Use USB HD on Router for Sharing Files

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I have a TP-Link AC1800 router with a 4 TB HD plugged into the USB port. From my Windows 10 desktop (plugged into a switch connected to the router) I can see the router’s USB drive in Windows Explorer.

At some point, I was able to copy and paste in a few of my music folders but I had doing that but that no longer works. The few video and mp3 files I was able to copy are visible on various devices on the LAN as a Media Server and I can play them. I would like to get the rest of my media uploaded.

I also would like to use this drive for file sharing and backing up my computers. I assume this would take a mapped drive but I can’t figure out how to do that. Any help would be appreciated. See screen shots attached.

TIA

Walter

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I have a 2TB SSD hooked up to the UBS 3.0 port on my Linksys router for the same purposes and mapped it so it was visible and usable on the network to all my devices.

In my case the map is \\192.168.3.1\ssd where 192.168.3.1 is my router’s IP address and ssd is the storage volume name I gave the SSD.

After I mapped it, I assigned it drive letter A: to make it easier for explorer and other programs to find it.

From looking at your attachment, you “should” be able to map it using \\192.168.1.1\tp-share and then, if needed, assign it a drive letter for easy of access.

Note: on my Linksys, the actual storage volume name was “case-insensitive” when mapped (i.e. in the router it’s named SSD, but in the map it’s ssd.)

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Alex5723

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Shouldn’t you set the SSD in DMZ as to shield the drive from Internet access (unless you want to access the drive remotely) ?

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DMZ doesn’t apply.

It’s not connected using an “ethernet” port (it uses the router’s USB port) so it doesn’t have it’s own unique IP address that could be placed in a DMZ zone.

Also, remote access from the internet isn’t enabled and, even if someone, somehow managed to “remotely” connect to it, it’s protected with an access password!

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Alex5723

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I used to use this with my router and it corrupted files on the drive.  It was a 2tb western digital external.  Another pitfall of this technology is it has smb1 that can’t be disabled.  It’s a poor man’s nas imo.

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