Connect hard drive to Fritzbox - how it works

You can connect a hard drive to your Fritzbox, which can then be reached via all devices that are connected to the WLAN. To do this, you must first set up the Fritzbox properly. We'll show you how it works.

Preparation: Deactivate the USB remote connection on the Fritzbox

The USB remote connection must be deactivated so that you can manage a hard drive via the Fritzbox. If your Fritzbox does not support the USB remote connection, you can skip this step.

1. Open the user interface of the Fritzbox and click on "Home network".
2. Select "USB devices" and then the tab "USB remote connection".
3. Deactivate the item "USB storage" and click on "Apply".

Connect the hard drive to the Fritzbox

Now connect the hard drive to the Fritzbox using a USB cable. Which connection you use does not matter. Now you can set up a user account to access the hard drive:

1. Click on "System" in the Fritzbox user interface and select "FRITZ! Box User".
2. If no user has been set up yet, click on "Add user" and enter any name and password.
3. Click the pen icon next to the user to edit the account.
4. Here you activate the option "Access to NAS content" and then click on "Add directory".
5. If the user is to access all memories, click "All memories available on the FRITZ! Box". Alternatively, you can use "Select directory" to specify which storage the user can access.
6. Save the settings with "OK".

Set up home network registration and activate storage

Finally, you have to set up home network registration so that you can access the hard drive.

1. Switch back to "FRITZ! Box User" in the "System" menu.
2. Under "Login to the home network", activate the "Login with FRITZ! Box user name and password" option.
3. Alternatively: If several different users are to access the hard disk, click "Login with the FRITZ! Box password" and set any password for all users.
4. Now click on "Home Network" in the menu on the left and select "Storage (NAS)".
5. Here you can see the connected USB memory. Activate the hard disk by ticking the first column in the table.

Access the hard drive

• From the browser: Call //fritz.nas and log in.
• From Explorer: To control the hard drive directly from the Explorer on the computer, you must set up the hard drive as network storage.
• From the Internet (remote access): If you want to access the hard drive from a computer outside the home network, you must set up remote access.

In the next article we will show how you can use an old Fritzbox as a repeater and thus improve the WLAN signal.

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