- #Home network router nas vs external hard drive how to
- #Home network router nas vs external hard drive software
- #Home network router nas vs external hard drive download
RELATED: How to Turn an Old PC Into a Home File Server But they’re particularly convenient if you want to insert more than one hard drive into your NAS and get a much larger amount of storage. Or, if you already have some old internal hard drives lying around, you can easily turn them into NAS storage without spending too much. These can potentially be cheaper if you can get a decent deal on the hard drives. They generally don’t come with any built-in drives. You’ll need to buy an appropriate hard drive (or multiple hard drives) separately and insert them into the NAS to get the storage you’ll need to use it. These are dedicated NAS devices with the appropriate server software, designed to be connected to a network. Rather than buying a pre-made NAS or attempting to use your router as a NAS, you can always buy a network-attached drive enclosure.
External hard drives can get a much larger speed improvement from USB 3.0 than typical USB flash drives can.
You can get much faster speeds if you use a USB 3.0 external drive along with a router with a USB 3.0 port, though. This is often a pretty good option, although it may be a bit slow if you’re using USB 2.0 drives - especially compared to internal drives. Many, many routers - especially the higher-end ones, as the low-end, bottom-of-the-barrel ones don’t want to splurge on USB hardware and the extra software - include USB ports so they can function as a NAS in this way. You can enable the NAS server from your router’s web interface and set everything up.įor Apple users, the standard AirPort Extreme wireless router works this way, offering a USB port you can connect external drives to you.
#Home network router nas vs external hard drive software
Plug an external hard drive or even a USB flash drive (preferably not a flash drive if you intend on using it heavily) into the USB port. The router has built-in NAS software that can do the rest, exposing it to the network as a NAS. Quite a few routers - especially higher-end ones - include USB ports. Many routers don’t include built-in hard drives, but they do offer something almost as good. RELATED: 10 Useful Options You Can Configure In Your Router's Web Interface
But upgrading can be a smart idea if your router is older and doesn’t support the latest-and-greatest Wi-Fi networking standards and their faster speeds and lower Wi-Fi interference. Of course, if you’re happy with your existing router, you shouldn’t need to grab an entirely new one. RELATED: The Best External Hard Drives of 2022
#Home network router nas vs external hard drive download
It’s compatible with Windows as well, although you’ll need to download the Airport utility software to manage it or access the hard drive. Because the hard drive is internal, you don’t have to deal with the slow USB 2.0 speeds that you might get connecting an external drive to another router. This may be the most well-known type of router with a built-in hard drive, but there are many similar routers available to those not interested in Apple products, too.Įditor’s Note: At the How-To Geek office we use (and recommend) the 3TB AirPort Time Capsule to backup our Macs and the 802.11ac Wi-Fi access is blazing fast everywhere. These devices function as your typical network router, but they also have all that fancy NAS server software and a built-in hard drive so you can get a NAS without adding yet another device to your household.įor Apple users, Apple’s AirPort Time Capsule is a wireless router with built-in network storage that Macs can easily back up to and use for network file-sharing. Rather than getting a dedicated NAS device and tacking it on to all your other devices, you can actually buy higher-end Wi-Fi routers that come with built-in hard drives. RELATED: The Best NAS (Network Attached Storage) Devices Many types of back-up software can back up directly to the network storage. You can then access the files using a variety of different applications and even run different bits of software on the NAS itself, such as media-server solutions for streaming media and BitTorrent clients for downloading directly on the device. Generally, such devices can be controlled via a web interface, like your router can be. They’re all-in-one solutions so you can just grab a box, plug it in, and start using it. Essentially, these devices have built-in hard drives and some basic server software that can connect to your Wi-Fi or wired network and provide a NAS file server. Alternatively, you can just read our guide to buying the best NAS device. Head to a website like Amazon and perform a search for “NAS” and you’ll find a bunch of devices marketed as a home file or media servers. The most obvious - though not necessarily best - way to get a NAS is just to buy a pre-made, ready-to-use NAS device.
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