An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers

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An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers

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38 Reply
Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-07-08 13:04:15
I have 5 PC + 1 iPad on my network and I print without extra software on a USB printer connected to my Linksys E3000 under DD-WRT.
At the same place a TP-Link with a factory firmware doesn't print anything...
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#12
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Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-07-09 01:27:32
At the same place a TP-Link with a factory firmware doesn't print anything...

Did you test DD-WRT or Gargoyle on TP-link router also in this configuration?
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#13
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Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-07-09 02:14:25
No but I think it should work...
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#14
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Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-07-09 02:17:47
Hardware in TP-link is ok (very good), but I can see problems with software - injury
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#15
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Media server issue
2013-08-03 19:22:44
Hi,

WDR3600 v1 00000000
3.13.23 Build 130527 Rel.59702n
.

I can easily access to the connected HDD through \\tplinklogin.net . But when I'm trying to watch recorded video through my Media Player Library - it crashes every time. Also my Samsung Smart TV can browse recorded video, but cannot play them.
Please fix it somehow.

Thanks in advance.
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#16
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Will Secure FTP be implemented ?
2013-08-16 17:25:04
Hi,

USB Port is working here with an USB Stick 32 Gigabyte and ftp server enabled.

Would like to see a secure ftp server implemented, because I access the USB stick from the internet.
Does anybody know if this will be the case ?

Update: ftp server seems to be unstable, has to be stopped and restarted sometimes to make it accessible again from internet.
Update 2: Don't use ftp server anymore from internet, it's way to unstable.

Thanks

WDR 4300 v1
3.13.33 Build 130617 Rel.46239n
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#17
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WDTV Live + Tplink WDR4300 + External USB Hard Drive
2013-08-29 06:42:40
Hi,

I have an media player from Western Digital.
WD TV Live Streaming

WDTV is connected by cable to wdr4300. One external 2tb USB Hard disk is connected to one of the usb ports of wdr4300.
The wdtv can see the media server wdr4300. The hard disk too. I can stream videos with the limitations of wdr4300 media server. ok. This is ok!

BUT,
i need the wdtv can explore DIRECTLY the entire hard disk.
Is there some way to do that ?
In wdtv we cannot type nothing like "\\tplinklogin.net" ...
Western digital says that WDTV has SAMBA protocol too.

What can i do ?

A new firmware could do something ?
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#18
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Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-09-17 21:35:37
1 The experiences with TP-LINK routers’ USB ports

Dissatisfactions:
* Doesn't admit ext3/ext4 file system which is faster than ntfs.
* When I listen music from an usb hdd athached to TP-LINK wdr4300' USB port I always have micro cuts. Its frustrating
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#19
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Re:An Investigation on multi-functional USB port of TP-LINK routers
2013-09-30 01:01:43
Hi!

I just bought a WDR4300 router and found out it doesn't support dard drives larger than 2 TB. Even my 4-5 year old WD TV media player is able to read large drives. So a firmware update would be nice.
USB speeds could be improved too.

Apart from that I#m quite happy with my new device.
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#20
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Anything to do with USB HDD is mostly broken; Samba, DLNA
2013-10-29 18:48:17
Bought a new WDR4900. The unit has the latest firmware TL-WDR4900_V1_130424. Connected a 1 TB 2.5" HDD for testing. Observations:

USB HDD over SMB network location: If there are more than 64 files or folders in a folder, gets stuck into a forever loop where files and folders are reported over and over again. Instead of one tune.mp3, there's tens of copies of it. Amount is dependent on how long one lets it loop before hitting cancel/closing chosen file manager. After a case like this the folder tree cannot be depended on anymore, it's trashed. Even closing file manager doesn't make System's (process 4) SMB connection to router:445 to quit. It stays on in the background utilizing the wifi connection at least several hundred MB/s. Only closing this connection manually (with Tcpview etc) stops the network activity.

Now who would have more than 64 files/folders in a folder? Pretty much anybody. Which means the USB HDD implementation is broken. It cannot be depended on in any reasonable circumstance. Even when testing with a folder with only a few files, the read copy speed is between 3-7 MB/s. This is laughable when the limits are USB2's theoretical max 60 MB/s (in practice always above 20 MB/s) with network speed of 450 Mbps (56 MB/s).

DLNA media server streaming from this USB HDD: Tested with DLNA playing TV (Samsung), home theater (Goldstar) and PC (Foobar2000). The folder tree outputed is junk. Of many folders under \Music, it only finds the first. Opening it, its contents are shown there together with the second folder in the parent directory... The whole structure is messed up. Trying to play .mp3 files only some play, I would approximate less than 10%. Less are said to be not playable.

This is totally broken. My comparison is a cheap chinese Ralink based router from years back, which performs both USB HDD samba share and DLNA streaming for this same USB HDD flawlessly. We're talking about a device here that's -80% or more in price compared to TP-Link WDR4900.

:mad: Needless to say, I am very very disappointed because the main motivation for buying this unit was to be able to share 2 pcs 2 TB 2.5" HDD's over the network. :mad: I don't understand how you can produce and sell junk like this, claiming that this unit supports USB HDD and DLNA is almost a flat out LIE. :mad:
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#21
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