Windows 10: Sharing external usb HDD on home wifi network

I live in a rural area where Wireless internet service is not very good and quite expensive. If I were looking to share video files without using any Cloud solutions, using an external HDD on my household wifi, how about using a device to generate PoE to an Enet/USB adapter(splitter)?

AFAIK, most consumer-grade wifi routers do not have PoE available. If they did, that could spare the cost of a PoE Injector ($20us).

What do you think about this as a solution for Rural residents like myself? Use a PoE injector on an Enet connection from the wifi router such as this;

Connect the PoE signal out from the Injector to the splitter input below to power the USB connection for the external HDD.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?tag=823814-20

Total cost of equipment $43 US + Enet cables. Can you see any flaws in this design?





winver 1809

I would appreciate any comments or recommendations. TIA,

Michael

:)

 

External USB WiFi antenna doesn't see a network, but integrated does

External USB WiFi antenna doesn't see a network, but integrated wifi card does, even though it has a much lower range! It makes absolutely no sense, why wouldn;t the stronger antenna list this netowrk? I really need to connect to it in order to use the internet properly...

I tried disabling and uninstalling the internal Intel N-1000 WiFi card, and nothing changes...

 

Sharing a USB drive over wifi network

Ok, I found the answer. Simply by renaming the computer in the living room solved the issue.

Thanks for the answer from another post

Perform the following troubleshooting steps and check if it helps.

• 
  go to "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System"
  
• 
  under the "Computer name, domain and workgroup settings" click the shielded "change settings" option (far right)
  
• 
  on the "Computer Name" tab, press the "Change" button (bottom right)
  
• 
  rename the computer to anything other than what it is now
  
• 
  follow the restart prompts
  
• 
  using another computer you should now be able to use windows explorer to refresh the computers on the network (under "Network" drop list) and access the newly named computer, it will ask for credentials (username and password) in my case that is the
  targets Microsoft id and password, this grants full access to anything shared on that computer
  
• 
  repeat these steps on any other computer not allowing access on the network
  

Keep in mind all of my sharing permissions are open with full control, and remember as an example if A is on A’s computer and he wants to gain network access to computer then he has to enter Microsoft username and password

Also I would suggest you to download and install the latest drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

 

Share HDDs on home network

If your router or wifi access point has a USB port, you can usually share one device by plugging it into that port. My ASUS RT-AX88U, for example, has one on the back:



YMMV, because this kind of equipment is all over the place. But it's worth checking out.
HTH,
--Ed--