Set up external Hard Drive through network

[mikoo]

I have installed an external hard drive to my dlink router.  I am able to access this drive remotely from my other computers.  Can I access this external drive through Himedia Q5 to play movies stored on this drive.  If so how would I set it up on Himedia Q5?  Thanks for your help.

[futeko.com]

Yes. You should be able to access it in the same way you access it on a computer.

You don't say what service you use to share the drive from the router, it could be Samba (Windows networking), NFS, or DLNA/uPnP. ?

There are lots of ways to access the drive on the Q5. You could use Kodi, Media Center, or many other file browser / media apps you might install from Play Store.

Using Media Center. From home screen go Media Center. You have a choice of LAN (Samba), NFS, UPNP. I think you're most most likely to be using Samba so go LAN - Autosearch. You should see your NAS and then be able to click through to the attached drive. NFS amd uPnP work similarly.

[mikoo]

Thanks I will try that.

[mikoo]

So I did auto search under LAN and NFS. Nothing comes up.  What am I doing wrong?

[futeko.com]

So I did auto search under LAN and NFS. Nothing comes up.  What am I doing wrong?

What service / protocol are you using to share the disk from your NAS? Samba / NFS / uPnP?

[mikoo]

I am not sure.  But it is connected to my Dlink 868L router by USB.  Then within my router I am able to set this up under "Storage" tab. My router then gives me the IP address to login to my hard drive from my other computers.

[futeko.com]

I've had a read of the manual for your router and I think I know what the problem is. Bear in mind that this is based on reading the manual and not ever using your router.!

In router settings you've enabled SharePort. This shares the drive for acces either through D-Link's sharport app or via a web browser using a URL specified by the router. This is the SETUP - STORAGE menu option in your router settings.

This should work using Chrome web browser on the Q5?

But this isn't what you want to do, you want to share HDD contents for use by other apps on Q5.

In router settings, the next menu item down underneath STORAGE is MEDIA SERVER. If you enable the DLNA options here it should share the attached HDD contents via DLNA (same as uPnP).

This will let you see HDD contents in Android apps that support DLNA / uPnP like Himedia Media Center / Kodi.

Hopefully this works.

[mikoo]

Thanks for all your help Futeko.

I was able to add the IP address of my router and the external drive manually in LAN and got it working.  But I will also try out the Media Server part.