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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBK53 - Add NAS Drive
I would like to add a NAS drive to my Orbi RBR50 router. I ran an ethernet cable from my NAS drive (it's a Western Digital My Book Live storage drive) to the Orbi router. I am not sure what other steps I need to take to see the NAS drive show up in my networks on my laptop computer. I am running Windows 10. Thanks!
4 Replies
okactuary wrote:
I would like to add a NAS drive to my Orbi RBR50 router. I ran an ethernet cable from my NAS drive (it's a Western Digital My Book Live storage drive) to the Orbi router. I am not sure what other steps I need to take to see the NAS drive show up in my networks on my laptop computer.
The Western Digital My Book has a USB interface and is intended to be connected directly to the Windows 10 computer. Yes, the original RBR50 Orbi router has a USB port on the back and back in 2016 there was a general expectation that at some point Netgear would release the ability to attach a USB hard drive and share it on the network as many other routers can do. Alas, that functionality never appeared. With version 2 of the RBR50, Netgear removed the USB port, and none of the other Orbi routers have one.
This has been a source of bitter disappointment over the years.
I used to be able to hook up a USB drive to my old router and I understand I cannot use the useless USB port on the Orbi router, but i was hoping there was some solution such that I could at least use one of the ethernet ports to still attach a hard drive somehow. Is there not any way to attach a data storage drive to the Orbi, or do I just have to use a totally different router that can support a NAS or USB drive? Thanks.
I found an article in the community that stated: "Yes, your Orbi WiFi System supports NAS. Connect your NAS device to the Ethernet port on your Orbi router or satellite." I did that, but I am not sure where I go from there. Thanks.
