Tell me if this is worth my time to install these router extensions for USB

[sdowney717]

I could extend my routers capabilities regarding it's USB port.
I bought one of these a few years ago very cheap and recently hooked it up.

What good would it do for me to install these Lemonade extensions?
Do anyone of you use a usb port on a router and if so, what for?

https://sites.google.com/a/tds.net/unlock-your-verizon-westell-7501-wireless-g-router/home/all-in-one

The usb sharing might be more useful if I could use my portable USB hard drive of 300gb on the network.
A 4gb limit really not very good.

Any ideas about that one?
I suppose connected PC's on the router LAN could all access the drive?

[mamamia88]

4gb? Might as well use dropbox and not kill your flash drive.

[DuckHook]

Do anyone of you use a usb port on a router and if so, what for?

People extend their routers for purposes other than increased storage, which, in most cases, is actually the least important reason. I don't know anything about the Verizon router that you use, but in my case, I've converted a number of absurdly old and discontinued Linksys routers into high-end routers with features that would cost you hundreds if not thousands of bucks if purchased from the specialty HW vendors. It constitutes a whole hobby culture of its own and is immensely satisfying and rewarding once you get the hang of it. And the crazy thing is that it requires no more than the ability to nuke the OS that comes with the thing and flashing another Linux-based one in its place. I'm assuming some basic Linux knowledge, but it really isn't that hard.

As I said, don't know anything about the Verizon router, and for all I know, it will only accept Lemonade. But there are tons of old routers on ebay that will take a firmware upgrade. Imagine buying one for $10 and turning it into something with a feature set that commercial router manufacturers sell for $3,000.

I use dd-wrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/) on mine, but others go with openWRT (https://openwrt.org/) or tomato (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato). I've just linked to them for your convenience. This forum is not the place to get into the details, but each of these firmware sites host their own universe of specialized forums.

Re: the USB port on your router. The real purpose of this port using lemonade is to store apps for the router alone, not data for shared use, and 4GB is immense. A flashed router can act as a: commercial WIFI hotspot, VPN server, VOIP gateway, simple web server, mail server and dozens of other uses, all running on a dinky little residential router.

If serious, be prepared to get lost in a whole 'nuther world.

[mamamia88]

People extend their routers for purposes other than increased storage, which, in most cases, is actually the least important reason. I don't know anything about the Verizon router that you use, but in my case, I've converted a number of absurdly old and discontinued Linksys routers into high-end routers with features that would cost you hundreds if not thousands of bucks if purchased from the specialty HW vendors. It constitutes a whole hobby culture of its own and is immensely satisfying and rewarding once you get the hang of it. And the crazy thing is that it requires no more than the ability to nuke the OS that comes with the thing and flashing another Linux-based one in its place. I'm assuming some basic Linux knowledge, but it really isn't that hard.

As I said, don't know anything about the Verizon router, and for all I know, it will only accept Lemonade. But there are tons of old routers on ebay that will take a firmware upgrade. Imagine buying one for $10 and turning it into something with a feature set that commercial router manufacturers sell for $3,000.

I use dd-wrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/) on mine, but others go with openWRT (https://openwrt.org/) or tomato (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato). I've just linked to them for your convenience. This forum is not the place to get into the details, but each of these firmware sites host their own universe of specialized forums.

Re: the USB port on your router. The real purpose of this port using lemonade is to store apps for the router alone, not data for shared use, and 4GB is immense. A flashed router can act as a: commercial WIFI hotspot, VPN server, VOIP gateway, simple web server, mail server and dozens of other uses, all running on a dinky little residential router.

If serious, be prepared to get lost in a whole 'nuther world.
By no means an expert myself but i use a dd-wrt router for a bridge for 2 xbox 360s and a ps3 and it works great. not saying not to do it but not quite sure what he's trying to accomplish.

[DuckHook]

By no means an expert myself but i use a dd-wrt router for a bridge for 2 xbox 360s and a ps3 and it works great. not saying not to do it but not quite sure what he's trying to accomplish.

Agreed. Requests are sometimes cryptic on these forums. When I followed the link OP provided, I got a specialty site dealing with hacking a specific router and some apps that could be loaded onto a USB stick. I guess I sorta answered his question at a meta level, thinking to give him a more general outline of router hacking.