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Thank you for the excellent post! I've pinned it to the forums and I hope it is helpful to our community. I'd love to hear from other members who have tried this out.
Cheers,
Pete
Community Admin
I decided to set up an external USB hard disk drive (HDD) on my WNR3500L router as a simple network attached storage (NAS) for my small office network (11 PC's in a mixed Windows/Linux environment).
I have next to no command line knowledge, so everything had to be done using the internet browser based graphical user interface (GUI).
The NAS set up can also be done on with the OEM firmware. I opted for the DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy build as I wanted to later set up OpenVPN on my router.
Note: This post covers the set-up using DD-WRT v24-sp2 (11/20/10) vpnkong. See my post further on in this topic for my set-up using the later DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy build 18010M.
This thread covers what I did to set up my simple NAS using the WNR3500L with DD-WRT.
First, I flashed (installed) the DD-WRT firmware onto my router and set everything up so that my network (both wireless and wired) was working.
The HDD that I used is NTFS format. FAT32 format also works. The ext formats should also work.
Next was to activate the USB on the router and get the HDD to mount. This was done by:
- Log in to the router GUI and go to Services>USB
- Enabe Core USB Support.
- Enable USB 1.1 Support (UHCI).
- Enable USB 1.1 Support (OHCI).
- Enable USB 2.0 Support.
- Enable USB Storage Support.
- Enable Automatic Drive Mount.
- I left USB Printer Support disabled as I had no need for this.
- The Run-on-mount Script Name was left blank as I have no idea what it is for. (Remember my command line kinowledge?)
- Set the Disk Mount Point to /mnt.
- Connect the HDD to the USB port on the router.
- Click on the Applied Settings button.
I then found that the HDD was not mounted 
. With a little guidance, I found that this problem was solved by turning the router off using the power button, waiting 10 seconds, and then turning the router on again using the power button. Another thing to watch is that if you are using a USB hub, make sure it is of the powered type. If all else fails, try a 30/30/30 reset on the router.
Now my HDD was mounted and the Disk Info box at the bottom of Services>USB showed:
--- /dev/discs/disc0/disc
Block device, size 298.1 GiB (320072933376 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 298.1 GiB (320070288384 bytes, 625137282 sectors from 63)
Type 0x07 (HPFS/NTFS)
Windows NTLDR boot loader
NTFS file system
Volume size 298.1 GiB (320070287872 bytes, 625137281 sectors)
Status: Mounted on /mnt
All looked good and right with my world.
Next was to get the HDD operational over the office network.
- Log in to the router GUI and go to Services>NAS.
- In File Sharing, enable Samba.
- Leave Server String blank (as I have no idea what that is for).
- Enter your Workgroup name. That is the workgroup name of your network. Your system administrator (you?) should know what the name is.
- Set the Path to File as /mnt.
- Enable Public Share
- Disable Readonly (unless you want the NAS set up so that no one can write to it).
- Use Custom Configeration is left disabled (as I have no idea what that is for).
- Click on the Applied Settings button.
The NAS HDD is now accessable for both reading and writing on all computers on my office network. It shows up as "\\Dd-wrt\public" (Windows) and as "public on dd-wrt" (Linux).
The above steps got me a basic NAS setup. I am sure there are many more options available in setting up a NAS on the WNR3500L. Those options I still have to learn about.
I hope this gives suitable guidance to those who need it.
Netgear WNR3500L, DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy Build 18010M, ethernet to Edimax 3G-6500N modem.
Administrator
- member since: 01/02/2008
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- 50 articles authored
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- 273 comments
January 18, 2011 5:25 PM
January 19, 2011 12:58 AM
When setting the Disk Mount Point (USB activation item 10) your are given three options: /mnt, /opt and /jffs.
- /mnt is generally the best if you are going to connect a normal HDD.
- /opt is used if you are going to use optware packages (whatever they are).
- /jffs is best to use if you are going to connect a flash drive or solid-state drive (SSD).
All this learning and my brain is starting to hurt.
Netgear WNR3500L, DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy Build 18010M, ethernet to Edimax 3G-6500N modem.
January 19, 2011 3:47 AM
updated: January 19, 2011 11:52 AM
- /jffs is usually mounted on the "left-over" built-in flash space, and is usually activated in the web-GUI. See Jffs
- /mmc is usually mounted on SD Flash Ram cards of a SD/MMC-mod, and is usually activated in the web-GUI.
- /opt is usually mounted anywhere on a writeable drive with enough space, and is mainly needed for use with the Optware package system
- /mnt can be used for any rw drive, and does not yet have any specific functionality in the web-GUI connected with it.
January 23, 2011 4:35 AM
updated: January 23, 2011 4:36 AM
Peter Redmer said: Thank you for the excellent post! I've pinned it to the forums and I hope it is helpful to our community. I'd love to hear from other members who have tried this out. Cheers, Pete Community Admin
(Even if using Tomato, rationale is the same) I have an USB disk used for both NAS and Optware use.
I configured an /opt folder to have some little stuff in it (newsgrabber mainly), and another folder is used as a samba share. Disk is formatted in ext3 fs, wich is faster in read/write as it is a native linux filesystem that doesn't need an exotic module as NTFS does.
I don't use DLNA (built-in in TomatoUSB as well as in Kong DD-WRT mod) for the moment but it's only a matter of few clicks to configure it.
You can also format a linux swap partition on the harddrive to be used by router, it can be useful in case of extensive bittorrent donwloads for example.
WNR3500L running Toastman's Tomato.
January 25, 2011 9:37 AM
Hi,
I'm currently using the stock Netgear firmware to run a shared folder from the external hard drive (ext3 format) on my router. It seems to work okay. At best I get 7MB/s throughput - is this typical? It's what's reported by Windows 7 when doing a copy via SMB.
I would like to upgrade to DD-WRT with the Kong mod to increase the power on the transmitter, to see if I can improve signal around the house, but I don't want to kill the NAS performance. Can anyone give me a indication of what I can expect with my router and this firmware? Or should I stick with Netgear's f/w?
Any comments suggestions would be much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Jon
January 25, 2011 4:33 PM
Hey got the same speed than yours using DD-WRT build 15704
Even worst when benchmarking download to a RAM disk vs upload : 5 / 7.5 MBps !
Tomato users: let us know if you get better ?
WNR3500L-100PES powered by tomato-K26USB-1.28.7440MIPSR2-Toastman-Ext // RJ45 UTP CAT6
January 25, 2011 5:20 PM
Hi,
Thanks - I've taken the plunge and installed the latest Kong mod. I have a question about configuring a SAMBA share.....
I'd like to be able to access the attached USB hard disk as \\SOMETHING\somewhere
I don't have a workgroup set up on my laptop - and my understanding is that I shouldn't need to......?
What info do I need to put in the Services->NAS tab?
Server String ? SOMETHING
Workgroup ? somewhere
Path to Files - set this to /mnt as this is where EXT3 drive is mounted
Public Share - is it safe to set this to enable? Currently it's disabled
Readonly - set to disable - I need write access
Use Custom Configuration - I set this to enable, so I could password protect access to the samba share - is this correct?
User1
Password1
User2
Password2
Custom Configuration - nothing in this box - ????
February 10, 2011 4:32 AM
Ho guys I have a question on this one. I'm between buying a normal USB drive and connectiong trought USB port or buying a simple NAS to connect trought esthernet port.
How the transfer rates compares to a "real" NAS conected to the router via ethernet port?
Cheers!
February 10, 2011 4:55 AM
updated: February 28, 2011 3:31 AM
If you're after good performance for file transfers don't bother with trying this through DD-WRT or any of the custom ROMs. I've tried it, and performance stunk. I reverted back to the latest netgear firmware and things move along at somewhere between 4 and 8MB/s when transferring wirelessly from an wireless-N laptop. The most important consideration for speed when using a NAS is the performance of the CPU in the NAS box. When using the Netgear router as a NAS don't forget that there will be overheads associated with running the USB transfer (and it's doing other stuff too - like handling the wireless transfers, filtering packets from the internet, keeping a log, checking password credentials, etc, etc), so performance will *never* be as good as a dedicated NAS. I would expect at least 2x faster performance with a real NAS.
Hope this helps.
jon
February 10, 2011 6:58 AM
Thanks for your quick response Jon.
I'm going for a dedicated NAS since I want to stream videos.
Cheers.
February 10, 2011 7:20 AM
Hold your horses! I'm using my WNR3500L to do exactly this, and it works *flawlessly*.
My set up is: router with hard drive enclosure connected (disk format is ext3), my Windows Media Centre is a laptop connected wirelessly (300Mbps) to the router. I've got an Xbox 360 which I use as a media extender - this is connected via ethernet cable directly to the router. I can stream high resolution content to either device with no problems whatsoever. This worked out cheaper than buying a router and separate (good quality) NAS solution, so I would give it a go!
FYI - I would be a bit suspicious about "cheap" NAS boxes from buffalo and western digital etc - they are bound to have skimped on the CPU, and the performance improvement might either be non-existent or not worth the extra money.
If you need blistering performance for video editing etc, then you'll have to spend ???$$$
More than happy to help if you run into problems.
February 28, 2011 12:05 AM
updated: January 3, 2012 5:08 PM
Deleted.
Netgear WNR3500L, DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy Build 18010M, ethernet to Edimax 3G-6500N modem.
May 5, 2011 12:00 PM
How can I map both the opt and data partitions I created following optware the right way?
I want to see opt for configuration, I want to see data for actual use. If I set mount point to /opt I see opt, if to /mnt i see my data. How do i map both as samba shares? By editing smb.conf?
View unverified member's comment - posted by chronoz
January 3, 2012 5:43 PM
updated: January 5, 2012 4:35 AM
I recently upgraded the Kong build on my WNR3500L to DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy build 18010M.
This thread covers what I did to set up my simple NAS using the WNR3500L with DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy build 18010M.
First, I upgraded the DD-WRT firmware onto my router and set everything up so that my network (both wireless and wired) was working.
The HDD that I used is ext3 format. The NTFS and FAT32 format should also work.
Next was to activate the USB on the router and get the HDD to mount. This was done by:
- Log in to the router GUI and go to Services>USB
- Core USB Support = Enable
- USB Printer Support = Disable (I have no need for that)
- USB Storage Support = Enable
- Automatic Drive Mount = Enable
- The Run-on-mount Script Name = None (I have no idea what it is for - remember my command line kinowledge?)
- Mount this Partition to /mnt = None
- Mount this partition to /jffs = None
- Mount this Partition to /opt = None
- Use SES button to remove drives = Disable
- Connect the HDD to the USB port on the router.
- Click on the Applied Settings button.
To mount the HDD, you will need to turn the router off using the power button, wait 10 seconds, and then turn the router back on again using the power button. Another thing to watch is that if you are using a USB hub, make sure it is of the powered type. If all else fails, try a 30/30/30 reset on the router.
Now my HDD was mounted and the Disk Info box at the bottom of Services>USB showed:
Disk Info
Disk 0: --- /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc
Block device, size 298.1 GiB (320072933376 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 298.1 GiB (320070288384 bytes, 625137282 sectors from 63)
Type 0x83 (Linux)
Ext3 file system
Volume name "NSDNAS"
UUID B50F9129-EB46-4DCB-B949-551126BD4621 (DCE, v4)
Volume size 298.1 GiB (320070287360 bytes, 78142160 blocks of 4 KiB)
Block device, size 298.1 GiB (320072933376 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 298.1 GiB (320070288384 bytes, 625137282 sectors from 63)
Type 0x83 (Linux)
Ext3 file system
Volume name "NSDNAS"
UUID B50F9129-EB46-4DCB-B949-551126BD4621 (DCE, v4)
Volume size 298.1 GiB (320070287360 bytes, 78142160 blocks of 4 KiB)
Mountpoints:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 mounted to /tmp/mnt/disc0-part1
All looked good and right with my world.
Next was to get the HDD operational over the office network.
- Log in to the router GUI and go to Services>NAS.
- In FTP Server, ProFTP = Disable (I don't know what this is)
- In File Sharing, Samba = Enable
- Use custom configeration = Disable
- Server String = None (remember my comand line knowledge?)
- Enter your Workgroup name. That is the workgroup name of your network. Your system administrator (you?) should know what the name is.
- In Shares, click Add Share.
- In Shares, use the drop-down box to select your Path, enter a Name for your NAS, check Public, and select the Access you want from the drop=down box (I used Read/Write).
- I left Users empty as I have no need to restrict assess to my NAS.
- Click on the Applied Settings button.
The NAS HDD is now accessable for both reading and writing on all computers on my office network.
The above steps got me a basic NAS setup. There are many more options available in setting up a NAS on the WNR3500L. Those options I still have to learn about.
Netgear WNR3500L, DD-WRT Kong Mod USB/FTP/SAMBA3/OpenVPN/Proxy Build 18010M, ethernet to Edimax 3G-6500N modem.
Administrator
- member since: 01/23/2008
- rank: 1 of 30121
- 24 articles authored
- 12 forum threads started
- 425 comments
January 3, 2012 10:14 PM
rbscairns,
Good deal thanks for the setup tips. I need to update my 3500L and set it up again for a NAS server. This will help/
The 'Use SES button to remove drives' could be very helpful for people that move the HD back and forth often. I don't but it is a nice option to have.
May 14, 2012 10:56 AM
updated: May 14, 2012 10:57 AM
Hi guys,
I am not able to mount the drive ,. it is a WD 3TB drive in a rocketfish enclosure. Any help would be appreciated.
Disk Info
--- /dev/discs/disc1/disc
Block device, size 746.5 GiB (801569726464 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 2.000 TiB (2199023255040 bytes, 4294967295 sectors from 1)
Type 0xEE (EFI GPT protective)
GPT partition map, 128 entries
Disk size 2.729 TiB (3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors)
Disk GUID FEB8E35F-48B7-524D-B147-1D8071F772E7
Partition 1: 128 MiB (134217728 bytes, 262144 sectors from 34)
Type MS Reserved (GUID 16E3C9E3-5C0B-B84D-817D-F92DF00215AE)
Partition Name "Microsoft reserved partition"
Partition GUID A644AB8D-31D0-4E40-994C-2583A4CDC7DA
First 1007 KiB are blank
Partition 2: 2.729 TiB (3000457232384 bytes, 5860268032 sectors from 264192)
Type Basic Data (GUID A2A0D0EB-E5B9-3344-87C0-68B6B72699C7)
Partition Name "Basic data partition"
Partition GUID 90F9D36C-07C9-2B4C-A9FB-1144D61D2D3D
NTFS file system
Volume size 2.729 TiB (3000457231872 bytes, 5860268031 sectors)
Partition 3: unused
Status: Not mounted - Unsupported file system or disk not formated
Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (04/23/10) mega
Time: 17:57:18 up 4 min, load average: 0.02, 0.18, 0.09
October 31, 2012 6:21 PM
thanks for the clear step-by-step on getting a drive connected with dd-wrt. I spent hours in the dd-wrt forums with no clear answer, but a lot of attitude. I like your approach -- "didn't know what that was for, so left it blank." Bravo!
dd-wrt build 1934 sp2
netgear wdnr3700v3
December 17, 2012 3:13 PM
gugavieira said: Thanks for your quick response Jon. I'm going for a dedicated NAS since I want to stream videos. Cheers.You might take a look at qnap.com for the best in the class SOHO NAS devices.
June 13, 2013 4:13 AM
hello
I successfully setup my NAS (HDD in NTFS format).
Now I have two question:
- it is possible to unmount (automaticaly) HDD before power off ruoter
- it is possible to log-off HDD after some time that is not in use (30 min)
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