stealthnat

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the Synology NAS.

Currently I have a usb connected SSD to a network router. There are 4 old laptops of various Windows versions (XP, Vista, and 10) that are all accessing the drive through Ethernet and viewing the photos in Windows Photo Viewer. There are times when it can be slow, since all laptops are accessing the drive at the same time. Also, when a laptop goes to sleep and tries to reconnect, I get this error: Reconnecting the usb cable fixes the issue. Would having a NAS make viewing photos faster? If so I would like a recommendation on a basic NAS that is somewhat portable. It only needs wired connection, I don't need any wireless or cloud features.