I've bought the wrong product I thinkl!

Well what an ■■■■■ I feel! I’ve just received an WD My book which I wanted in order to access my media files via the network. It seems though that there are alternatives such as My Book Essentials and My Book Live. Stupidly, all it says on my box is “My Book” (how am I to know the difference?).  All I seem to have purchased is a basic back-up drive, which I already have by the way.

So as I return this one as useless for what I require, what do I need in order to be able to access my media (iTunes) from other portable devices?

I thought I’d done my research but clearly not, as this WD product is prettty useless for my needs,

Apologies if I’m on the wrong forum product group, but I really am totally confused, Why so many products?

Please advise. What do i need?

Thanks. 

Sadly, yes, they are very similar. The big clues would be to look for words such as “NAS” or “Network” vs “USB”.

Nevertheless, return it and buy what you need. If that is not an option, on your other post you mentioned connecting the external USB hard drive to a router that has USB port.

That would be the easier solution, access the drive on the network when connected to the router via USB. In a few words, find out if your router has NAS/file server functions. Check the manual.

Good luck!

A big thanks you for your response and advice. I HAVE bought the wrong one. How stupid of me. Back to Amazon I think.

Now, just to be sure, will the WD My Book Live do what I want, that is connect to my router and give access to content on the drive via my network? Or if not, what will? 

Update. Ordered WD My Cloud. Returning My Book to Amazon Monday.

PLEASE don’t tell me this won’t work on my network either!