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[OC-Carl]

I read this from the data sheet: "wirelessly access your saved media from any USB drive" and this: "you can connect a USB storage device, providing access to ... files through your network storage for everyone ...".

I maintain D-Link Marketing has over sold the USB drive storage device capability! It seems the router's USB drive is limited to a Windows storage device, but that limitation is NOT stated.

I've mounted a Mac formatted drive that I can connect to using the Finder / Go / Connect to Server / smb://192.168.0.1.  Finder then shows 192.168.0.1 in the  "Shared" list and "usb_B1" in the list of "Devices".  Because SMB is used, the USB HDD even though formatted as a native Mac drive, can NOT be used as such as is required by some Mac apps, most notably Time Machine.    (The answer to the FAQ: "How do I access the USB/SD Card media that is connected to my router?" in the  Support web site REALLY, REALLY should be IN the User Manual!)

So is D-Link going to complete implementation to support "ANY USB DRIVE" like they claim (like a Mac formatted USB HDD accessed through AFP)?   I note the router implements Bonjour.  One missing piece is needed to place a Mac formatted disk drive into the list of "Devices" through Bonjour, yes?

Will the D-Link Development team implement what Marketing is selling, or will Marketing update the product literature to include the limitations and caveats necessary to define the what the real shortcomings of this product are?

[FurryNutz]

I saw this as well and reported it to my contact at D-Link.

I recommend that you need help, I would phone contact D-Link directly and inquire about this with them and get immediate help and information. This issue is beyond any help here in the forums.

Let us know what they say. Good Luck.

[FurryNutz]

There is new Shareport software I noticed that was finally posted on FTP:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=50708.0

Wonder if this might help any.

Is the drive you are formatting using the Journal or NTFS formatting?

[OC-Carl]

I exercised my right under the GPL with which the router firmware was distributed and downloaded the source for review.

The good news is Bonjour (aka mDNSResponder) seems to be fully implemented.  The bad news is the Apple Filing Protocol (afp) is implemented in SAMBA, a Windows centric offering, to access Apple file systems.  So when I use smb://192.168.0.1 to connect to the USB disk drive from my Mac, I am effectively communicating to the drive from the Mac Finder through Windows Explorer.  SAMBA is a way for Windows to "Explore" the Mac filesystem.

Apple products like Time Machine, et. al. don't expect there to be a Windows intermediary to communicate to a Mac disk.  What is definitely missing is "native" afp.  I should be able to connect to the USB disk device like afp://192.168.0.1 but can't as this is not directly implemented.  afp is a layer under smb that is exposed to the router user.

The question is if D-Link will expose afp to the router user and when.  My guess is that it will take many thousands of Mac users who purchase the router and discover they cannot effectively use the USB port with a Mac formatted drive to complain to D-Link for the development team to sufficiently prioritize the implementation effort.

Or I can do it myself and maybe submit the patch to D-Link for review and possible inclusion into a future firmware release.

[FurryNutz]

Post your findings and requests here:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=51005.0

I exercised my right under the GPL with which the router firmware was distributed and downloaded the source for review.

The good news is Bonjour (aka mDNSResponder) seems to be fully implemented.  The bad news is the Apple Filing Protocol (afp) is implemented in SAMBA, a Windows centric offering, to access Apple file systems.  So when I use smb://192.168.0.1 to connect to the USB disk drive from my Mac, I am effectively communicating to the drive from the Mac Finder through Windows Explorer.  SAMBA is a way for Windows to "Explore" the Mac filesystem.

Apple products like Time Machine, et. al. don't expect there to be a Windows intermediary to communicate to a Mac disk.  What is definitely missing is "native" afp.  I should be able to connect to the USB disk device like afp://192.168.0.1 but can't as this is not directly implemented.  afp is a layer under smb that is exposed to the router user.

The question is if D-Link will expose afp to the router user and when.  My guess is that it will take many thousands of Mac users who purchase the router and discover they cannot effectively use the USB port with a Mac formatted drive to complain to D-Link for the development team to sufficiently prioritize the implementation effort.

Or I can do it myself and maybe submit the patch to D-Link for review and possible inclusion into a future firmware release.