I have an old N600 (WNDR3400V2) router laying around unused, and I'd like to know if I can use it as a wireless NAS w/its USB drive connection.
I'd like to have the N600 connect up to my existing router via wireless ( but I can wire it if that's easier). I don't want the N600 to do any routing... just function as a NAS device for my existing local network.
Can this be done, and if so, anybody willing to walk me through the steps for setting it up?
Setup would require you to connect a PC to the N600's network (either its ethernet or its wifi).
If you connect the ethernet to the N600's WAN port then you should be able to access it over HTTP or FTP. You'd need configure the N600 to allow this access over the internet (since as far as the N600 knows, you would be doing that when you access it from your normal network). Then access it using the IP address you see for the N600 in your main router.
You wouldn't get the normal Windows File Sharing (SMB). But the N600 only supports SMB 1 anyway, which is being deprecated by both Microsoft and Apple.
The other option is connect everything on your home network to the N600 (using its wifi and ethernet LAN). Then connect the WAN port of the N600 to a LAN port of the ISP router. But the N600 is really old (10 years I think), and your ISP router is likely much faster.
Back-to-back routing works ok, but you do need to do a couple of extra steps when port forwarding.
My current setup is a cable modem + tplink M5 mesh network.
The M5 does have another ethernet port available, but I was hoping for a way to attach the N600 to it as just a NAS while having everything else use the M5 mesh, and still have the old "\\readyshare" connection to the USB storage on the N600.
