Is it possible/easy/cheap/reliable to hook a an external USB hard drive up to a wireless router?

Or do I have to bite the bullet and buy a new hard drive with Ethernet connectivity?

You can get little boxes that have ethernet and USB ports on that can act as a "middle man" between HDD and wireless router (assuming it has network ports on it)...

Dont expect really fast data transfer speeds though...

I cant remeber the name of the brand, its an obscure one... but the box should only be about £35..

My new NetGear Router has a USB storage connection. Not tried it yet but it seems you can enable remote access over the web too.

try that...

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/16096190/Seagate-FreeAgent-GoFlex-1TB-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-External-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive-STAM1000200/Product.html ?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccc:%7Cprd:16096190%7Ccat:Hard+Drives

i use a cisco 4tb server box....

works on the lan.

but they cost a bomb.

I have a Sumvision Aero Lite NAS Dongle. This should do what you are after, but I've still not got mine plugged in yet, so can't comment on its effectivness.

[Edited on 18/11/10 by balidey]

You find NAS enclosures on ebay at a very reasonable price and you can just put any suitable HD into them ---- very simples !

NAS drive enclosures run on firmware that acts as a firewall, ftp server, and windows networking file server --- USB drives don't have any protection against intrusion.




[Edited on 18/11/10 by britishtrident]

Thanks for all advice chaps.

@ BT in particular, good point and something I hadn't considered!

I suspected the answer would be to invest in a proper NAS set-up. Maybe I can re-use the USB HDD as a back-up to the NAS device...?

If you have a BT Home hub 2 (black curvy one) you can plug a USB HDD into it and map it as a network drive no problemmo. Full firewall protection from the outside world etc.

[Edited on 18/11/10 by coyoteboy]

I have a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo which is pretty good - 2Tb of storage all accessable on the network. I keep all of my backup software and media on it, streaming wirelessly to my 52" Plasma tv via a Netgear EVA8000

p.s. If your drive is SATA then it will probably go into a NAS drive but the large drives are getting much cheaper now,

[Edited on 18-11-10 by RazMan]