Possible to attach multiple HDs on USB Hub?

[ctenorman]

I'm loving the potential for the rt-n66u as a NAS, but it seems that with only 2 USB ports I can only store up to 6 terabytes (3+3tb) without coming up with another storage solution (3tb seems to be the limit for cheap external USB hard drives from what I can tell). While this is probably fine for most people, I'm thinking of creating a personal family archive that may well exceed that size in a year or two.

However, being able to throw drives on to the router attached through USB hubs would solve that storage limitation, and let me expand essentially without limit. Is this something I can do without swapping out the firmware? Or do I need to invest in a dedicated NAS if I'm headed north of 6tb?

I'm using Crash Plan as a data backup, so I'm not too worried about data redundancy on my end - I'll let someone else take care of that. And since it's for an archive, I can wait a few days while it re-downloads and I put in a new drive if one burns out.

So, is the USB hub route an option?

Thanks!

 

[CL-Jeremy]

Hello,

Unfortunately, the N66u router does not support USB hubs. If you are looking to add more storage, you will have to find other means.

 

[RMerlin]

For such a large amount of storage I would recommend going with a dedicated NAS. The performance will be much better (your NAS will be able to push files at full gigabit speed, while a USB disk on the RT-N66U caps at around 15 MB/s).

 

[ctenorman]

OK, thanks! I can live with that. I've also got an old netbook floating around that I could probably turn into a file server with USB drives hanging off it. It's actually reasonably powerful as it has gigabit ethernet and is dual core (N550) with 2gb of ram, an SSD, and windows 7 pro, so I guess that's the next option. Plus I can always RDP into it if I feel like it.. Actually, this sounds like a good plan anyway. OK, netbook it is!

Thanks again!

 

[mmmmmm]

Hello,

Unfortunately, the N66u router does not support USB hubs.

Just out of curiosity: Is this a hardware or firmware limitation?

Thank you.

 

[xrecar]

Are you then still limited by USB speeds if the `NAS`s files are stored on a USB drive? I don't think the netbook idea would be any faster unfortunately. Luckily for me 12-15 Megabytes/sec seems to be fast enough for any streaming applications so far.

 

[huotg01]

Other thoughts on this topic: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=9895

GH