Router - TG582N - USB port: Difference between revisions

= [[Router - TG582N - 3G|3G broadband]] =

Content sharing provides a way to share the contents of a USB storage device to machines on the LAN (or further afield). It provides some rudimentary

network attached storage.

The content sharing server uses a separate 'virtual' interface, which grabs its IP via DHCP. It will use the first DHCP address it can, this can be

fairly catastrophic with a /30 (see image below) - it's possible to add an extra DHCP pool which just serves 10.0.0.137 (for example) for the content server.

The TG582n can use a USB storage device with partitions formatted as FAT32 or EXT2/3/4. There are some restrictions - with the following disk

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdb1 63 65529134 65529072 31.3G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

/dev/sdb2 65529135 229376069 163846935 78.1G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

/dev/sdb3 229376070 397148229 167772160 80G 83 Linux

/dev/sdb4 397148230 625142447 227994218 108.7G 83 Linux

content sharing sees all partitions except the NTFS one (/dev/sdb2), but doesn't correctly read the EXT4 partition (/dev/sdb4). Whether this

is because of partition size, or start sector, or EXT4-ness, is TBD. (/dev/sdb3 is EXT3).

For example, with the content sharing server on 192.168.1.32:

$ smbclient -U Administrator //192.168.1.32/Disk_a1

Enter Administrator's password:

Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 2.2.12]

smb: \> dir

. D 0 Tue Jan 20 16:12:42 2015

.. D 0 Tue Jan 20 15:05:02 2015

HDR_FOX_T2_upgrade.hdf A 24108401 Wed Jul 2 17:41:50 2014

why_I_love_aaisp.pdf A 359760 Tue Jan 20 16:12:05 2015

61543 blocks of size 32768. 60796 blocks available

smb: \>

although on Linux ''/sbin/mount.cifs'' might be more useful than ''smbclient''.

Note that the share named above 'Disk_a1' is the share available if the disk/partition is not a 'Managed partition' (see below).

If the disk/partition is a 'Managed partition' the available share names change (to 'Shared' and 'Media') and the root directory of the

partition is no longer accessible from content sharing.

== UPNP AV server ==

UPNP AV is a media server to facilitate playing media files across a network (usually a LAN). It can be enabled by:

:contentsharing upnpav config state=enabled

Then the content on the USB storage device can be shared. The USB storage device has to be setup to have the

required directory structure - it appears this has to be done on the web interface

- select Toolbox - Content Sharing - Configure and make the disk/partition a 'Managed partition'. Note that performing

this step changes the share names served from the USB storage device (to 'Shared' and 'Media').

One can then browse the media server with a suitable client. For example, on Linux one can use ''vlc''

- select View - Playlist - Local Network - Universal Plug'n'Play - Technicolor TG582n (unless one has changed the default name).

Now it just needs some media files added in the 'Media/Pictures', 'Media/Music' or 'Media/Movies' directories.

== FTP server ==

Enable with:

:contentsharing ftp config state=enabled

The FTP server is only of use if the disk/partition is a managed partition (see above). If the disk/partition is

not a managed partition, then there's no home directory available for the FTP server and login fails.

FTP to the content sharing IP address, and login with router username/password (the Administrator credentials work OK).

The root directory of the FTP server is the share named 'Shared' - whereas the shared media files for the UPNP AV server

are under a share named 'Media'.

== File system structure ==

On a USB storage device which has (at some point) been a managed partition, the file system comprises directories

named

* Settings

* Shared

* Media

* Media/Pictures

* Media/Music

* Media/Movies

There's a file 'Settings/manageddisk_marker' which contains a date/time string. The presence/absence/contents of this file doesn't accurately reflect the 'managed disk' status of the disk - the status has to be changed via the web UI.

''Your author doesn't have a printer with a USB connection, so can't offer much guidance. The command to enable printer sharing would be:''

:printersharing LPD config state=enabled

And you'd need to add a queue, a good place to start is:

:printersharing LPD queue menu

=Other pages regarding this router=

[[Category:Router TG582N|USB]]