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Forum Discussion
LRBob
May 22, 2019Aspirant
R7800 Hard Drive Options
I have been using a Netgear R7800 router for about a year and have had no issues with it. I haven't dug into the additional features or this equipment but would like to start using it to help with b...
- May 23, 2019
Good question, but I'm afraid there is no right answer or one-size-fits-all answer.
This is a personal choice and monetary questions actually, as well as how do you intend to use it?
In my case, first I already had the drives, both USB 2.0 and 3.0. They were attached to our PC's. 2 and 4TB WD's self-powered. Neither was really being used fully. That drove me to putting one on the router was I had some DVD's I ripped and put them on the drive and was sharing them from my PC to the iPad's and SmartTV. Only problem, PC had to be on all the time, so I moved that drive to the Router, made it easier for me. I also backed up from the PC's our pictures. We do make local backups on our 2 main PC's and occasionally I'll move one to the USB router drive as well. Basically the drive is used access only, and not being written to it most of the time, only rarely. It works for me at a minimum cost.
Many people actively use the drive it seems. As far as I can tell, if you are going to 'actively' use the drive, a NAS is the way to go, mostly because of access write speed. Sure storage space is larger, but so is the cost.
I suspect on a NAS you can get better control of access as well. We do have guests and family that connect to the LAN and I've password protected the main drive and created a share for the video's anyone can use. I'd have liked to password protected them too, but many DLNA clients can't handle that.
Don't forget, you've got 2 USB ports on most routers, and at least in my case I can have 2 4TB's on-line.
Right now, only a 2TB on the router (USB 2.0, speed is not a write concern to me), I've got about 800GB's of files, 6600 of them. Movies all ripped to other formats, 172 of them in various sizes (some small home stuff from camcorder), about 300GB's. Pictures, 6400 of them for 39GB's. The Acronis backup copies take up most of the space.
Right now I've got a USB 3.0 4TB drive not in use I can add if I need more space.
As I said, your situation might be different. If nothing else, and either you have a drive or want to spend a minimal amount, 4TB External Desktop drives are really cheap these days, might be worth a try. From your description of what you intend to do, it does sort of match mine?
myersw
May 31, 2019Master
IrvSp wrote:schumaku, yeah, but at this time in NG's coding expertise I'd rather they not mess with changing that... I can just seem them changing the code to allow you to use what you want for a UserID and then once released NO ONE can log onto the router's :-)
One more time lack of testing and QA raises it's ugly head. Netgear is such a steaming pile of you know what right now and has been for months back.
Video with David Henry is such a joke. Senior VP of Connected Home. According to him you configure and forget put on shelf and forget, never to be touched after initial configuration. Not sure what he is smoking. He obviously has not been following the forums. Probably kept in a closet and brought out to shill the next "big" product.
Totally agree with being able to change the user ID. Make things more secure. DD-WRT has had this feature for years.
IrvSp
May 31, 2019Master
myersw wrote:
IrvSp wrote:schumaku, yeah, but at this time in NG's coding expertise I'd rather they not mess with changing that... I can just seem them changing the code to allow you to use what you want for a UserID and then once released NO ONE can log onto the router's :-)
One more time lack of testing and QA raises it's ugly head. Netgear is such a steaming pile of you know what right now and has been for months back.
I did NOT say this happened, I only made a comment, with today's reliability and quality control of NG's firmware, IF they did implement that change what MIGHT be fubar'ed the way they do things now.