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[blakrapter]

Hello everyone,

I have searched this and believe I know the answer, however, the posts I found were about a year old.  I am in hopes someone has found a workaround, or maybe the technology in the 655 will work for my specific application.

I have an external USB harddrive that is water and fire proof (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822501008). Because of this protection, I prefer it over any networkable storage devise I have found.  I am using it for documents, not streaming media, so speed is not a big deal to me.

This setup is actually at my brother's office and I am trying to get my ducks in a row before I drive 1 hour to him, so I have no time playing with this setup to test prior to writing this.  From reading, it is my understanding that I can download software from DLink to allow me to access this harddrive through the router from any computer.  However, it prevents me from accessing the drive by more than one computer at once.  In addition, I would ideally like to map the drive for easy access from "My Computer" and "Save As" screens.

What is my best option here?  Is it possible in any way to map this drive to several computers considering speed is not a factor?

I suppose that I could connect the drive to one of the computers and map it that way rather than through the router.  This would require that the computer it is connected to stay on whenever I wanted to access the HD from anothe rcomputer.

I am open to suggestions.  Thanks!

[Sammydad1]

Hi,

Just a thought, but can you use one of those USB to ethernet dongles.... and then run the drive into an ethernet port on the DIR instead of using it via USB ?

SD1

[blakrapter]

I have not thought about that, although, I would want to make sure it would work before buying more hardware.  How makes such an adapter anyway?  I have seen USB to Ethernet adapters for computers without a network card, but I am pretty sure they require drivers.  I have never seen anything to allow what you are suggesting.

Thanks!

[Sammydad1]

Point taken about the driver issue....

Maybe somebody makes one of those dongles with built-in drivers so it is actual plug-n-play.....

[EddieZ]

The feature you describe/require is a network HDD through ethernet, also known as NAS. The ethernet to USB devices do exist, I saw one two years ago.

[ICANSEEYOU7687]

From what ive heard and noticed a lot of people have problems and issues with the software and functionality.  I got it to work but not to my liking.

So instead, I got an older computer from my house and parts I had lying around...

120 gig HD, 1.6 ghz single core processor with 512 megs of ram.  I installed windows 7 on it (I get it for free from my college and stripped it down to the essentials, only uses like 300 megs of memory from bootup) but linux, or ubunto (free) would work great.

I got remote desktop working, set up the dynamic DNS, and a free VPN software that takes minutes to set up (Called hamachi).  Now, this computer is connected to this file server I created (for a total of 0 dollars mind you),  and I have the network drives mapped through my network, and the same drive mapped again through the vpn software.  So if I ever need anything, all I need is an internet connection and I can access this desktop from anywhere.  Where as the USB connected to the router can only be accessed if you are on the network. (although you might be able to figure something out with some vpn software)

It seems to access and copy files almost twice as fast, and for me it is much much more reliable.  Personally this is my suggestion.  Requires a but more effort setting it up, but its much more versatile.  Hell if you had a 3g phone, you could be across the country on the go and still access your file server from home

[blakrapter]

Thanks for the info guys.  I think my best bet may be to use the HD I have connected to a computer already up and running.  The only down side is that in order to access the HD, that computer will need to be running.  We can deal with that though.  I want to use the HD I already have because I do not want to spend the $$ on the one I have and I also like the idea that it is fire and water proof.

Thanks for your help!

[etienne74]

Maybe use a NSLU2 instead of a PC? No idea what these things cost nowadays (custom flashes available though)