Airport Express + External Hard Drive

rofetov said:

I'm sure this question's been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the forums.

Is there any way to get an external HD connected to the network through a hard connection to the Airport Express?

I know it's officially unsupported, but it'd just be so convenient if there was some way... It seems like this is the only advantage you gain in an Extreme, and you're paying $ for it and getting a significantly larger device.

Click to expand...

A network drive, yes, you can attach via ethernet. A usb drive, no, the Express will not recognize a usb drive.

rofetov said:

I'm sure this question's been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the forums.

Is there any way to get an external HD connected to the network through a hard connection to the Airport Express?

I know it's officially unsupported, but it'd just be so convenient if there was some way... It seems like this is the only advantage you gain in an Extreme, and you're paying $ for it and getting a significantly larger device.

Click to expand...

No the AirPort Extreme has the advantage of also having a built in ethernet hub. The idea being its a one stop solution for putting all computers wired and wireless in your house on the web. (not claiming its the best option)

Cheers

rofetov said:

I'm sure this question's been asked before, but I couldn't find it in the forums.

Is there any way to get an external HD connected to the network through a hard connection to the Airport Express?

I know it's officially unsupported, but it'd just be so convenient if there was some way... It seems like this is the only advantage you gain in an Extreme, and you're paying $ for it and getting a significantly larger device.

Click to expand...

Extreme has a full PPPOE connection system you can used with a Bridged Modem and also connects directly via the WAN to super speed (non-adsl) broadband networks such as the NBN in Australia (100Mb/s potential speeds). It has a Gigabit Router. Provides port forwarding, guest network, static IPs.

The Extreme is significantly different than the Express. I have both. I run the Express simply as a WiFi extender via Ethernet to provide solid Dual Band Apple based Wifi on all my Mac Devices. Or you can use it for AirPlay as well but I think that is a gymic. Both works seamlessly together and work just as well across my mac devices. Also the Extreme allows for an proper Time Machine disk that is also picked up over WiFi in Lion Recovery Partition.