Laptops cannot access shared USB drive on AC68U while FireTV with Kodi can

[Roy2001]

This is not really Merlin related, I searched here and could not find an answer, so I am posting my question here and hope someone had this issue and solved it before.

I just bought a Tmobile AC1900 and flashed it to AC68U, I tried ASUSWRT, old and new version, tried Merlin old and new version. When I said old I mean the 2 years old version came with the tutorial I found on youtube.

I have attached HDDs to a Netgear R8000 and stream music/movies from router, so I was familiar with the way to setup USB with Samba and use HDD as simple NAS.

Now with AC68U, I simply could not get it work. The router recognizes all the drives I plugged in, and I tried to enable guest or setup account, on my win10 laptop, when I try to access Network/ASUS-AC68U, it always says "\\ASUS-AC68U is not accessible......". I tried all the versions and almost gave up.

Then I turned on Fire TV and Fire TV Stick which have Kodi installed, well, the shared drives are available and I can stream without any issue.

I went back to find 2 other laptops and still don't have access. All laptops are windows 10 and they have no issues to access HDDs on R8000.

It is really weird to me, as router recognized the USB drive and share it to Fire TV's but not laptops. I also tried with DD-WRT, same result, laptops cannot access, they all worked fine with Netgear R8000 with Netgear/dd-wrt/Tomato.

Appreciate your help.

Roy

 

[wouterv]

I assume you see a setup page like this:

Try to add a folder through this page, with the red marked button, and set the access rights.
Then try to access the disk again, preferably just go to the Windows Start menu and type in the search bar:
\\devicename (of course the name you gave the router).

 

[Roy2001]

I assume you see a setup page like this:
View attachment 7757
Try to add a folder through this page, with the red marked button, and set the access rights.
Then try to access the disk again, preferably just go to the Windows Start menu and type in the search bar:
\\devicename (of course the name you gave the router).

Thanks for help!

I tried, it adds the folder, I also tried with \\192.168.1.1, it just says "no permission". I have no idea why.

 

[wouterv]

Thanks for help!

I tried, it adds the folder, I also tried with \\192.168.1.1, it just says "no permission". I have no idea why.

First make sure to have a backup of that disk contents.
Remove the user in the Samba screen and add another user, different name then ever before (maybe first add one, then remove the old user), set the access rights and try again.

 

[Roy2001]

First make sure to have a backup of that disk contents.
Remove the user in the Samba screen and add another user, different name then ever before (maybe first add one, then remove the old user), set the access rights and try again.

I tried that and still no access. I installed PlayerXtreme app on iphone and ipad, both can access and play the movies from Router, just not from laptops.

 

[wouterv]

Try a fresh USB stick (just as try-out), all setup through the SAMBA page.
And for what it is worth: have you tried both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports of the router?

 

[Roy2001]

Thanks wouterv! I tried to just put a 16GB formated flash USB to USB2.0 and 3.0 ports. Media players can access without any problem, but not laptop. Still "\\ASUS-Router is not accessible. You might not have permission to use .......". This is happening to ASUS/Merlin/DD-WRT, weird to me .

 

[sfx2000]

I'm thinking maybe the media players are using MiniDLNA, which is it's own server, and not strongly coupled with Samba...

Anyways - Windows Media Player is a DLNA client, so fire that up and see if you see the media there - if so, then yes, this is a samba permissions issue...

 

[Roy2001]

Anyways - Windows Media Player is a DLNA client, so fire that up and see if you see the media there - if so, then yes, this is a samba permissions issue...

Thanks a lot!

I don't know what I have done, but, I just fired the WMP up, clicked Stream button upper-left corner under menu, choose "more stream options" then Show devices on: I choose all networks. Seems nothing happened. but when I go back to File Explorer, the USB drives on AC68U are there!

I have no idea which step specifically made it work but it just works now