Connecting My Book Live Duo directly to PC

Hello, I’m considering purchasing the 6TB MBLD; I saw this thread that said it is possible to connect directly to a computer via ethernet cord, bypassing the router, but that it’s really not designed for it. Can someone expand on this?

My router is in a different room than my PC and I’d like to be able to connect directly in case something happens with the network.

Thanks,

Andrew

I dont really see a question here…

Of course this works, just plug it in. Assuming that your computer has only 1 Ethernet port, you can’t have a wirted connection to your router. Also the MBL cannot be accessed from other devices.

I have already tried this setup, with Windows OS you dont even need set the IPs, if not connected to a DHCP, your MBL will get a 169.x.x.x IP, like the computer.

What i still didnt get is, if you want to connect directly as a permanent setup, or really just in case?

Because if you have a wired connection from your computer to the other room, just put a switch next to your computer. Plug in the Ethernet cable to the router, another to the computer and another to the MBL… So you will always have direct access to the MBL without changing hardware setup, no matter if the router is working or not.

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Thanks, I just wanted to make sure it would plug in directly, as the manual didn’t say anything about it.

I don’t have a wired connection from my computer to the other room. I think I’ll try connecting the MBL to the router and accessing it wirelessly, and if that’s too slow, I’ll try directly. Thanks for your help!

If you only have 1 Computer that should access the MBL, this solution might be okay. I still wouldnt recommend this.

Allow me another suggestion:

-Buy a 1Gbps Ethernet Switch with WIFI and put it next to your computer (these things are really cheap nowadays)

-Set this switch as WIFI bridge to your router

-Plug in the MBL and the computer to the wired Ethernet Switch

Advantages:

-Full speed access from your computer to MBL

-Also full speed to the internet availible, both from MBL and Computer (assuming WFIF faster than your internet)

-Remote access and LAN access from other computers, streaming clients, smartphones… to MBL availible, both via WIFI and Wire

-no changes in Hardware setup necessary (carrying around the MBL from one room to another, i would be really annoyed :slight_smile: )

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m having trouble finding a ethernet switch with wifi, would you mind linking to one just so I can see what you’re talking about?

Alternately, would it work to get another router and connect the MBL to that? Would it be able to connect to my main router?

Sure, i hope that you will get the configuration right.

I have good experience regarding price and very easy user configuration with netgear products (the hardware is not the best, but the job gets done). So maybe you take a look at:

http://www.amazon.com/NetGear-WNR3500L-100NAS-Rangemax-Wireless-N-Refurbished/dp/B004UV4LOQ/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1346307926&sr=1-8

I dont know this particular product, the only thing i was looking at was a 4-port Ethernet switch with 1Gbps and n-standard Wifi (and sorted by price). You can also buy any other Device with these two features. There are also other nice things availible like USB for printer, or compatibility with tomato firmware(for advanced stuff).

Thanks for the link. I’m a little confused–will this router function as a switch for my purposes? Here’s how I’m thinking to set it up: Main router in other room, then this router in other room with computer and MBL. Connect MBL to this router and connect this router to computer. Will this work? And will I get the maximum speed from the MBL?

Exactly.

Both devices are connected to 1Gbps Ethernet, that allows maximum speed for data transfer. you could still connect to your internet router via wifi, so the internet will be availible too, so the primary goal is achieved without configuring anything, just plug it in.

To increase comfort for all your network, you have to set up the WIFI mode of your new router next to the PC correctly. Set it to bridge and turn off the DHCP server. It should recieve the IP Adress from your internet router. You will have 2 wireless networks then, and no matter in which one you connect to, both internet and acces to MBL should be availible

If you do skip this step, your MBL will have no connection to the internet and only devices that connect to your new router can access the MBL, and only devices that connect to your internet router will have access to the internet. So that is also the way to test if you did the config right 

Great! Thanks for your help!

Just wanted to update–I finally got around to setting everything up. I was able to configure my new router as a bridge, so now my setup is: main router–> wireless–> upstairs router–>MBLD via ethernet. Upstairs router is connected to PC via ethernet, so I’m not using the PC wireless card. I have a few other questions which I will start new threads for.  Thanks again for your help. This guide helped me configure the routers: http://vpncasestudy.com/download/WDS/WDS_Concept.pdf

Hello stb01,

It is possible to connect MBL directly to a laptop using RJ45, and is just like a computer with an issue IP address even without a DHCP.

Next question is , can anyone from my network access WBL that connected to the laptop???

RH

Why do people buy NASes when they don’t want it on a normal network?

Thanks for the reply =)

I was unable to put near my router bec of space constraints. I was thinking of other alternative before getting the Live duo. =)

Well, ok.

To answer your original questions, the answers are “No,” unless you do some reconfiguration of your PC to allow it to bridge the connections.

thanks man =), I did read about it and to bridge , a ethernet switch with wireless capabilites is required. However, if the WDL is behind my laptop which is link together using the RJ-45 cable, can anyone who able to access my share folder on my laptop, able to access the WDL as well? =). Provided I did share the WDL as well across the network if that is possible

RH