Can I let other people use my USB drive on ReadyShare?
Can I let other people use my USB drive on ReadyShare?
Hey everyone! Thanks so much in advance. I have a NetGear Nighthawk router right now, and it has a 5tb USB drive plugged into it. My goal is to let other people access the drive so they can upload files to folders that only they get. Here is what I'm hoping for: I want to set up five separate accounts with their own names and passwords, where each user gets in only to see and touch specific folders. Is this actually possible? Or am I just chasing a pipe dream? If it's not going to work out, could you please tell me how to do it right the way? Cheers
I need help with something simple from my internet connection. Basically, I want to set up an account where you have access to a USB drive so we can exchange some files for me. Later, if I need them, I can put other files on it for you too. But also, I want to make sure that when another person sets up the same thing, they won't see our back-and-forth messages or files. Hope this helps! Cheers
You may want to look into one of several file sharing services. Many offer small amounts for free, usually linked to an Amazon account. It seems like this depends on how much storage you plan to use. So, before considering this option, you need a public IP address. If you don't have one, your only choice is to use cloud-based solutions. The router using simple Windows file sharing isn't really set up to be secure when connected to the internet. It seems like you could encrypt each file and then worry about whether someone stole it. You would still have to be careful with write permissions; bad people who sell child porn might use open storage sites to hide their stuff, hoping they get caught. Proving that something wasn't yours will be a hard task for them. Best if you do this yourself by setting up your own VPN server on the router. There are many versions of Nighthawk so you would need to check which ones have a VPN server function. This would stop unknown people from connecting to your network. Even though running through a VPN might look like you're on your local network, at least in theory it should let you access files from the router via that VPN connection. It all depends if the router is so dumb it can't understand how to talk between the VPN process and the file sharing process. Sometimes it's just better to use some cloud-based service unless you are doing this for fun or entertainment. Big companies stopped using their own data centers years ago, and even home users now have many reasons not to do this themselves.
Thanks for sharing... and yes! I checked out the standard cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive. The problem is those servers are in the USA, which has strict privacy rules unlike Canada. I share some important files with clients, but no, this isn't porn. I get your point about that though. Is there any advice you can give me on setting up a VPN? It seemed easy to use Readyshare, but it doesn't seem to have that feature... Cheers
Cloud services would probably come to mind first too. It could stop me from feeling sad or stressed, even though I'm not sure if other people's actions are hidden well enough on the cloud side. ReadyShare feels okay just for talking on a local network, but I've never tried using it over the internet. Without knowing how, I can't figure out how to do that except through the VPN trick mentioned before. Setting up a Windows Server or some other OS might work too because they are built to share things like files and printers. But you really need someone who knows security stuff because leaving data open could cause big problems, especially if it has private client details on it.
The first issue is whether your router has a built-in VPN server. To figure out if it does, you'll need to check the router's manual for instructions on setting it up. Most people use openvpn or open vpn software because they are usually the most common tools you can get onto a machine that allows remote access. There are many file encryption systems that are super strong. If someone gets in and reads your files, even if you put them on Google Cloud, they won't know what's inside unless you send their keys to them via some other secure way.