The best uses you can give to the USB port of your router

The best uses you can give to the USB port of your router

Surely you have ever seen that your router has a USB port on the back, and you do not know for sure what tasks you can perform with it. Well, today we are going to give you the answer with several uses that you can give to said connector.

The use that can be given to the USB that many routers bring (in some cases even more than one) may be a little mystery for many people, since they will not be very clear about what they can use it for.

Before seeing what this port can do for us, it is very important to know if our router can use it, since there are times when it cannot be used for all the functions that we will see below.

This is all going to depend on the features the router manufacturer has chosen to implement. Some types of features require more powerful hardware than a less expensive router will have.

There may be cases in which the USB is up to the task, but it is blocked, which can be resolved if it is compatible with custom firmware such as DD-WRT, although we must warn you that this always carries a risk of damaging the router, since its internal system is modified. It is best to be completely sure what we are doing before modifying the firmware.

Let’s see how we can use the USB of a router that is fully operational:

USB hard drive

If we want to share a hard disk with a wide network, that is to say, that many computers are going to be used, it is best to use a NAS device.

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But if we are going to be few who use it, we can do it with the home router No problem.

Within the menus of our router, we will surely have one or more options to share the unit. Possibly, it will open before us two posibilities such as mapping the drive in our operating system or adding the drive as an FTP source.

To find out how to do it, we must go to the website of the router that we have installed and access the area where it explains how this whole process is carried out.

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media server

There are some routers with the option of act as a media serverwhich means that from the media player devices that are connected to the network (physical or in the form of a program) they can detect and play content.

In this case, all the potency and feasibility Of all this process will depend on the processors, that is, which one looks better or worse will depend on the speed of the devices, although it should be more than enough for transmission to a couple of smart TVs.

Share printer

Right now what is taking are WiFi printers that already connect wirelessly to computers or mobile terminals to print, being inexpensive devices.

But if you already have a printer and it doesn’t incorporate this ability, your router may have the ability to act as a print serverallowing anyone on the network to print from anywhere.

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The only drawback we can have is that the computer must be on for the printer to work.

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how to modem

Our router is going to be ADSL or fiber, but it is true that these systems sometimes suffer cuts, something that can be fatal if you work from home. You may also need to ensure that the connection reaches the outside for remote desktop purposes, if we put in the USB a modem with SIM card.

This function is not something that is very normal to use, so there are only a few modems that are capable of performing this function, which is my interest to never lose the connection of our devices.

upgrade router

The USB ports can also be used to update our router to the latest firmware that the brand has released, since it may happen that this is the way to introduce new updates.

They are downloaded from the manufacturer’s website or it is the manufacturer who, by email, sends us a link where we can get the new firmware every time we need it, if we have registered the device on the corresponding page.

Opening router ports is a concept that you have surely heard many times. It is especially useful when trying to play a game online from your console or PC, when making video conferences or when setting up torrent download clients.

charge other devices

These USB could also be used to charge one or several devices, all depending on the number of ports and if it has enough power to be able to send power grid to charge all kinds of devices.

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Having many devices at home, the truth is that keeping them all charged and having chargers can be complicated, so we can use the USB ports that the router has to charge those that do not need a huge amount of energy.

Backups

Backups are always good, since it protects us from possible errors or failures that could be accidental or intentional due to some type of virus or malware.

We can connect to one of the router’s USB ports, for example, a hard drive, and then install software on your computer that does a daily backupin order to have everything well stored and that there is nothing that can escape, in case at any given moment we have to restart the entire system.

In this way, and since it was not in the computer, this hard drive will not only not be infected or affected by any type of error, but also will keep the backup intact to be able to restore it when our computer is in perfect condition.

In this way, the device will be as before, with everything we had, without missing anything, but completely clean of problems or viruses that may affect the proper functioning of this product that we have.

These have been some of the utilities that can be given to the USB ports that our router has, as long as they are operational and there is no problem due to lack of power or for some other reason. They are much more necessary than you expected.

And if they are capable of fulfilling all the functions that we have exposed to you, the versatility could be added to all the characteristics that our router may already have.

Reference-computerhoy.com