Wifi vs home network (my passport Wireless product)

WD External Drives My Passport Wireless
1

if i connect this drive on my home network as wifi (and at one point i shut down my router, lets say while on vacation but leave the drive connected to an electrical outlet withous shutting down the drive will the drive converts itself as visible as a network (by default called ‘MY PASSPORT’ ) where people around the neighborhood be able to connect and see the network and the drive, or will it still be invisible as a stand alone network since i had configured it as being part of my wifi home network ?

because when it runs as part of my home network people inside the network sees the drive which is ok but the device own network ‘My PASSPORT’ does not show so I’m safe since no one can access the drive as a network by itself.

so my question is truly the first paragraph

2

It is unlikely that the MPW network will be visible to anyone. Even if it is, they won’t know the WiFi password for it, so they won’t be able to connect to it. You did use a good WiFi password for the MPW, didn’t you?

So don’t worry about it.

3

No i did not enter a wifi password since i configured it as part of my home network not as a stand alone ‘MY PASSPORT’ network.

On the WD dashboard when you setup the drive it asks what type of connection you want. so since i decided for home network it was hidden behind my router firewall but  i was wondering if it became available in the list of available stand alone network once my router was off opening the door to anyone outside my house.

I dont think it should be but i was wondering if someone had tested it.

I cannot check this out since the drive no longer works but before buying another one i wanted clear this up.

4

Selecting Home Network during setup just means that other PCs on your home network will be able to see the drive. The alternative at that point in setup, which is telling the MPW it is connecting to a Hotspot, just means that other PCs and devices on the hotspot network can not see your MPW.

When you connect the MPW to your home WiFi network it will always be hidden behind your router, whether you select Home Network or Hotspot in settings. However at the same time its own WiFi network is always available for devices to connect to, if the MPW WiFi adapter is turned on (as indicated by the blue WiFi LED), which it is when you are connected to your home WiFI network. For example, my MPW is often connected to my home WiFi network, but then I often connect my iPhone directly to the MPW’s WiFi network, like this;

iPhone → MPW → My home WiFi network.

But just because the MPW’s WiFi network is available to connect to, doesn’t mean that it will be visible for others to connect to, as the MPW doesn’t advertise itself unless you press the WPS button and the blue WiFi LED is flashing.

That naming, Home Network and Hotspot, have been replaced in the latest firmware with a check box labelled “Share content on this network” to make understanding easier. You check it when connecting the MPW to your home network, and uncheck it for public networks.

If you did not set a WiFi password for the MPW’s network, how did you set it up?  When you first set up the MPW, you must connect to its WiFi network, and when you do you are forced to set a WiFi password. The MPW then reboots and asks you to log into its WiFi network using the password just created, at which time you are then able to set the MPW to connect to your home WiFi network.

You may not remember setting a password for the MPW’s WiFi (MY PASSPORT) network, if it was some time ago, but you did.

It is a pity that your MPW no longer works, because if it did you would easily be able to test this by trying to connect to the MY PASSPORT network from a device, perhaps a smartphone, that has never connected to it before, and therefore hasn’t stored the password. You would be prompted to provide credentials to connect, in the form of a password.

5

-so if i understand this correctly then it means that the MPW does not allow you from omitting to create a wifi password, right ?

-you said: ‘‘But just because the MPW’s WiFi network is available to connect to, doesn’t mean that it will be visible for others to connect to, as the MPW doesn’t advertise itself unless you press the WPS button and the blue WiFi LED is flashing.’’

so  if i understand this correctly:

And even if there was no password the MPW does not show up as an available network to anyone searching for available networks by sitting on the sidewalk in front of my home UNLESS  i press the WPS button and the blue WiFi LED, right ?

6

Q1: Correct. The MPW forces you to create a WiFi password before you can use it.

Q2:

If there is no WiFi password in the MPW, then it has never been set up and so there is no data on it. Therefore, there is no risk of anyone seeing your data.

If you haven’t set up the MPW and you press the WPS button, someone else could see it and log in and set it up. By why would they? If they did, they still couldn’t connect to your home network, because they don’t have your home network password. So they can’t do any damage.

Then, at any time, if you found you couldn’t connect to the MPW to set it up, you could just push the buttons to reset the MPW, and set it up from scratch. You have physical access to the MPW to reset it. The person on the sidewalk doesn’t.

The exception to the above is if you have used the MPW and put data on it, then did a “System Reset” on it (see the manual for what that means), and then pressed the WPS button to set it up again, if someone was quicker than you they could set it up themselves, and as you have data on it, they could see your data.

But really, how likely is that to happen?