Using D-Link DSL-2750U's Storage Service feature

UPDATE: My 2750U has kicked the bucket due lightning striking my house, quite a shame, while it wasn't much to look at, it performed very well, R.I.P little modem-router. And so dear reader, I am not able to try out any new firmware versions. That USB port on this model isn't a swift one, so if you can't see it or can't get it to work, my opinion, not something I'd lose sleep over. Have a great day. Love you, fellow human!

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The manual doesn't explain this feature in detail, so here is a quick guide on using the Storage Service feature on D-Link DSL-2750U.

For firmware SE_1.01

You can see firmware version on the top right corner of the router control panel. On this version, Storage Service is much more direct, I like this a lot more. Here is how it can be accessed.

Windows

Open up any Windows Explorer window like My Computer for example and type the address of your D-Link router, by default its: "\\192.168.1.1"

Use "admin"  for both username and password (without quotes). I did not see anyway to change that, might as well because it gives the impression the drive is secured by user accounts, which is not the case.

Mac

Go to Finder > Go > Connect to Server ...

And enter "SMB:\\192.168.1.1"

Use "admin"  for both username and password (without quotes). I did not see anyway to change that, might as well because it gives the impression the drive is secured by user accounts, which is not the case.

I got both read and write access now, where as on firmware 1.0 it was only read and delete access, I'm not entirely sure if its because I have Fuse and NTFS-3G installed, which are for native writing to NTFS drives. So I guess you'll have to try and see, apologies.

(Everything below is for firmware SE_1.0)

For firmware SE_1.0

On firmware SE_1.0, Storage device is read and delete but not write access if accessed from a Macintosh; on Windows, you can both read and write to the drive.

Step 1

Plug in your USB device into the USB port at the back of the DSL-2750U, you should see the USB indicator light at the front panel light up when it's recognized.

Step 2

Go to the router's administration interface on your computer, access this on your web browser by typing in http://192.168.1.1/

If you didn't update the admin password at all, then the login username and password is the default admin and admin. You can update this under: Maintenance > Access Controls.

Step 3

Now head to Advanced > Storage Service.

There are two links here, click on Storage Device Info first, you'll see your USB device listed, make note of the Volumename field, like for example: usb1_1.

Step 4

This is the main step, head to Advanced > Storage Service > User Accounts, the screenshot below shows this page.

Create a new user, this will be your account credential when you access your USB storage, create your username and password and fill in the VolumeName as noted earlier in Step 3.  My Username is sundaymorning and the volumeName is usb1_1. Hit the Apply button and we are done with the admin interface.

Accessing your storage device on both Windows and Mac is pretty easy too, here are the steps.

On Windows XP

Launch Windows Explorer, just any window basically and type in:
\\192.168.1.1\sundaymorning\usb1_1

Note the pattern is: \\ Server Address \ Username \ Volume Name.

You'll be prompted for your login credentials you created earlier in Step 4,  click OK and that's it!

Type in the address any window's address bar (top), the login panel will appear.

Once logged in successfully, you can start browsing the volume!

You can add this address to Favorites or you can go the more advanced route of Mapping the Network Drive, I'm not familiar with Mapping, so for convenience here is a Google search result link if that is what you want to do.

On OS X

This doesn't work well with Macs. On all media and formats I tried, I can read and copy files, even delete files, but could not write to it, the Finder error I get is along the lines of "no space available ..." on the device. Those media I tried were empty, and I can write to them via Windows without problem. Especially the FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive where I can write to it on the Mac if connected directly.

Snow Leopard was my first OS X, but I'm guessing its the same with earlier versions since it is using SMB, I could be wrong. Make sure Finder is selected then choose Go > Connect to Server ... (or Cmd+K), then type in:
smb://192.168.1.1/sundaymorning/usb1_1


Note the pattern is: smb:// Server Address / Username / Volume Name.


Enter the username and password you created in Step 4, click Connect and done!

Type the address here at, Finder menu > Go > Connect to Server ...
then hit the Connect button

Finally, type in your login credentials and hit the Connect button,
if everything is set correctly, the file browser will appear, however it seems to be read only for Macs.

[Updated on Oct 29, 2012 added firmware 1.01 changes]