hap AC external HDD question

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hey guys,
I’m through with consumer grade routers (had a bunch of under performing TPlink, Dlink, asus routers) and I heard good things about mikotik hap ac, here’s what I want to do.
Get the hap ac router, connect it to a main PC, a switch with 2x server type, very low bandwidth need PCs and a TV (via ethernet). I want to download with the main PC directly to an external HDD that is connected to the router via the USB port. With this setup, can the HDD be on 24/7 or spin up as soon as anyone on the network tries to access it ? By anyone I mean, the main PC or the TV itself.
Also, is the hap ac vulnerable to the rather newly discovered WPA2 exploit or is it patched already?

Thanks

2
  1. You can attach a HDD to the device, and share it on your network with SMB (file share).
  2. Yes, the WPA2 (KRACK) thing was patched a few weeks before it was announced (there is a separate topic on the forum here)
3

OK, so the HDD will be visible on any network device 24/7, including Smart TVs ? Good to hear the exploit was patched so fast.

4

To clarify: the HD is accessible through SMB (CIFS, samba, windows file sharing), and FTP. Mikrotik routers doesn’t have DLNA - you can’t use them as a media server that way.

5

I’m a total noob when it comes to TVs, basically I want to know if a TV that has Tizen OS https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/e5a07f2 or webOS 3.5 https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/3978e98 or anything else like this toshiba https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/e5a07f2. Can this play directly videos from the external HDD connected to the router or that function doesn’t exist in the router ? Is this function missing in all mikrotik routers btw ?

6

I don’t know these TV models. I do know that Mikrotik routers don’t have DNLA capabilities. Take a look at the TV manual, and see what it uses to play videos.

7

MikroTik Sales might kill me for that answer:

If you are done with consumer grade routers you should be done with consumer related demands for a router as well.

The hap ac is a really good router with a lot of feaures in networking including access to an external hdd. The latter ist not meant to serve as NAS / media server / network share - so better don’t use it that way. You won’t be happy.

8

OK so you would just copy all videos every time to an external HDD and connect that to the TV every time you want to watch a video ? I want this router but I’d like to resolve this too somehow. I’m not fixed on connecting the HDD to the router directly, is there any other way to connect the HDD to the TV and be visible as a default download path for my main PC ?

9

You can build a media center with Kodi and a Raspberry :slight_smile: that would be much better than having a DLNA server.

10

That actually depends on your TV.

You could get some small Linux board supporting e.g. SATA (Cubieboards are an example), or at least USB (Raspberry) and share the content either via some network file system (NFS, SAMBA - your TV needs to support this), or put some DLNA server on this device (e.g. Twonky, Simple DLNA).
Of course, a dedicated commercial NAS sollution is even nicer, since it offer all these services in an easy to use package.

11

If I buy something like this, https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS115j can the TV watch movies from it directly ? The NAS has DLNA, in this case, is it still necessary for the router to support DLNA or I’m fine ? This would be connected to the router ofc and TV to router as well on ethernet.

12

According to the product description yes, it can. Assuming your TV supports DLNA, of course.
The router doesn’t need to support anything. Just put the TV together with the NAS on your local LAN. No need for routing between them (actually DLNA UPNP discovery will not work if you do routing).

13

Thanks, then that’s what I’ll do and yes the TV supports DLNA.