Hi Barry, Thanks for your response,I currently have the drive connected to the desktop and available via the wireless network but we plan on donating the desktop to our daughter to have in her room and don't want to have the drive connected to it so was wondering if it could be connected to the network in some other way but your response confirms my suspicion that isn't possible...o well, was worth a try! Thanks anyway, Phil _____ From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Barry Toner Sent: 02 December 2009 15:32 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: connecting external HD to wireless network Phil, You've two options. 1. Have the drive setup on say your desktop, as a shared network drive. Or Buy a Network Attached Storage (NAS), hard drive. This drive will then plug directly into your routers Ethernet port and will make the files always available regardless what machine is on or off. As to actually connecting your exsisting drive to the router I don't think this is possible. If If it's a 3.5" drive you could google to see if you can buy NAS enclosures to put the drive in and that would work. If it's a sealed drive like say one of the passport drives I don't think you can open them. I have had 2.5" and 1.4" HD's arrive in little USB enclosures that could be opened either buy sliding and lifting the lid or that had little tiny screws in them that I've unscrewed. These are very fiddly screws though, not much bigger than jewler screws in watches and the like. So I'm not sure if you can get NAS's for anything smaller than 3.5" drives. Hopefully that's given you something to mull over. Barry,. From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Phil Stephenson Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 1:33 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] connecting external HD to wireless network Hi, I currently have an external hard drive connected to my desktop which is in turn connected via an Ethernet cable to our o2 wireless router. I will soon be moving the desktop to another part of the house and connecting it wirelessly to the o2 network. I would like to still have the external HD available as a network drive but I don't want to have to put it in the same room as the desktop, is there a way I can connect the external HD to my o2 router directly so I can access it via the desktop and my laptop? All help gratefully received, Cheers, Phil __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4654 (20091202) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4655 (20091202) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4655 (20091202) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4655 (20091202) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com