.

We have an older linksys wireless router with USB ports that I've connected a drive to. It's just really slow, like ridiculous slow, data transfer rates.

<CSIHelper: 0x145e0d50>

 

[aczlan]

I am a fan of the TPLink routers. You might take a look at the their WDR4300: Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Wireless N750 Dual Band Router, Gigabit, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5Ghz 450Mbps, 2 USB port, Wireless On/Off Switch: Computers & Accessories
Here is a slower (cheaper) one: Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WDR3500 Wireless N600 Dual Band Router, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5Ghz 300Mbps, USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On/Off Switch: Computers & Accessories

Aaron Z

 

[Coyote machine]

Curious why you'd want to use a router to backup your laptop, when the speed would be way higher if directly wired to the router. You could still have the hard drives attached to the router, but the download would be much quicker if hard wired, then unplug after completed.:confused3:
I've got a Bazillion bits/sec fiber from my ISP, but the difference in speed between wireless and hard wired is ridiculous! Wired the download speed bends the needle on the meter, wireless, still fast but nowhere near as fast.....

 

[jlgurr]

Curious why you'd want to use a router to backup your laptop, when the speed would be way higher if directly wired to the router. You could still have the hard drives attached to the router, but the download would be much quicker if hard wired, then unplug after completed.:confused3: I've got a Bazillion bits/sec fiber from my ISP, but the difference in speed between wireless and hard wired is ridiculous! Wired the download speed bends the needle on the meter, wireless, still fast but nowhere near as fast.....

Our router isn't easily accessible but if hard wired for a backup makes that much difference I will find a way to do it. Still would like faster access from laptop to a shared media drive though. That would preferably be wireless.

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

 

[jlgurr]

I am a fan of the TPLink routers. You might take a look at the their WDR4300: Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Wireless N750 Dual Band Router, Gigabit, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5Ghz 450Mbps, 2 USB port, Wireless On/Off Switch: Computers & Accessories
Here is a slower (cheaper) one: Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-WDR3500 Wireless N600 Dual Band Router, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5Ghz 300Mbps, USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On/Off Switch: Computers & Accessories

Aaron Z

Here's what we are using today...

Amazon.com: Cisco-Linksys E3000 Wireless-N Router: Electronics

 

[dan ny escarpment]

Just installed a new linksys ea6900 wireless router which includes a usb 3.0 external port for storage (hard drives) or other usb devices such as printers; also looking for a network based shared storage solution. USB 3.0 touts much higher transfer rates https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0. The router offers dual bands which translate into 2 separate networks at 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz allowing traffic from all the different wireless devices to be split to different networks, with the 5.0 ghz band optimized for video streaming, smart phones, smart tv's, roku, apple tv, cameras, etc. Have done that (about 20 wifi devices in the house) and it has drastically helped performance for all uses. I'm eager to see the actual throughput when using a USB drive to transfer files. The admin interface is much improved from years past and it offers a web app for network management which is a great tool also. There are alot of good routers out there, I have just happened to use this brand over the years, and been generally satisfied.

 

[mapper]

Are you still using the seagate, just without their software?

<CSIHelper: 0x145e0d50>

Yes, I like the Windows backup better than the Seagate supplied software, it's a bit more straight forward and easier to recover data from it. I think they knew this and that's why there was not a win10 version created. When I inquired about it Seagate indicated it was a third party application they had bundled with the disk.

 

[aczlan]

Just installed a new linksys ea6900 wireless router which includes a usb 3.0 external port for storage (hard drives) or other usb devices such as printers; also looking for a network based shared storage solution. USB 3.0 touts much higher transfer rates https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0. The router offers dual bands which translate into 2 separate networks at 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz allowing traffic from all the different wireless devices to be split to different networks, with the 5.0 ghz band optimized for video streaming, smart phones, smart tv's, roku, apple tv, cameras, etc. Have done that (about 20 wifi devices in the house) and it has drastically helped performance for all uses. I'm eager to see the actual throughput when using a USB drive to transfer files. The admin interface is much improved from years past and it offers a web app for network management which is a great tool also. There are alot of good routers out there, I have just happened to use this brand over the years, and been generally satisfied.

Connecting (over wireless) to USB3 vs USB2 I would be very suprised if youwont see enough speed difference to notice.
USB2 is good for up to 480mbps and a good 5ghz router can theoretically hit 450mbps (less in real life depending on your location).
Most of the time, the bottleneck is the router (going from USB to WiFi or Ethernet).

Aaron Z

 

[dmccarty]

Be very careful in connecting storage devices to the USB ports on routers. A coworker did this and there was a known security vulnerability that was NOT fixed by the router company. The ID of the person was stolen from data that was on the storage device....

It is a temptation to connect a drive this way but I just direct connect storage drives to my systems when I need them. Then the drives are put away in a drawer away from power surges and hackers.

Later,
Dan

 

[Coyote machine]

Be very careful in connecting storage devices to the USB ports on routers. A coworker did this and there was a known security vulnerability that was NOT fixed by the router company. The ID of the person was stolen from data that was on the storage device....

It is a temptation to connect a drive this way but I just direct connect storage drives to my systems when I need them. Then the drives are put away in a drawer away from power surges and hackers.

Later,
Dan

Is that hacked router vulnerability any different from directly accessing the original drive that the data came from?

 

[Blizzard0308]

One suggestion is to use a 2 disk Synology Diskstation such as DS215j along with 2 NAS hard drives such as Seagate 2TB NAS HD. I am currently backing up my laptops and computers to my diskstation which is configured as a mirror raid set, you are also able to use the diskstation as a media center, photo gallery and many other apps that can be installed in the disk station manager. It is a more expensive option but it is a very flexible option also.

 

[MossRoad]

Curious why you'd want to use a router to backup your laptop, when the speed would be way higher if directly wired to the router. You could still have the hard drives attached to the router, but the download would be much quicker if hard wired, then unplug after completed.:confused3:
I've got a Bazillion bits/sec fiber from my ISP, but the difference in speed between wireless and hard wired is ridiculous! Wired the download speed bends the needle on the meter, wireless, still fast but nowhere near as fast.....

Convenience. Tell the machine to backup at 3:00am every night. No need to connect anything and it won't matter if it takes a lot longer. Also, safety, as in, each time you pick up a USB hard drive and connect it to a laptop, you risk damaging the ports on the laptop and dropping the USB drive.

 

[MossRoad]

Curious why you'd want to use a router to backup your laptop, when the speed would be way higher if directly wired to the router. You could still have the hard drives attached to the router, but the download would be much quicker if hard wired, then unplug after completed.:confused3:
I've got a Bazillion bits/sec fiber from my ISP, but the difference in speed between wireless and hard wired is ridiculous! Wired the download speed bends the needle on the meter, wireless, still fast but nowhere near as fast.....

Convenience. Tell the machine to backup at 3:00am every night. No need to connect anything and it won't matter if it takes a lot longer. Also, safety, as in, each time you pick up a USB hard drive and connect it to a laptop, you risk damaging the ports on the laptop and dropping the USB drive.

 

[Coyote machine]

Convenience. Tell the machine to backup at 3:00am every night. No need to connect anything and it won't matter if it takes a lot longer. Also, safety, as in, each time you pick up a USB hard drive and connect it to a laptop, you risk damaging the ports on the laptop and dropping the USB drive.

I think you're missing what I'm trying to convey. I'm saying that having a 2T or 3T drive attached directly to a router port, then use the router, via hardwire to a laptop to download/backup, etc. INSTEAD of trying to do the backup, or whatever by the router's wireless connection. Doing backups at 3 AM makes perfect sense, whether wired or wireless. BUT quality and security of the data transfer would be highest via wired connection, IMHO.