I have a Western Digital MyBook USB drive connected to my wireless modem/router. It's not showing up on my system, i.e., in Finder [Path Finder]. How do I access it?
Or maybe this is a question for my ISP [AT&T U-verse}?
Thanks,
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Will an external hard drive formatted with OS Extended plug into a new wireless router with USB support...and work?
Make sure the router is setup properly to place the USB connected drive on your LAN then in OS X Finder click the Go menu item then Connect to Server entry and type in SMB://And the Name the router gives the drive or the IP address of the router. You also have to have Windows sharing (SMB) turned on in the Sharing section of System Preferences under the Option button for file sharing.
Not sure how to do the first thing, i.e., make sure the router is setup to put the drive on the LAN. I'll be checking the documentation from my ISP. If that doesn't address the issue I'll give the ISP support a call.
Thanks,
What brand of Router do you have. Most all routers have setup pages that are accessed from a web broswer. That is all of them I have ever worked with except the Apple routers that you need a special program to access them with.
So open a web broswer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome (whichever you use), and type in the Address bar 192.168.1.1 (Which is the IP address of most all routers made) and hit the Enter/Return key. You will then get a Username and Password window. Type in the password for the router (if you don't know it it should be on a label on the side of the box or you can find out the default password by either a Google search or the user manual for that brand router) and again hit the Enter/Return key or Click OK/Login button.
Once you are in the setup pages of the router go to the advanced section (if there is one) and then something like Attached storage or something simailar. In there you willl have options to use the USB port for a external drive or maybe a printer. Set it to be used for a drive and a Name will be listed as how you access it.
Thanks. Turns oiut that the address for my router was 192.168.1.254. When I got there found no way to add the USB port/drive. Threw in the towel and called U-verse support. Was told that that port is for AT&T use only, e.g., in upgrading firmware. I wonder about that but am accepting it for the moment.
I'm trying to set up an inexpensive backup system that would be accessible wirelessly. In addition to the USB drive I have two daisy-chained firewire drives that I connect to via a thunderbolt adapter. Id love to find a router that has onboard storage [hd or ssd], a couple of usb ports, and a couple other ports [firewire or thunderbolt]. Imagine the latter is unlikely. LaCie was making something called they Wireless Space that had the other features, but apparently they've stopped; it's not even available on Amazon.
Last, a question, that put to U-verse technical support, the answer to which I also wonder about: Could I replace the router provided by at&t with another? They said no. Really?
Thanks for the generouse responses.
Sincerely,
I suggest you get yourself your own WiFi router that has a Drive/Printer USB port and set that UVerse box into some type of Bridged Ethernet mode to pass down the WAN/Internet IP to your own router. Or disable the WiFi in the UV box and then connect your own router as a Switch with WiFi Access point and connect your extrnal drive to that.
For more info on how to do all that go to DSLreports.com and then the AT&T forums.
Just like AT&T to disable, limit, what you can do with that port. Never heard of using a USB port for updating firmware on any router or modem/router combo box. Usually that ios done through the web page interface of the router.
Yes IF the router supports drives formatted in the Mac OS X format. I don't know if it does or doesn't. Look at the documentation for the router.
I have a drive connected to my wireless router's USB port that's accessible by both Mavericks and Windows7 on Parallels (in fact, by all computers and even tablets and smartphones through http). I never had any problems with it, until I upgraded to Mavericks: the link to it in the left side of Finder stops working and there's no way to connect again using Go. When that happens, I can still access it through the browser using the IP address of the router and clicking on the http link on the USB section of the interface and also normally through Windows, so I'm thinking it might be a Mavericks bug that will hopefully be fixed soon.
Accessing hard drive on wireless router
