Robert asked: I have more than 1 Maxtor external hard drives I would like to share between 2-4 desktop computers. I’ve been doing research and found USB switches but all I have found also require a USB hub and the switches only allow one pc at a time…I would like to have a setup to where all pcs can access any hard drives at any time and at the same time if needed. I don’t want to use NAS as I have tried that and the transfer rates basically double when going through a router.
All info is appreciated.
Update:
I upgraded to a Linksys WRT350N (with storage link) router, 2 Linksys 10/100/1000 network adapter and Cat 5 cables.
Much to my disappointment the Storage Link is way too slow. It takes 45 minutes to transfer a 4.4 GB movie file (stored on a USB Maxtor 1TB drive plugged usb into the router, however I can hook the drive up usb in my 2nd computer and transfer it thru it, the router, to my first computer in 9-10 minutes. Go figure. Makes no sense to me.
I originally couldn’t do that but I used Network Magic and replaced my network adapters with Linksys 10/100/1000 and that alone made it faster going through 2 computers. I was hoping adding a Linksys 10/100/1000 router and Cat 6 cables would help with the storage link, but it didn’t. Looks like I will add hubs to each pc and just transfer back and forth that way for now. My next experiment would be to add a NAS Hard drive to see if it’s faster.
Thanks for the info.
Douglas
