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Basic USB connection help, R7000
Hello, I have read through a ton of USB-related posts, I'm a slightly computer literate user and cannot find answers in the PDF manual nor in many, many threads RE USB connection issues.
So I ask, after I plug a USB device into the front (USB3) port on my R7000WIFI router, and watch the little white light fire up showing that it is recognized by the R7000, what happens next? Is my windows 10 supposed to find the drive, like a plug and play device?
Or do I have to seek out the share name through the router interface, copy/paste it into a run box, and find it that way?
That works for me, I have connection, and then I can map the network drive which allows me to re-connect if I plug the drive in again.
I have been testing with a thumb drive. Several thumb drives. They all work, contrary to problems that I have discovered in numerous threads, on different forums.
I wonder if some people are simply unaware that you must direct windows to the drive in some way, like typing the share name into a run box.
I have not seen that basic instruction in many places, and it took me nearly a day to figure it out.
I think this thread might serve as instructions to other semi-literate users who are simply unclear on the issue; the USB ports on your Nighthawk router just might not be plugandplay.
Thanks for any help.
Morels wrote:I do not have SMBv1 enabled on my windows 10 machine, (ver 1809, build 17763.615) and I have no problem connecting to the R7000.
Wthout the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client feature, there is no NetBIOS name resolution and no NetBIOS based discovery. Netgear has still not implemented WS-Discovery which would substitute this requirement.
Morels wrote:But if I try to network an old XP machine, I get an error meassage that specifies the SMBv1 issue.
No idea what SMPv1 issue you talk about - show a message, a screenshot, whatever.
XP is - with a few exceptions - for embedded solutions dead and no longer maintained for consumers, updates are not available to the public anymore.
Morels wrote:Perhaps Netgear has addressed the SMBv1 issue with firmware updates. I have no idea how to check which SMB version the R7000 is using.
Some routers have got SMB 2.x and SMB 3.0 transport protocol. However nothing that does supersede NetBIOS. Thus \\[IP-address]\ and \\[IP-address]\[sharedfolder] can work, but nothing that requires a name resolution like \\readyshare or ping readyshare ...
Morels wrote:It all works, clumsy though. My reason for posting was to find out if it is clumsy by design, which now I see that seems to be the case. In addition, I hoped to put some info out there for others of my level in network skills, that is, not much. I had no idea what \\readyshare means, and I don't think I am alone in that.
\\readyshare does address a host announced on the network (or in business environments \\[servername] it's DNS) named readyshare - or whatever the Nighthawk owner might have configured - accessing it form an application does call for the enumeration of the available shared folders.
There should be no network skills required. It's not a secret that I don't agree with the absent WD-discovery on the Netgear consumer devices (in place e.g. on ReadyNAS OS 6) - making noise almost every week again (if not every day). This is what makes the installation of the Windows 10 SMB 1.0/CIFS feature mandatory - it was removed from existing Windows 10 installations if not used for a certain time, or isn't installed on new scratch installs of current Windows 10 systems - when you expect the full functionality on your Nightawk router ReadyShare feature for your Windows 10 system(s).
19 Replies
Morels wrote:I have not seen that basic instruction in many places, and it took me nearly a day to figure it out.
Start with the manual and the section Share USB Devices Attached to the Router.
>>>> R7000 | Product | Support | NETGEAR <<<<
Thank you for the reply, michaelkenward
I did try reading the manual, and got stuck on page 65 where it says:
"To access the USB drive from a Windows computer:
1. Select Start > Run.
2. Enter \\readyshare in the dialog box and click the OK button."After I typed \\readyshare in the run box, I received an error message:
"Windows cannot access readyshare"
Details:
"error code 80070035
The network path was not found"
For the sake of learning more about this connection question, I moved to the next step, which makes reference to an exe file. I was then thinking that perhaps there is additional software neccessary:
"To map the USB device to a Windows network drive:
1. Visit (netgear website)
2. In the ReadySHARE USB Storage Access pane, click PC Utility.
The readyshareconnect.exe file is downloaded to your computer.3. Launch readyshareconnect.exe.
4. Select the drive letter to map to the network folder.
5. (Optional) If you want to connect to the USB drive as a different user, select the Connect
using different credentials check box.
a. Type the user name and password.
b. Click the OK button.
6. Click the Finish button.
The USB drive is mapped to the drive letter that you specified."I visited the neatgear.com site.
I could not find the "ReadySHARE USB Storage Access pane."
Nor a "PC Utility."
Not even a "readyshareconnect.exe"
Hmm. I entered my model number, looked through the available downloads, etc. I used the search function on the site. Nothing.
As I explained in my original post, I did eventually discover a way to connect. I have to find the share name of the USB device through the router interface. That is available through the Basic tab, Home page, click the Readyshare tile and it shows avaiable USB devices. The first column shows the share name.
Then it is simple to paste it into a run box and access the device. I am wondering though, is this the intended method for accessing a drive connected via USB to the R7000? Once I am connected of course, I know that I can map the drive.
The instructions in the manual did not help me very much.
Netgear is still stuck (on the routers, extenders, ...) to NetBIOS device discovery and name resolution, and most of these consumer devices don't support anything but SMB 1.0 transport protocol. Both requires having the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client feature installed on the Windows 10 system. Plus the network location must be set to a private - not public - network. So we're still waiting for current SAMBA sharing file system support, and the addition of WS-Discovery - and htis feature would not be required.
Once done so, the router READYSHARE (or however it was renamed) should show up in the Windows 10 Explorer in Network - from here you can browse to the shared folders, no need to find the configured shared folder names:
Sometimes, it does not show up immediately here, it can take a minute or so after connecting to the network. You can manually enter the \\readyshare (casing does not matter) in the Start menu or direct in the Windows Explorer.
