Network Attached Storage

A recent sale on Amazon had significant price reductions on NAS drives by Synology, Western Digital and Seagate. Buyers should be suspicious about bargain prices. In this case, the fact is that hard disk drives (HDD) are quickly becoming obsolete in favor of solid state drives (SSD). The cost of SSD’s has literally plummeted in recent months.

An NAS drive offers several benefits. First, it is that second location for all the digital stuff that you don’t want to lose and should be backed up. Second, since it is on your network, it can accessed by any computer on your network without attachments or cables.

So how do we take a low cost, high capacity SSD with a USB connector and use it as a network drive? The trick is to connect it to an inexpensive travel router. These gadgets cost from $25 to $40. Yes, they are designed for hotel rooms, but they are suitable for home use as short range routers. Not all of these have USB ports so be careful in your shopping.

Setting your WiFi connection to the travel router will not immediately include your network, however most models feature a “bridge” mode to further connect to your network. With the USB storage plugged in, we now have a low cost NAS. Manage the content of the NAS with a file manager. It’s local IP address will identify it on your local network.

My first test of this concept used an older model HooToo TripMate (TM 02) router. This cost less than $25 about six years ago. The test was successful. I decided to upgrade the equipment and I purchased a tp-link AC750 at a cost of $40. As expected, this model resulted in a greater range and greater speed. I recommend it.

UPDATE: The tp-link AC750 has a default password “admin”. The Linux OS’s that I use require passords of at least 8 characters. I changed the password using an Android tablet. The older TripMate TM-02 has an 8 character default password “11111111”. The interface to the router is not pretty, but is easily configured. Linux users may prefer this or a similar model.