RAX45 - UPnP enabled but times out or becomes inaccessible constantly - firmware V1.0.11.112_2.0.77

[dmfox77]

I am a novice at setting up UPnP on any network through a router, so please don't mock me too much.

I have the AX4300 WiFi Router (RAX45) Nighthawk® 6-Stream Dual-Band WiFi 6 Router.

1. I have a hard drive bay with only one 2T HDD in the HD Bay hooked up to the UPnP on the router.
2. I have gone into the router firmware/software and clicked on the advanced tab.
3. Then the advanced setup section
4. Then click on the UPnP section
5. And have also checked the Turn UPnP On
6. I have also changed the advertisement period (in minutes) to 1440 (24hrs) as I wanted to be able to access the UPnP any time of the day once I'm on my LAN.

So the above list is what I have done, and the UPnP works great but only randomly. Sometimes I get home from work, and I attempt to connect to the UPnP but the device I'm using simply can not find the UPnP option from the router. I have completely reset the router, everything is set up as above, and the randomness is still occurring. There must be more requirements to set up the UPnP correctly, but from what I can understand, the above should be all that is required to access the 2T HDD set up to the UPnP on this router. Again, it does work occasionally, and I have full access to everything on the 2T HDD when it works correctly over wireless and wired connections, but it only works sometimes. I only access the UPnP with my Desktop and my Smartphone and only relatively rarely, approximately 2-3 hours a day at most.

Again, I'm no expert in setting up UPnP, so please help me if you can; thank you in advance.

[Kitsap]

You should start by putting UPnP in the search engine of your web browser and reading the top several articles about what it is and about it being a serious security risk.

Next you should turn UPnP off and leave it off.  Most likely it is not necessary for what you are trying to do.

Please provide specifics as to how you connected your external HDD to your router.  Via a USB cable? Ethernet?  ??

Did your manufacturer of the HDD bay provide any instructions for connecting the drive to a LAN?  Does this HDD bay have a brand name and model number?

It would not hurt to download the manual for your router from the Downloads section above and review the chapters on attaching storage via a USB cable.

[michaelkenward]

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@dmfox77 wrote:

I have the AX4300 WiFi Router (RAX45) Nighthawk® 6-Stream Dual-Band WiFi 6 Router.

While many questions about routers are generic and could be answered anywhere, some things need specialist knowledge.

You might get more help, and find earlier questions and answers specific to your device, in the appropriate section for your hardware. That's probably here:

Nighthawk Routers with WiFi 6 (AX) - NETGEAR Communities

[dmfox77]

Thank you for your response. I was able to read up about UPnP, and I determined it would be better to run things through a different method. It is a bit insecure to run things the way I was, so I'll be trying out some other options before concerning myself with the technique of UPnP.