Re: Adapter to Connect USB External Hard Drive to RBR40 Ethernet Port
Not really. There are Ethernet to USB gizmos that are used to connect Computers that have no Ethernet jack. These work because software in the computer knows that it is connected to a networking device. The problem with trying to use one of these adapters on a USB hard drive is there is no software on the Orbi router to manage the hard drive and the USB drive expects very low level read/write commands through the USB connection.
This is the huge difference between inexpensive USB hard drives and Network Attached Storage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage ). A NAS includes an operating system which talks to clients through the Ethernet connection and manages hard drives that are part of the hardware.
Many consumer routers include USB ports and have the capability to manage USB hard drives connected to those ports. (Including many Netgear routers). It is pretty clear that the original Orbi router included a USB port with the expectation that this feature would be released "soon". Alas, not only did support for USB hard drives never appear, Netgear dropped the USB port on newer models of Orbi so that not only are USB hard drives not supported, neither are USB printers or any sort of USB device.
Is there an adapter that will allow me to attach my USB external hard drive to an ethernet port on my RBR40 router?
As @CrimpOn says, network attached storage (NAS) is the obvious answer. Many proper NAS will also accept USB drives.
In my case, I have another way of connecting USB storage to Ethernet networks that don't support USB. I use an old Netgear router that supports ReadySHARE. I have an R7000P and an R7800 for this.
In the case of the R7800. it is in AP mode connected to an MR90 router. It works very well. I have two powered USB drives, 6TB and 8TB, the latter even has two more USB ports so I can pile on even more storage.
If you have an old Netgear router lying around, or can get one for a knock-down price, or even free, you could give it a whirl. Might be cheaper than other options.
I also have proper Ethernet NAS for things that are best suited to that approach.
