How to share Hard Disk over network by connecting it to the home router

Cloud is the best way to share your file archive from any device, but as we know, it’s not totally secure. If we have sensitive files such as photos or work documents, it is better to store them on a physical hard disk. But this solution does not allow you to share files on different computers or mobile devices. This is not totally true, because there is a way to share Hard Disk on the network.

It’s a solution you want but you do not know how to do it? Want to share files on your network that you have stored on your external hard drive to open them from all devices?

To do this it is not necessary to face huge expenses by buying new products, but the modem router you have at home may suffice. As? Read on and discover how to connect your external hard drive to the network quickly and easily.

How to share Hard Disk over network by connecting it to the home router

If you want to share your files with other devices connected to your home or office LAN or Wi-Fi, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, in fact, I will show you how to share hard disk on the network so you can make content available with other devices (TV, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.).

All you need will be a router that you surely already have at home and more, probably, what you have at home will be just fine. In fact, it is enough that the router has at least one USB port in the back (better if USB 3.0, recognize the blue color of the contacts). Nowadays pretty much all modern modem-routers have one, so you should not have any problems.

To connect Hard Disk to your router, your modem router must be equipped with one or more USB ports. In this case, you can proceed by connecting your external disk of any size directly to the router.

Please note, if your Hard Disk is particularly demanding in terms of energy, the router’s USB port may not provide enough power for proper operation. For this reason, I recommend using a Hard Disk with external power supply. Only then you will have no energy problem when you connect the hard drive to the router.

After connecting with a network cable, to share Hard Disk on the network you will have to access the configuration panel of your router and activate the sharing services. To do so, just open any internet browser on any device connected to the network (both Wi-Fi and via LAN) and type in the search bar of your browser the IP address of your router. Typically, the IP address varies depending on the router, but the most used are 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.0.1.

Once you have entered the router’s control panel, you may be asked to use usarname (usually admin) and password (usually there is no default password so just do not write anything or repeat admin). If the login data is not these standards, then you can find them in the router manual. Alternatively, you will need to check the label on the bottom or back of the device.

Once in the configuration panel of your router, you will have to do is look for the item File Sharing, or Disk Sharing, or FTP, or USB, or USB Hard Disk or similar to access the features reserved for file sharing on the net and enable them.

By doing so, you will make the entire unit connected to the router visible to other devices connected to the network, which can edit, read and create new files or folders, just as if it were a unit in the system. Connecting external hard disk to the router is a solution that guarantees the security of your data and at the same time can replace a cloud service for sharing files on other devices.

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