On 20/07/2020 18:52, Graeme wrote:
My router, supplied by Zen, is a Fritzbox 7530 and, looking at the
manual, appears to be capable of more than I use it for, which is just
as a router.

For example, I can apparently connect an external hard drive to the
router by USB, said drive then being visible and usable by anyone on our
home network.Â* That we be great for sharing the countless films, photos,
mp3s etc. we have accumulated.

Q1Â* Has anyone actually done this, and does it work well?

Before you go too far test it out with a USB memory stick. And think
carefully about the potential gotchas if the mains goes down abruptly.

If you really want something reliable then a RAID array fileserver is a
much better option. If you want something cheap and cheerful then there
are plenty of USB sticks to choose from up to at least 256GB.

q2Â* Recommended drive?Â* Thinking 1 or perhaps 2TB.Â* Any names to go for,
or avoid?Â* WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Verbatim etc.

I would buy a Samsung solid state drive rather than spinning rust. YMMV

I still have a large spinning rust drive in my main PC but everything
that matters now is on the much faster Samsung SSD.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown