Wireless Storage Device

S

sparticus

Expert Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
2,252
Reaction score
69
Location
Western Cape
Hi Guys ,

I am looking for a wireless storage device. I would like to be able to connect to this device from my laptop , tv , SII and tablets (my kids have these no name 7 inches). Any advice ?

Thanks
 
Most of Wifi routers/AP's with USB port. These are for shared printer or mass storage device, less frequent for 3G WAN.

Pick up one in your price range, read specification and post here if any doubts.
 
sajunky said:
Most of Wifi routers/AP's with USB port. These are for shared printer or mass storage device, less frequent for 3G WAN.

Pick up one in your price range, read specification and post here if any doubts.
Click to expand...

My home Telkom router has a USB , so u saying I should be able to connect a Hard drive to it and connect wirelessly to it ?
 
I have the Dlink DSL-2750U. It has the USB for 3g or storage device. You plug in your exhdd in the router and some of them needs some configuration, like user access policies/user accounts.
 
sparticus said:
Hi Guys ,

I am looking for a wireless storage device. I would like to be able to connect to this device from my laptop , tv , SII and tablets (my kids have these no name 7 inches). Any advice ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Depends on how reliable you want it to be, and how much you are prepared to spend on it.

You could use the USB port on your router, but I would not put money on it performing particularly well, since most routers do not have terribly much horsepower to spare for such things.

For a relatively small amount (~R1400), you could probably still find an N40L microserver in the channel somewhere (no longer being built by HP, but still perfect as a NAS), or a somewhat more powerful/pricey (~R1900) N54L microserver which is replacing the N40L. In terms of network attached storage, the microservers are the best bang for the buck I've found.
 
If you decide to go the NAS route, these QNAP devices have a lot of nice features. Probably easier to set up than a Microserver and around the same price for the single disc version. As with the microserver, you'll need a wireless router or access point as well. EDIT: Missed you're post earlier where you said you had a wireless router so you're sorted there.
 
Last edited:
Bear in mind that any device your connect to your home router or access point automatically becomes "wireless" to all your other devices.

I see so many people running out and spending a fortune on wireless enabled devices, just to plug them in with an Ethernet cable.

I would also highly recommend the HP Microserver route.
 
Use a NAS, either build one from the ground up with old pc parts (hardest option), buy a microserver and put a HDD in it (easier) or buy a pre built NAS unit from QNAP or Synology (easiest)
 
InvisibleJim said:
If you decide to go the NAS route, these QNAP devices have a lot of nice features. Probably easier to set up than a Microserver and around the same price for the single disc version. As with the microserver, you'll need a wireless router or access point as well. EDIT: Missed you're post earlier where you said you had a wireless router so you're sorted there.
Click to expand...

Wow I like !!! I just realized though after reading through this that I have a dual core PC just lying around. Would I be able to build that up a bit and use it as a server ? I reckon that seems the better way of doing it as I can use that pc as my download centre as well.
 
sparticus said:
Wow I like !!! I just realized though after reading through this that I have a dual core PC just lying around. Would I be able to build that up a bit and use it as a server ? I reckon that seems the better way of doing it as I can use that pc as my download centre as well.
Click to expand...

Sure, put 1 or more disks into it, install an OS, share the disks, and you would be fine.
 
Last edited:
Hi There,
If you want to have a large mount of storage then the NAS route would be an effective one.
I have used very successfully too, the USB solution. It is particularly good when I want to have access to common files e.g. WiFi settings. It could certainly work well if the volume is not too large and the router can handle the requests. I would wpect it to certainly be able to stream a video file to at least one PC. Why not try streaming to a couple of PC's and see what the effect is on others from a networking perspective.

Regards

Tim
 
Seagate has the Wireless Plus drives, but their a tad expensive imo - approx. R3050 for the 1TB locally
Features wireless and USB 3.0, 1TB 2.5" HDD, 10-hour battery life
 
This is my humble setup: I download movie torrents with the uTorrent app on my Samsung Galaxy S. Then I transfer the files over wifi to my Western Digital MyBook Live 3TB (the WDBACG0030HCH model). This is connected to my TP-Link router, so I can access the drive from my tablet, smartphone, laptop and my smart TV. Works very well. Bought it online for R1975 including delivery. If you want to stream movies from your android phone to your wifi-enabled TV, I highly recommend installing the Pixel-dms media server on your phone. Works brilliantly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X