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I purchased the Netgear AC1900 router in 2016 because I needed 802.11ac WiFi for a new laptop (windows 8). I hooked a USB hard drive (2TB) to the router for storing common files (mostly music and videos). The only computers I had on the system were Windows 7 and Windows 8. Everything was fine.
I recently added a Windows 10 machine and this machine cannot access the drive (//readshare/USB_Storage) consistently. For the last two weeks I cannot get any access.
Now I have computer experience, but not detailed. I am slowly becoming the average usage who just expects things to work. From the forum, I see that this issue has to do with the router is expecting to use something called SMB1 and Windows 10 has stopped supporting SMB1 for the more secure SMB3 (or SMB2 I am not sure).
From the fourms, I have tried to figure out exactly what to do to fix this issue. Nothing was clear to the me.
Netgear only gives 90 day support (long time past). Could someone give me some clear directions on how to fix this issue? I prefer not to go and have to purchase a new router with the hope it will fix the issue.
Thanks, but that is not the issue. The USB drive works with the router, Windows 7 and Window 8 can read and write with no issues. IT is the new laptop which has Windows 10 that can not access the USB drive.
The only issues I've personally had with USB/external SSD's etc not working initially on my own Windows 10 laptop, is because they weren't formatted correctly. I recently had an issue trying to get my Wife's iPad on os13, to see an external SSD I'd bought for her. I'd formatted on my W10 laptop as NTFS which wouldn't work with her iPad. Changed the format to xFAT or FAT32 and it promptly worked.
I hope someone comes up with a workable solution for you.
Well this seems like it will work (I am not at home), but it is from 2017 and Netgear has not fixed the issue as of the last software update (Firmware Version 1.0.9.88 Aug 2019). Given that this is over 2 years old, it look like they never will.
As someone who will not get into the depth of networking, it looks like I need to find a router that does not use SMBv1.
I recently had an issue trying to get my Wife's iPad on os13, to see an external SSD I'd bought for her. I'd formatted on my W10 laptop as NTFS which wouldn't work with her iPad. Changed the format to xFAT or FAT32 and it promptly worked.
Any Netgear ReadyShare router/ReadyNAS supported file system is workable over the network. The access is done using SMB protocol, which makes it fully independent. Different from direct connected devices, where eg. a Windows system can't work with Apple HFS+ (AppleFS isn't supported yet by Netgear) resp. an MacOS/iPadOS which can't work with NTFS as a direct access storage, this does not matter.
Ok, this does not include possible bugs of the foreign file systems implementations like NTFS, HFS+, [exFAT ... not officially supported AFAIK], FAT32 (the routers are all Linux), or file system errors which can be fixed using a file system check (what requires a system with a native support for the file system on the external device.
As someone who will not get into the depth of networking, it looks like I need to find a router that does not use SMBv1.
The SMBv1 warning was almost obsolete when that referenced post was published. The ransomware issues allowing the non-authenticated access regardless of the config was fixed. There was (and is) even more false hype in the net than on SARS-CoV-2.
Then, a client capable of using higher SMB protocol levels does automatically negotiate to thre highest version available on the client and the server. This is not the reason for disabling SMB 1.0 on the routers supporting higher protocol versions.
Reality check: How many ReadyShare routers and NAS using SAMBA and have configured shared folders with anonymous/guest access not requiring usename and password protection? Using the latest and greatest SMBv3.x won't protect you here....
Conclude: Very bad idea to warm up known faux information here.
There is no need to throw away a router with an updated SAMBA installation against these ransomware vulbnerabilities!!!
Well this seems like it will work (I am not at home), but it is from 2017 and Netgear has not fixed the issue as of the last software update (Firmware Version 1.0.9.88 Aug 2019).
I linked back to a post from 2017 because it explains what to do. Not much has changed since then on the "fix" you can apply.
Why should Netgear do a firmware update?
Do you have any evidence that this is a serious security issue?
Some people might complain that it is a Microsoft problem.
The vulnerability was indeed an issue which hit both Microsoft and the SAMBA implementation. Netgear has addressed the issue on most newer routers within more or less reasonable time.
People seem to expect that Netgear would add SMB 2.0/2.1 and SMB 3.0 at least. Most of these users don't understand that the bigger problem for many is the absence of the NetBIOS discovery and name resolution - what does require the installation of the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client feature on Windows 10. SMB 2.x would add much better performance over the Internet (read: over VPN), SMB 3.0 introduced Jumbo Frame support (Netgear consumer router customers are still left back dreaming of JF on the LAN), and offers some optional encryption (hitting the performance again). SMB 1.0 is in its current implementation reasonable secure for using in a consumer home or SOHO environment. Yes, some router models got the higher SMB protocol implementation. The effective missing part is WSD - odd as Netgear developer has implemented a very small footprint version for embedded systems.
Your points are well taken. I don't know if this is a security issue. I have to depend on what others tell me and determine how much to believe (please do not take offense). You have superuser listed, so I am am putting more weight to your words. I will probably go into my Windows 10 laptop and turn on SMBv1.
May I ask how I protect the USB drive from the outside world ?
May I ask how I protect the USB drive from the outside world ?
Some people find it difficult to make their USB drives visible to the outside world, even when they want this. So not much to worry about on that front.
If you avoid tools like ReadyCloud, then you should be safe.
Even with ReadyCloud active you have layers of usernames and passwords as protection.
There is a manual for ReadyCloud and the manual for your router should have stuff on ReadyShare.
May I ask how I protect the USB drive from the outside world ?
Complementing Michael's well thought point on ReadyCloud, there are other possible access vectors different from ReadyCloud, permitting your ISP does assign a non private or carrier grade NAT address to your router Internet/WAN interface.
ResdyShare controls include the ability for enabling Web-http, sometimes Web-https, and for sure also FTP. This requires (except of https) to send the credentials unprotected over plain text methods.
Beyond Netgear only allows using the admin account unfortunately, without any granular access controls. Same is true for SMB-baseb access on the LAN.
