Overview of the External Storage feature of the Linksys Intelligent Mesh system

The External Storage feature of the Linksys Intelligent Mesh system allows you to connect an external storage device to the USB port on the router and share the entire drive. This article will provide an overview of this feature. 

Before you begin:  
 
  • This feature supports external USB drives only.
  • Some Linksys routers or nodes support the USB feature on the parent node only and not on the child node. 
  • Settings may vary depending on the operating system of your mobile device.
 

Supported file formats
Linksys app view
LinksysSmartWiFi.com page view
How to access your drive

Supported file formats

Supported formats vary by model. For more specific information, you may refer to your router's support page on the Linksys Support site. Most routers support the following formats.
 
For Windows®: 
 
  • NTFS
  • FAT
  • FAT32
 
For Mac®: 
 
  • FAT32
  • APFS (read-only)
  • HFS+
 
 
Linksys app view

To access this section, log in to the Linksys app, tap on the menu icon, and tap on External Storage

 
Feature
Description
Router’s name
The External Storage section will display the name of the router that the USB drive is connected to (e.g., Office).
EjectTap Eject to safely eject your hard drive. If you have more than one USB drive connected to other routers in your network, you will have one Eject button for each drive. 
Drive dataThe Linksys app will display information about the drive when the router detects it. To see the latest drive data, tap the Refresh button on the app.

It will also show the IP address to use when accessing your hard drive (e.g., 192.168.1.1).

Network File Sharing (SMB)

The steps on how to
access your drive
are provided in this section. 
AuthenticationTo authenticate a connection when accessing the drive, you can enable Authentication and create a username and password. This feature is disabled by default. If you have several USB hard drives connected to several nodes in your network, the authentication applies to all of your hard drives.

Authentication requirements: 

 
  • Username: Minimum of four characters and a maximum of 12 characters. 
  • Password: Minimum of four characters and maximum of 50 characters. 
Both username and password must be alphanumeric and include characters such as an underscore ( _ ) or a dash ( - ). Make sure to tap Save after you make any changes to your settings.
 

LinksysSmartWiFi.com page view

To access this section, log in the router's LinksysSmartWiFi.com page, then click on External Storage under Smart Wi-Fi Tools. 

 
Feature
Description
Router’s name
The External Storage section will display the name of the router that the USB drive is connected to (e.g., Office).
Eject
Click Eject to safely eject your hard drive. If you have more than one USB drive connected to other routers in your network, you will have one Eject button for each drive.
Drive data
The web browser will display the drive when the router detects it. To see the latest drive data, click Refresh

It will also show the IP address to use when accessing your hard drive (e.g., 192.168.1.1).

Network File Sharing (SMB)

The steps on how to
access your drive
are provided in this section. 
AuthenticationTo authenticate a connection when accessing the drive, you can enable Authentication and create a username and password. This feature is disabled by default. If you have several USB hard drives connected to several nodes in your network, the authentication applies to all of your hard drives.

Authentication requirements: 

 
  • Username: Minimum of four characters and a maximum of 12 characters. 
  • Password: Minimum of four characters and maximum of 50 characters. 
Both username and password must be alphanumeric and include characters such as an underscore ( _ ) or a dash ( - ). Make sure to click on Apply > Ok to save your changes. 
 

How to access your drive

Most Linksys Intelligent Mesh system routers support SMB v2.0.

To access the storage drive, you will need the IP address in the IP address for SMB access section shown either on the Linksys app or the LinksysSmartWiFi.com page. In this article, we are using 192.168.1.1 as an example. Steps may vary depending on the version of your computer's operating system.

For Windows computers:

Enter “\\” followed by the drive's IP address into the Windows Explorer field, then press [ENTER].


For Mac computers:

Open Go > Connect to Server. In the Server Address field, enter “smb://” followed by the drive's IP address, then click Connect

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