Travel Technology - Wifi router with network drive

I have a need for a WiFi router (connected to my cable broadband) which allows us to also have a network drive available to all computers connected to the network from all over the house. I have a current old Linksys 802.11b router.

So I originally bought the D-Link DI-624/S 108Mbps 802.11g Broadband Router which provides 2 USB ports to which an external HDD can be attached and which can be set up as a network available drive. Unfortunately the D-Link did not allow me to VPN to my corp network (despite saying it supported VPN passthrough) and D-Link support was woeful. It was returned.

The only other WiFi router I could find which had this functionality was the Netgear WGT634U - but it has limitations of not supporting NTFS.

So is anyone aware of another similar product. And if not, does anyone have another solution to my requirements of a network drive - given that there is no computer being used in our house which is always attached to the network (they are all laptops with multi-purposes in and out of the home). Eg is there an adaptor which can make the USB external HDD we have into a an ethernet device?

Thanks

Umm I had a problem about 18 months ago with my cable connection - it would not support any form of VPN connection - apparently some cable operators (Telstra in my case) would not respond to "keepalive" messages to ensure the VPN session is maintained.

I had to switch to ADSL as a result...

(A huge thank you to NM for some great help on that front)

Linksys JUST announced a new one last week, wait a month or so...

FWIW; don't get their NSLU storage unit, it is terribly slow despite being USB2.0.

Try buffalotech.com. I have a 160GB Network Storage Center plugged into an ethernet port on the back of my wireless router. All of my PCs can access the drive via WiFi.

I have a terabyte of Ethernet disk space on my home LAN using Ximeta (http://www.ximeta.com) disks. So far I've been very happy with its performance.

FWIW; don't get their NSLU storage unit, it is terribly slow despite being USB2.0.


Hmmm, I'm using this at home and i haven't noticed that it is slow.

I do have problems with my "wired" computers occasionally not being able to see it though. This is a weird problem as the "wireless" computers can see it fine, but the "wired" ones occasionally loose track of it.

Linksys JUST announced a new one last week, wait a month or so...

FWIW; don't get their NSLU storage unit, it is terribly slow despite being USB2.0.

Thanks ScottC - I will await eagerly. I did consider NSLU but read it was slow.

To others, thanks for the suggestions but the problem is that we have just bought a 120gb external drive and I don't want more space - merely a way to put it on the network.

willyroo the problem is definitely not my ISP (Comcast) as I am currently using VPN with my linksys b router.

Why not just use a cheap PC as a server and a wireless router? You can get freeware Linux AP software if you look around. It's far more flexible than a Linksys device and easily repairable, upgradeable and expandable.

Linksys JUST announced a new one last week, wait a month or so...

FWIW; don't get their NSLU storage unit, it is terribly slow despite being USB2.0.

Well I just received my WRTSL54GS. Installed without much pain. Great recommendation SCottC.

I only have one problem. I have connected one of our laptops to the USB storage HDD connected to the router. But the other laptop cannot connect. After 45 mins on the phone with Linksys ( :rolleyes: ) I was told that it doesn't support access for computers on domains - in order to connect to the shared drive the router and the accessing computers need to be in the same WorkGroup. I complained they did not mention this in any of their documentation - and it would have been nice to know before I bought the item!.

Anyway, my laptop is corporate and is thus attached to the corp domain (under My Computer, Properties, IDentification). If I change it to a workgroup, as soon as I get back in the office or need to VPN in to corp network I need to be re-atached to the domain, which needs to be done by a Network ADmin (ie doesn't work when I am travelling). So I am stuck on the domain.

Any method around this for me? Any "emulation" tool that will allow me to "pretend" i am in a workgroup while maintaining my domain assignation? Workarunds?

Other than the above issue, everything about this product I like - so many options in the setup, it will take me months to understand them all.

Well I just received my WRTSL54GS. Installed without much pain. Great recommendation SCottC.

I only have one problem. I have connected one of our laptops to the USB storage HDD connected to the router. But the other laptop cannot connect. After 45 mins on the phone with Linksys ( :rolleyes: ) I was told that it doesn't support access for computers on domains - in order to connect to the shared drive the router and the accessing computers need to be in the same WorkGroup. I complained they did not mention this in any of their documentation - and it would have been nice to know before I bought the item!.

Anyway, my laptop is corporate and is thus attached to the corp domain (under My Computer, Properties, IDentification). If I change it to a workgroup, as soon as I get back in the office or need to VPN in to corp network I need to be re-atached to the domain, which needs to be done by a Network ADmin (ie doesn't work when I am travelling). So I am stuck on the domain.

Any method around this for me? Any "emulation" tool that will allow me to "pretend" i am in a workgroup while maintaining my domain assignation? Workarunds?

Other than the above issue, everything about this product I like - so many options in the setup, it will take me months to understand them all.

Well in case anyone is interested, I found the solution myself:

When on a domain, one does not need to switch to a workgroup in order to access the resources on that workgroup. One simply needs to use the following command:

net use x: \\computername\sharename /user:computername\username <enter>

(and then enter applicable password)

Check this out. Everything but wireless.....

www.yellowmachine.com

1TB storage, 8 port switch and router with firewall.

Well in case anyone is interested, I found the solution myself:

When on a domain, one does not need to switch to a workgroup in order to access the resources on that workgroup. One simply needs to use the following command:

net use x: \\computername\sharename /user:computername\username <enter>

(and then enter applicable password)
Glad you found a work around. This brings up memories of OS/2...