Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Recently, a suggestion was made that there should be a Full Circle tutorial on setting up a simple home network to exchange files between machines. My solution for this is to plug a flash drive into a USB port on my ISP’s modem-router unit, and then share this drive over the Wi-Fi network. The amount of available storage is much less than what might be obtained with full-blown network attached storage (NAS), but the flash drive is much less expensive, the capacity suitable to my needs for occasionally transferring a few files, and setup for multiple operating systems is really simple. My Bell Giga Hub modem-router features two external USB ports, and I initially wondered if I could use one of these to host a USB drive and make this available over the wireless network. An Internet search very quickly identified that such connectivity was indeed possible and provided the necessary instructions for its implementation.
When a USB drive is plugged into the Giga Hub modem, a network share is created automatically, and a connection can be made to the drive using the modem’s IP address. This IP address is also the one used to log in to the router's administration interface in order to change any of the unit’s settings. To display this IP address, the command ip route can be used. For my system, this confirmed the default IP address for the modem as 192.168.2.1. Micro-USB drive plugged into the Giga Hub modem-router The network connection can be made using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, normally referred to as Samba. For Linux Mint, which is my current distro of choice, SMB client support is included by default and allows access to SMB shares over the network.
Furthermore, I subsequently discovered that a USB share using the IP address could be accessed from Linux, Android, and Windows. Consequently, my home Wi-Fi now provides me with a micro-version of a NAS system that I can access from any of my computers when booted into either Linux or Windows, and from Android smartphones and tablets. For anyone who has similar hardware and wishes to set up a USB share, the procedures for the three operating systems are provided below. The example uses a 64-GB nano-USB drive with the device name 64gbnano, but it will be obvious how to customize the commands for another system.
Linux Mint In the address bar of Nemo, the file manager for Linux Mint, toggle the location entry (Ctrl-L) to allow text entry. Now, type: smb:192.168.2.1/64gbnano and press Enter. A dialogue box will open requesting authorization. Click on the radio button to connect as Anonymous and press Connect. Nemo will now display the files in the network share. Android 11 Using the Cx File Explorer file manager (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer), navigate to NETWORK > New location > REMOTE > SMB. Enter 192.168.2.1/64gbnano as the Host, check the box labelled Anonymous, and press OK. The file manager will now display the contents of the USB drive Shown right is the USB Drive Contents in Android’s File Manager Windows 10 In the search box on the taskbar, type Run. In the text box labelled Open, type \\192.168.2.1\64gbnano and press OK. Note that, for Windows, backslashes are required in the IP address. File Explorer will now open and display the contents of the USB drive. Conclusion Using this technique, a reasonably-sized USB drive can be used as network attached storage for a home Wi-Fi system. Furthermore, the use of a micro-USB drive makes this drive fairly unobtrusive. The network share allows access to the same set of files for all connected devices and provides a ready mechanism to wirelessly copy files between these devices.**