Add USB Storage Drive to Your Router. BT Hub, Plusnet and Others.

[@SartorialPictures]

Can't believe I haven't come across this technique before. Well presented, straightforward, clear and great delivery, thanks. Off now to put a stick in my mother in laws hub for backups. Rooter v Rowter lol.

[@montynorth3009]

Excellent! Logical and easy to follow. Worked perfectly. So many KZbin videos out there that tell you what you can use the router USB port for without telling you how to do it in clear simple terms.

[@q8386]

Wow, quick and easy solution. Been looking for something like this for a while, since my Raspberry Pi stopped acting as my NAS. I hope you are still posting as I see this vid is from some time ago. THANKS.

[@adamronson3428]

Thank you. I wondered why there was a USB port on the back of my BT Home Hub. Have just followed your instructions and now have a shared drive which is really useful as I use 2 computers at home.

[@Computroon]

Great to hear!

[@denissetiawan3645]

@@Computroon I've read the article. Can I use other than FAT 32? I have many big files over 4gb.

[@9hints]

​@@denissetiawan3645 bro did you get your answer ? I want to know too

[@pdw170]

I was stuck but followed this and it made it nice and easy - thanks for a great video

[@naveenraja7]

Liked this video right away for saying you are not going to put a link to amazon in the discription!

[@CowboyPants-h5p]

*description. Do better.

[@David-ec2qp]

Fantastic! I’ve been looking into this for ages, before I could only access my movies via VLC player from router but I always had to put the storage into pc first to move the movies onto it. Now I can transfer everything via the network. Great job

[@bfd1918]

Does creating a Map network drive! Will it affect the C capacity storage? Thanks

[@JohnonaBike]

Thank you very much that worked great - I now have my 2TB western drive attached and its a god send as laptops now come with small hard drives now

[@conroyknapp4903]

Didn't realise it was so easy. BTW ipconfig can be run from command prompt as well as powershell.

[@randytellez2451]

Old vid but well worth watching a simple procedure simply explained. Thank you

[@ProffyChaos]

Thank you so much for this. I searched for ages and you made this so easy.

[@lennytheleopard]

This is an excellent video. Thank you. I'm not buying into the argument about he "correct" pronunciation of the word, but just to explain why Australians say "row-ter" is because in Australia "rooter" means the same as "shagger" does in the uk. :)

[@KevsGuide]

😂😂😂😂

[@SpeccyMan]

So why do they say the word data like darter?

[@p.l.5860]

Thank you. Thank you. So many other videos were unclear.

[@functionatthejunction]

Thanks for the tutorial! I finally decided to wipe the dust off the back of my "rooter's" ;) USB port and put it to use! Subbed and thumbs upped!

[@paulr.5704]

Thank you for your video. Step by step ... easy to follow...worked like a charm. Paul from Canada

[@whomadethatsaltysoup]

Great. Clear instructions on how to create a NAS drive using the usb port on your router. I couldn't do this before, as I had a Virgin router. Now that I have a 3 router, with a usb port, I'll give it a go. Thanks for sharing.

[@mrbruno1946]

Thank you very much for the instructions. You was very easy to follow.

[@johngratton467]

My BT SmartHub needed SMB to be 'switched on' after that plain sailing works fine and tremendously useful

[@keithwhite2986]

Given that BT updates my Smart Hub 2 firmware remotely I recommend that only encrypted storage be attached to the USB port.

[@adamharris7913]

could you also use an usb to lan adapter to connect one

[@damightyshabba439]

I have tried just shoving a USB stick in before.... didn't realise it had to be activated. Also... I'm ok with command prompts, but I'll have to learn more more about that double backslash... thats new on me.... sounds fun - and dangerous.... "ROLL OUT THE TEST PC!!!!".

[@keithwhite2986]

I'd never thought of this, so thanks I will give it a try, though I use only Linux systems which either may or may not make the USB port easier to use. To me a rao-ter is a power tool for making grooves in wood or similar material, a roo-ter is the device in the video.

[@Funkfreed]

Also note that your modem version is also important, mine is only SMB1 and windows suggests that SMB1 is no longer safe so I can't do the same thing he did.

[@andrew39454]

You can go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Windows features > enable SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support to make it work

[@moneybilla]

​@@andrew39454 yes if you want to become vulnerable to alot of ransomware lmao

[@arkay56]

I spent many hours trying to do this, enabling Smb and network sharing and tweaking furewalls and even going on TP-link forums chat only to discover recent versions of tp link do not support USB storage. Worth checkjng if your router allows it BEFORE going to all that trouble

[@IvanPaynter]

I've failed trying to enable SMB2 to enable access to a USB stick which is plugged into my BT Home Hub5 Type A. I'm not familiar with 'TP-link'. Would you know if this is why I'm experiencing this problem and would it be the same for any storage device connected to the Hub USB port e.g. SSD or Hard Drive with USB connection?

[@sergiomarroquinjr3587]

Helpful in that I didn't even think of using the USB port on my 'Rooter' ;) I do love a good Scottish accent! (still think Scottish Engineers are the best to work with!)

[@moneybilla]

It's literally called a rooter tho mate

[@johnhickton2922]

When I do the run command I get a message saying I can't do it because my system has old unsecure SMB1 and it needs SMB2.

[@andrew39454]

You can go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Windows features > enable SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support to make it work

[@Noisycarl1]

I got as far as the run command and it tells me the folder is empty, what have I missed?

[@stillightdrones]

Hi, I've just stumbled across this video and that sort of storage drive sounds perfect for me. However, after plugging in the usb stick and finding my ip address for the router, it won't connect. A message pops up to say access denied.

[@mindyerowen4354]

"Run" command at 3:35 now gives error SMB1 not supported you need SMB2 or higher. Any ideas? Newb, so be gentle.

[@mindyerowen4354]

Ne'er mind. Map network drive via SMB2 didn't work. Enable SMB1 via windows features. Happy days.

[@vuyaninkambule4213]

Great tutorial to me as an amateur network technician❤

[@pauladams1915]

So how do i access the router/usb with my smart tv ?

[@hedgerowpete]

2.51 into the video and we parted ways, i have four different power shell topics i can choose, not one, so which one do i use?

[@SleepySkullhead]

I'm assuming the choice of flash drive hardly matters?

[@chrisashdown1484]

My router only has ethernet ports, i.e. no usb port, How can i make a NAS drive like your post. Many thanks

[@AlexLancashirePersonalView]

Run will not connect to my BT hub on the 192.168.1.254

[@jerry4012]

Great video m8, never knew my rooter could do this!

[@darrinkl]

now how do access the files from outside my network can i add an web address to look at files from another location?

[@TerryWindell]

Is that "rooter" made of plastic or "al-yoo-MIN-ee-um"? LOL! Nice video.

[@SpeccyMan]

The British pronunciation and spelling of aluminium is the correct one or are American bones made of calcum?

[@nickcowen4565]

Ive done this but I would like my Iphone to also be able to connect to the drive how can I do this?

[@LalanDesai]

I am using PlusNet broadband connection with a static ip. How can I access my nas over the internet now?

[@johnchrys5716]

Is there a way to make this ns accessible from a different location as as sort of cloud drive ?

[@nazninjahan3540]

Thank you Man, it's working.

[@G-T]

I tried this method on a 'Vodafone' router but all I got was an error message at the end of it!

[@viktor6772]

How to use NAS for backup ip camera data?

[@sonarfreq]

A BT Homehub 5 requires SMBv1 to be installed in Windows 10 in order for this to work apparently?

[@WalmartyJaden]

Can anyone guide me how to access that in MAC os

[@proberts1107]

Thank You so very much my friend 🎉

[@alfitzie9631]

Hi, great video - but - I have win10 home, and when I tried this is says something about smb 1 - which his not secure!! can I download smb 2 ??? anywhere...thanks Alan

[@Offcut55]

At last a useful thing I can do with a bt hub! Sorry to say it does not show the usb your way but it does in the hubs status but I cannot open it from there? It is a home hub 5 with win11 pc's

[@stephensmith4533]

Will this work on Cromebook ? so if i made one for my windows could i use it on my Cromebook as well

[@ahmedbhiri1774]

you dropped excel file . when i'm trying to double click it , it doesnt open on the shared NAS why?

[@ARogers]

When I click okay after typing my default gateway nothing happens. Any ideas why?

[@alexaraya2018]

what if the router(wired and wireless) don't have a usb port? is there a usb to ethernet thingy?

[@DezRock2]

How do I set up and connect drive on a mac?

[@richardsunday1612]

How can I access this usb drive on my router from anywhere in the world ? 😇

[@adamcharlottelotan4558]

Thank you so much! Very clear, very prctical, very helpful!

[@albertob6076]

Beautiful! Excellent explanation! Question please. Is there a way to make PLEX see this drive?

[@simongilroy687]

Thank you sir, this is awesome

[@thatslife9446]

Hello! I've got a 1TB harddrive connected to my BT smart hub 2. It says on the smart hub menu on the browser that it's connected. I'm having trouble finding it on a macbook, and also a macbook running parallels. Can you let me know how to do it on one of these places please?

[@swanseauk]

If only this would work on Virgin Media routers. They seem to be hardware disabled for the usb port. Tried all sorts to attach external storage thriugh it, nothing seems to work. Please , if anyone out there has got the usb storage working on a Virgin hub, let me know how.

[@joramgarcia1495]

Thank you for this video! I really need this. It's nice that I found this vlog. Hahahaha!

[@JorgeHMartinez]

Is there a way to do this but access the drive from over the internet even when you are traveling?

[@christygarcia4843]

From what I have read, yes, but you have to leave a port open and leave your system vulnerable to hackers.

[@richardsunday1612]

added a USB to my new BT router, thanks so much, if I repeat this with another drive in my TV, I'm guessing I'm to use the other (private) IP address the router has called/issued to the TV ? TIA

[@robingmarsh]

Good easy to follow video, much simpler solution for basic NAS than alternatives I had looked into. Question: any instructions/video for mapping same drive on android phone/tablet? (and other networked devices such as TVs)

[@Computroon]

Hi @ Robin Marsh. I'll look into that, thanks for the suggestion. That would make helpful video as I imagine many users are looking to do this. Off the top of my head, there is directional access via devices such as using the "Your Phone" app that is built in to Windows 10 and the other way using something like the Sweech app on Android. Butyeah, good point. Accessing files from the shared drive. I know that for photos on a NAS drive, apps like FEFileExplorer allow access. Fine for streaming shorter videos but unsure about streaming longer videos. I'll do some more digging on this and try and come up with a practical solution. As for TVs accessing NAS content, this would probably differ with different makes and models so casting from the Windows or Android device to the TV would be the simplest way. I'll do some experimenting with this. Many thanks.

[@zee708258]

Is anyone know how to setup nas usb storage device on Google onhub router?

[@Jokermaniac]

On my settings for usb its saying disconnected idk how to change it

[@zbigniewgr8526]

Hello, ButBut as a remote client (Windows10 PC) I want to have Internet access to HD (or flash drive) connected to the router so that icons of graphic files can be displayed in the directory. I'm talking about previewing a file's icon without needing to open the file. (I won't run samba on my PC) How to do it? Thank you in advance. Regards

[@balkrishnarana5278]

Thank you for this Splendid idea/ method.

[@leeisds]

Say I wanted to do this but use the drive as a remote drive so I can access it outside of my own network, how would I do that? Ideally I want to be able to install Plex Media Server on a hard drive connected to my router and be able to watch these movies from outside of my own local network, is this possible or would I need more of an actual computer for processing power to be able to stream videos? Thanks

[@usrao2148]

Can we be able to access this from workplace computer?

[@scotteverett7834]

Can i use android to ccess this drive when ive set it up on windows?

[@HomeAutomation2025]

A great video works great for me. Is there a way . I can access my hard drive off the local network. I want to access this away from home.

[@-GlasgowsLastTram]

Hi did you make a utube video on connecting a wifi camera to a pen drive via the router to store images

[@groundbeef662]

Stupid question but if you haven't got a usb port could you use an ethernet to usb adapter ?

[@falfield]

Good clear instructions - thank you. I'm assuming I'm getting different results from others who are happily reporting success below. With my BT HomeHub4 my data transfer rates for file copying are 1.5-2Mbps, whether I use flash disk, external SSD or self-powered HDD (ie not related to the power delivery capacity of the USB socket on the router). I have both wired and wireless connections to the router which are reported as running at 100Mbps and 87-144Mbps respectively. There is no other network activity to distract the router from the transfer job beyond sustaining my internet connection. Are there protocol/other configuration options to look at or should I write this off as a rubbish router?

[@nigelmorris4769]

I did this with my BT hub but went to virgin media as BT wanted way too much money for the renew... Sadly virgin routers don't have a usb port😢

[@OrchestralChord]

Does this work on Virgin's Hub 5 / 3?

[@RamazanG]

The video worked, thanks. So how can I watch movies on the network drive in the Kodi app installed on the Android TV Box?

[@jackvanvoren]

I can save a Word document, but when I want to open this document I get a fault message.

[@ccdd24]

Window says i need smb 1 which is not secure and not allow access

[@BARNEY_1337]

Does this mean i can find this drive via my tv's if they have chromecasts or are connected to the same network ? As this would be very handy ...

[@mdyusufkhan101]

How do I open the pen drive on an Android TV ?

[@paulruffy8389]

Would be handy if worked between Linux and Windows? and Chrome OS?

[@rodfulford4306]

Can it be done on IOS for ipads etc

[@3D_Printing]

X Box and Playstation?

[@portlandchurch8127]

I had to enable SMB1 to get this to work. Is my system now insecure?

[@rexthewild]

Yes and no, normally SMB1 is an old standard, it's open for attacks, the virus "Wanna Cry" started with an infection at network level because somebody found an insecurity in the SMB1 standard...but the fact is... old/cheap equipment still use it... if you can not make something that will make your router support the latest SMB standard... it's impossible for you to use the usb from your router, but keep in mind that problably you don't have sensitive data on your pc, you just want some network storage and it's not likely for someone to come near your house and try to sneak a virus in your network.. it's for you to decide if it's worth the risk or not, my advice is to think about what the risks are, research a bit how the SMB1 was defeated and in what circumstances then think if you can avoid it.. and in the end think if you still wanna use it if is the only option

[@jameslonghorn5939]

once this is set up how do i access the drive from my smart tv?

[@Computroon]

Hi James. Instructions would be different for every make / model of TV. The option to "Cast to Device" is available though. Simply right-click on the media files and cast to your TV.

[@MrTipsoTV]

Thank you for the video, it's very informative & straight forward. How to map it on android tv?

[@ritikvermaji]

saved my 30 days and fixed a issue when i tried to connect to connect to my network storage it always opens in browser as new tab, i just mapped it as drive and bow everything is fixed.

[@stanleypoe7393]

I too, like many commenting here... cannot believe that I've not come across this "little 'hack' sooner" as I've been learning and earning using PCs and the Internet for many years now! QUESTION*: Can I place "a program" such as ACT! (a CRM software app') onto the router's USB port and then access and add content across my multiple network connected PCs? * I'm going to be trying this either wayI

[@JoeSmith-zu6lb]

The USB by default is formatted as exFAT. Do I need to format it as NTFS ? Which one is better?

[@Computroon]

Hi Joe. If you want to format the USB, right-click it when you see it in This PC. Choose Format and FAT32 usually works fine. Is it a USB stick or an external hard drive?

[@JoeSmith-zu6lb]

@@Computroon Hi, it's a USB stick. I plan on using it to record TV shows from an IPTV service.

[@waynesharp1690]

Can it be accessed remotely when I'm off the LAN?

[@9hints]

Can this work over mobile phones too?

[@darryljames0111]

Brilliant tutorial. Out of interest, would this format a drive full of existing media?

[@d0u6la5m]

how do i do this in linux?

[@valparry7071]

I set this up a few weeks back with no problems and then the brand new memory stick failed so I bought a new one. I have gone through the same methods again and when I type \\192.168.1.254 in the RUN dialogue box, the folder opens but says "This folder is empty"

[@sinkyboy2000]

I had exactly the same issue. Did you get this resolved?

[@FlyboyHelosim]

The new USB stick was probably formatted to a different file system, especially if a much bigger capacity than your previous one. The router seems to be picky about that.

[@LucasDaVoice]

HOW DO i MAP IT ON MY PHONE?

[@m0gga]

Great video, can you tell me if using an SSD as a storage device would overcome the power problem? Thanks.

[@Computroon]

Haven't tried but will suggest it will be fine to run SSD as there is no drive to spin. The concern with 2.5" external hard drives (HDD's) is that they are self powered. The port on your router will be sending out 5v power. Test this by connecting your mobile phone to it and see if it takes a charge (or at least lights up). Thing is, a 1TB USB stick is a fraction of the cost of a 1TB SSD so there's this to consider. Let us know how you get on with that.

[@moneybilla]

​@@Computroon 1tb uses cost bout the same if not more then an ssd mate as it's all flash in the end, unless you get a shitty ass USB ig

[@willhunter1457]

How do I setup a username and password for it?

[@blljonez4]

Hi, After entering the IP. address I got a warning that I could not connect as it is insecure, obsolete SMB1 protocol etc. Have I missed something? Or can I do something else to work around this? Thank you.

[@Computroon]

Hi Bill. How old is your router? You could enter the command to enable SMB1 protocol. I found this link with instructions to do that. Hopefully that helps. www.prajwaldesai.com/cant-connect-to-file-share-obsolete-smb1-protocol/

[@WltchDoct0r]

Bad advice! - Unless you want to open you're self up-to attacks, i would not recommend enabled SMB1 protocol this day n age. 😕

[@CrustyBiker]

@@WltchDoct0r what would you recommend? ... not doing this at all? ...as I get the same message..

[@derekaston145]

Did anyone get around this problem (without using SMB1).