General Meeting Topic – September 2022

Adding NAS to your Router

Wednesday, September 21st, at 7:00 p.m.

Presented by John Krout, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society

This presentation introduces the concept and utility of Network Attached Storage (NAS) for home local area networks (LAN) by connecting any USB drive to the USB port on a home router. This can be any portable storage device, such as a flash drive, USB solid State Device (SSD), portable hard drive, and storage that requires AC power. You might wonder how storage can be connected to a home LAN and shared instead of connecting to a computer. Just about any router, including a USB socket, can act as the LAN connection for storage. Not all routers include a USB socket, but many current routers do, and some routers even have a second socket for more storage or for connecting a USB printer to the network.

This presentation will show an example of a router with a USB socket and the steps for preparing storage to be connected to a router. Also, the presentation shows how to find and use the router-connected NAS using Windows File Explorer, Apple’s File app on iPhones and iPads, and the Samsung My Files app for Android devices.