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Topic: Hanging A Hard Drive Off My Belkin N+ Router USB Port? |
Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 11:07 am |
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Currently I have a backup drive that is attached to my desktop computer (XP) through one of the the desktop's USB ports. It works great and I can access it also from my laptop (Win7) by sharing it.
Is there any advantage to moving this backup drive from my desktop to the Belkin N+ router's usb port. I was hoping that maybe the transfers from my laptop to the backup (hard drive) wold be faster if they didn't have to go through the desktop as well.
Greg |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 11:26 am
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Looks like I answered my own question with a blurb from one of the Router's reveiews:
As with the Linksys routers, the Plus' file sharing is pretty slow, with read and non-cached writes measuring around 2 MB/s, even with a gigabit Ethernet client. I'll note that the Storage light on the Plus' front panel is the only light that flashes to indicate activity!
Besides being a bit slow, it also does not provide any sharing management.
Looking at the speed of the USB 2.0 drive, here's a few notes:
"How fast is USB 2.0?
USB 2.0 has a raw data rate at 480Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than its predecessor interface, USB 1.1, which tops at 12Mbps. Originally, USB 2.0 was intended to go only as fast as 240Mbps, but in October 1999, USB 2.0 Promoter Group pumped up the speed to 480Mbps.
As far as we know, effective rate reaches at 40MBps or 320Mbps for bulk transfer on a USB 2.0 hard drive with no one else is sharing the bus."
Greg
Last edited by Greg Cutshaw on 16 Jan 2010 11:30 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 11:30 am
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Greg;
Using your router with an external drive will require the external enclosure to be a network storage device, with a built-in NIC. Or, the router will have to contain an operating system to drive traffic to and from a USB disk drive. What model is your router? Does the documentation mention anything about whether or not it contains a means of controlling USB disk drives, for use as Network Storage Devices?
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 11:46 am
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Greg;
Here is what Belkin's Storage features are and how Cnet appraised them...
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Although the N+ lets you connect an external USB hard drive, it is, in fact, not a full-featured NAS server. You will not be able to manage the external drive--including creating share folders and access privileges--through its Web interface, as you can with the Linksys WRT610N.
The N+ comes with the Belkin Storage Manager desktop application that makes it easy for you to access the connected external hard drive. Once you have plugged a USB hard drive into the router, the BSM application takes about 10 seconds to detect it and create a network drive mapped to it. Any computers in the network with the BSM application installed have full access to the entire hard drive's content, simultaneously. If you shut down the BSM application, the mapped network drive will be disconnected.
Alternatively, you can also access the storage without the having to install the BSM application by using the IP address of the router. However, novice users definitely want to stick to using the desktop application.
The N+'s storage function supports FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems and worked very well with thumbdrives. When we tried it with a few USB external hard drives, it was hit or miss. Most worked well, but the OWC mercury wasn't ever recognized. |
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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John Cipriano
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 16 Jan 2010 4:33 pm
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The main advantage of using the router would be that you don't have to keep your computer on all of the time. Also, you don't have to carry around the external drive. So, mostly convenience and maybe a little energy savings.
The speed ratings for USB are ideal ratings. But in reality an embedded device might not be able to keep up with something that has a beefier CPU (unfortunately USB transfers put some load on the CPU).
Anyway, in my mind the convenience is more important than the speed. When my WRT burns out (if ever) I will replace it with one that has USB ports. I'd love to be able to do backups wirelessly, even if I have to run them overnight. |
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