GL-MT300N-V2 only as USB drive to network server (nas)

n0m4dcom · 2019-06-20T01:21:24.284Z

Recently I moved from an Asus router to Google WiFi and lost the ability to drop files on an external hd I have been using. I’ve been looking at a simple device to plug into my network switch that would give me access to the drive. Based on a suggestion I picked up a GL-MT300-V2 and I’m a bit lost on the workflow to set it up.

What i want to do is shut off the wifi, routing, dhcp, etc functionality and just have it be a client on my network. Then I’d to just attached a single powered 1tb external hard drive. I want to shut the MT300 down as much as possible so its just acting as a NAS interface. I can reformat the external drive to be any format. I have been able to browse the drive if I use it as a router running its own new wifi network (right out of the box), the problem comes in when I try to get it on my existing network.

I am not actually completely inept and am able to research and follow directions, steps, etc but I’m looking for some broad steps.

I guess the first question I have is what mode would make it just an Ethernet client on my network? I want to give it a fixed IP and just browse to the drive using the IP and nothing else.

Is there any particular file system type that is better than other for this purpose? I’m not streaming from it, just dumping photos and backing up music.

Basically, like this:

Existing Wifi Router <-> Gig Switch <-> GLMT300NV2 <-> USB Drive

I have found other posts but they dont really give me the info I need (like this: Use as NAS? - #9 by Johnex).

Any help would be appreciated.

jeffsf · 2019-06-20T02:29:06.059Z

Are you comfortable with using the command line on the device to edit a file (or to download, edit, and upload)?

Changing the IP of the interface you’re connected through can be tricky.

alzhao · 2019-06-20T03:33:28.092Z

Here is what you should do:

Turn off wifi (you need to configure using cable to the LAN port)
Put the router at AP mode (more settings ->network mode)
Set up static IP (e.g. 192.168.1.100) to it in your main router, supposing it should have this function. Otherwise you can just find out the IP address of the mini router if it works as DHCP client.
Use NTFS or EXT format for you HDD. You should do this first actually.
Finally you can access your HDD as smb://192.168.1.100/

n0m4dcom · 2019-06-20T13:22:32.895Z

These are the steps I was looking for, thanks! I tried this quickly this morning but router wouldn’t let me put it into AP mode. It reported that I needed an Ethernet cable attached to the WAN port to do so. Tonight I’ll try plugging in the wan port to my existing network’s switch. I assume that was the hangup. I’ll update here with the results.

n0m4dcom · 2019-06-21T01:05:02.155Z

Everything is working exactly as I want now, thanks for the info, it was what I needed. Some updates to the steps in case someone comes across this thread later.

Directly connect your computer to the LAN port
Login to the router
Connect to your existing network to the WAN port
Connect the external usb drive, use NTFS or EXT format for your HDD.
Turn off wifi
Make the drive writable (Applications->File Sharing-> turn Writable on)
Put the router at AP mode (more settings ->network mode)
Unplug your computer from the LAN port and move the network connection from WAN to LAN.
Set up static IP (e.g. 192.168.1.100) to it in your main (existing) router, supposing it should have this function. Otherwise you can just find out the IP address of the mini router if it works as DHCP client.
Finally you can access your HDD in File Explorer using the IP. ie: //192.168.1.100/

Thanks again, little box is a good solution for this.

alzhao · 2019-06-21T01:16:51.885Z

Can you explain what is step 8?

Unplug your computer from the LAN port and move the network connection from WAN to LAN.

I don’t think this is necessary

n0m4dcom · 2019-06-21T01:38:31.911Z

It actually may not be, I just figured leaving it connected to my LAN via it’s LAN port was a good practice. I didn’t try leaving it plugged into WAN so I’m unsure if that step was necessary.

alzhao · 2019-06-21T01:52:14.439Z

When you config ad AP, the WAN port and LAN port is bridged. So there is no need to connected to LAN.