How do I connect my external harddisk to a wireless router?

Question

How do I connect my 500 GB external harddisk (Western Digital) to a wireless router and access the harddisk wirelessly from my laptop at home?

I have a Western Digital 500 GB My Book hard-disk. There are two ports available for USB2.0 cables and one for Firewire.

I have a D-Link 802.11g wireless router in my house to access internet wirelessly.

Is it possible to hook up my harddisk to the wireless router and access the contents of my harddisk from my laptop wirelessly?

Answer 1

you would have to have a networkable hard drive.

They are called NATs "Network Attached Storage" and they plug into a normal cat5 cable

Answer 2

Does you router have a connection for USB drives and does it have the functionality to do that? If not (and probably not) you'll need to get another device that will plug into your router.

The device would be a network storage device, and the come in wired and wired/wireless configurations. Basically, you put your drive in this device and then it plugs into the network just like another machine.

I've got a wireless network storage device (dlink gsm-g600) which allow me to have an internal disk (320gb) and two external usb disks (320gb and 160gb) all accessable to the network. You can find several other makers of these devices as well.

Answer 3

Well see Routers aren't made for making single devices wireless its just to make a sharing network and Internet not to share a drive off of .... you could just connect the External Hardrive to your main computer and right click and select Security and Sharing and make it shared and apply...therefore, you can access it from your laptop..

Answer 4

Hook it to an USB port on a wired connected computer, and then access it wirelessly from the laptop.

Answer 5

You cannot plug it into your wireless router, routers are not made to do that.