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DSPGuy

Occasional Visitor
I'm sure this is a simple question for many you. I'm wanting to use an Asus wireless router to host a USB drive for nightly backups. The Asus router would be connected to my LAN only through its WiFi system. I got that basically working with an Asus RT-N66R which I purchased used. However, I quickly ran into the problem of Windows not liking the SMB1 version of this old router. So I'm trying to figure out how to know which Asus routers have at least SMB2 in them, and preferably something even newer than that. It doesn't need to be a high end, high dollar router for my purposes. The nightly backups typically are small, so high throughput is not a requirement. I've seen on the Asus website that one can't assume that even all of their lowest cost routers will give me what I need. For instance, the spec sheet on the RT-AX1800S doesn't show any USB ports at all, and says "Samba Server: No".

Any suggestions on a modest Asus router which will support my needs, or an easy way to filter router selection on the Asus site to find what I'm looking for?
Thank you all in advance,
DSPGuy
 
You would be much better off using something like a Raspberry Pi (if you can't afford a proper NAS) as a network file server rather than a router. The Samba server on Asus router's is really just for marketing. No one on these forums would suggest that you buy a router for the main purpose of using it as a NAS. It's just the wrong tool for the job.

Unless something has changed recently I'm not aware of any Asus routers that support SMBv2.

 
Why not just get a PI and hook the drive to that and then to the router?

If cheap is the name of the game..........
 
No one on these forums would suggest that you buy a router for the main purpose of using it as a NAS. It's just the wrong tool for the job.
Why is it not an acceptable solution? I've used a somewhat similar device, called a RavPower RP-WD009 travel router for about a year and it served my purposes fine. The backups worked through it and any backup retrieval I needed all worked without issue.
 
Why not just get a PI and hook the drive to that and then to the router?
I'm sure it's a good solution. But I just don't feel like learning Linux. To someone who lives in that world, I'm sure it would be a piece of cake. I've done a fair amount of software development in my years as an electrical engineer, enough to know that what seems simple at first almost always ends up being more complex than originally anticipated. It's something I'm sure I could do if I wanted to take the time. 20 years ago, I developed complex simulations on Unix machines.
 
It's really the simplest format compared to a more robust setup like a full server with multiple functions. Copy an OS image to an SD, fire it up, assign username, add a mount point, connect the drive. And Pi's are cheap and durable.
 
My backup software checksum tests all the files it sends and reports if there are any file corruption issues. It also does a file size check and it it doesn't match on both ends, it will report that as well. Not sure why it does the byte count check if it has done a checksum test. But it can't hurt.
 
Look somewhere else then. In my experience USB drive share on Asus routers is not very reliable.
 
Why is it not an acceptable solution? I've used a somewhat similar device, called a RavPower RP-WD009 travel router for about a year and it served my purposes fine. The backups worked through it and any backup retrieval I needed all worked without issue.
Using a router as a NAS can work but you're paying for the wireless router, not the USB sharing which is an afterthought. So it's usually an unnecessarily expensive solution to achieve a poor quality NAS.

But regardless of that, as I mentioned in post #2, Asus routers don't support SMBv2 (unless you install a third party firmware and I think it's clear that's not something you'd entertain). So as SMBv2 is your primary requirement you'll have to look for a non-Asus product.
 
And Pi's are cheap and durable.

Current RPi prices are not very pleasant. A computer like this instead is cheaper and has more processing power:


Similar Intel i5 with 8GB RAM runs my DIY NAS. Power consumption is about 20W in most cases. I have it for years, never failed. It can run anything you want, Linux or Windows. I even had one running pfSense as router on a stick and with external USB-to-Ethernet Gigabit adapter. No issues.
 
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@Tech9

If the OP wants simple = PI. I do DIY as well for a lot more than just a NAS as you know. Any SFF PC is going to be better than a PI if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty.

It doesn't need to be a high end, high dollar router for my purposes.

Asus Router For USB Drive Hosting​


There's still some PI's though that are cheap for this type of situation of just doing SMB ~$50
 
Any SFF PC

The example PC is Mini format with 175mm x 175mm x 34mm dimensions. What's simpler than Windows 10 for most users? Intel x86 CPU, Intel Gigabit NIC, standard boot HDD/SSD and 4x USB 3.0 ports. Upgradeable on top of that. What's better in RPi with Micro-SD card?
 
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The issue seems to be pricing.

For under $100 I see only RPi 3B+ with USB 2.0 ports only. This limits file transfers under 30MB/sec no matter what the external drive(s) are capable of. All RPi 4 kits are more expensive. The PC above is $110 including shipping and comes with fresh Windows 10 Pro 64-bit pre-installed, ready to go. The cheapest Asus router with USB 3.0 port is perhaps RT-AC66U B1 at around $100 and it can't do better than 30MB/sec anyway, CPU limited plus Asuswrt quirks in Samba implementation. I don't see the mini PC price issue here. It's not only much better, but at comparable price.
 
Asus RT-N66R which I purchased used.
It's implied.

Speed comes at a price. I spent more on a single 5GE adapter for my laptop than this USB/HDD "NAS" crap. I don't see why you're making a case for a PC when I agreed with you already.
 
I don't see why you're making a case for a PC when I agreed with you already.

Because RPi is not cheap, nor durable with OS on Micro-SD card. I already quoted what I don't agree with in post #11 and give @DSPGuy an alternative with example. He is going to decide what to do based on his needs and budget. I'm not interested in what you run and how much it costs.
 
Going with a mini-PC as suggested above is one alternative I had been considering. However, once I have it configured, I'd want it to operate as a standalone device on my LAN without a screen, keyboard, or mouse. I imagine there are ways of doing that. What is the preferred approach for this type of setup? Once the device is running, I suppose there are ways to remote log into it. But at any power up, how does one get past the required Windows log-in process without a screen, keyboard, and mouse?
 
@DSPGuy

You can go headless in Windows or Linux. Login isn't required to share the drives. I use mine headless with Linux but occasionally hook it up to rollback a funky kernel. Mostly though I use ssh to manage it but there are more apps installed for monitoring with web GUI.

For windows you'd likely just use RDP to login if you want to check things.
 

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