A wireless subnet with no ethernet cable at all, possible?

[mach]

Hello guys!

Actually I started a thread few days ago asking the same thing, and a nice chap answered me yes. But I am worried that I wasn't outlining my plan clear enough. Just want to make sure it will work before buying a $150+ router.

 

I want to set up a second router to connect my external harddisk onto, so I can access my files with all my devices as long as they are on the same network (just like a nas). The problem is there cannot be any ethernet cable involved (for setting up is ok) and I don't want other users to see my harddrive at all.

I did quite a bit research on it, but due to my horrible networking knowledge I don't know the exact wordings for searching. I saw similar setup with two subnets but they all have physical cables connecting the first and second router. I need it to be completely wireless. I saw it could be done with wireless bridge but I don't want to share the same subnet with other users (for privacy and security). To help you visualize why this setup is desired, here is my scenario.

 

Is this achievable?

 

I am thinking of buying a synology rt1900ac router or a linksys wrt1900ac router if it will work. Although I only got pathetic ADSL internet but I still want local file transfer to be quick. Please kindly point out anything wrong with this concept. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[AlphaGamer46]

Hi.

 

I'm not a networking guru at all but I'm not sure what you want to achieve is actually possible.

 

The private subnet is probably the factor that will kill it.

 

I haven't seen anyone do anything like this ever.

 

Most people who need private subnets use ethernet.

 

Also, why a private subnet? Just don't tell anyone the password and the hard drive can be easily managed by just changing permissions in Windows.

[zMeul]

why don't you just password protect access to said HDD?!

 

to achieve what you want, you would need a 3rd router that doesn't connect to anything

you set it up on a different subnet and hide it's SSID

[Razor512]

The WRT1900 AC routers do not have a wireless bridge function in the stock firmware, thus you will need 3rd party firmware.

 

If you need stock firmware, and want a really good stock implementation of a wireless bridge, then a newer netgear router is recommended. Mainly because they have a simple wireless bridge wizard which pretty much just asks you for the band that the AP is on as well as the SSID and password. Compared to any of the 3rd party firmware, netgear's  implementation requires the fewest steps.

 

For storage performance, the WRT1900acs has the fastest storage performance on the market when it comes to consumer routers, (though it will not matter much if all of the clients will be wireless, (ou will be lucky to hit even 60MB/s, though a wired client can easily hit 100MB/s+.

 

For the synology router, I am unsure of if it offers a wireless bridge function i the stock firmware, and there is also no 3rd party firmware for it.

 

 

[mach]

51 minutes ago, AlphaGamer46 said:

 

 

50 minutes ago, zMeul said:

 

 

20 minutes ago, Razor512 said:

 

Thank you so much for the replies!

Sorry my idea seems pretty dumb. 

I am using an obscure external hdd enclosure. I don't know how I can password protect it once it's on the network plugged in to a router.

Other users on the same network are all technology illiterates who install all kinds of sketchy malwares. I don't want them to take up any resource on my router. 

So it means the best way is to do a wireless bridge with the 2nd router and password protect my hdd? I am pretty sure the existing modem+wifi unit doesn't support any features more advance than wifi key (i.e. it's crap). 

I guess I will just save the money for something else then... Thank you guys again for sharing your knowledge!

[AlphaGamer46]

12 hours ago, mach said:

 

 

Thank you so much for the replies!

Sorry my idea seems pretty dumb. 

I am using an obscure external hdd enclosure. I don't know how I can password protect it once it's on the network plugged in to a router.

Other users on the same network are all technology illiterates who install all kinds of sketchy malwares. I don't want them to take up any resource on my router. 

So it means the best way is to do a wireless bridge with the 2nd router and password protect my hdd? I am pretty sure the existing modem+wifi unit doesn't support any features more advance than wifi key (i.e. it's crap). 

I guess I will just save the money for something else then... Thank you guys again for sharing your knowledge!

All good.

 

I still say, the best way to do everything is through ethernet.

 

(Depending on what tablet you use) You can buy micro USB to ethernet adapters and connect your tablet to a hub to use the hard drive.

 

Still, try ethernet. Everyone who wanted a private subnet-type network did this.

 

Good luck!