RJ45 to USB
 

I have been using a netgear router with 5 network plus one USB sockets. The USB had a hard drive plugged in which contained all my music and pictures. Recently I have changed ISP and gone with Sky. Their supplied Sagem router only has network sockets and no USB ones. I have seen advertised some RJ45 to USB cables and was wondering if I could plug one of these into the router and plug my external hard drive into the other end of the cable. Anyone tried this?

If you're thinking of something like this:
http://www.computercableinc.com/ccin...11-Adapter.jpg

No, it won't work.

You'll need a USB NAS Adapter. Something like:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...VL._SL500_.jpg

just a thought, it may be possible to simply set the Netgear router as a hub/router rather than a modem/router
You would have to disable DNS serving on it, and maybe fudge some other settings but in principle it should be possible to run a network cable from the Sky router to the Netgear and run it as a simple hub

I can see your thinking re using the netgear as a hub device but I seem to recall that part of the software setup requires it to establish a broadband connection. However Sky do not give you access to your user name or password so the netgear cannot establish a broadband connection.

you shouldn't need to do that - within the settings it should be possible to configure it as a simple hub, without needing any external connection. Bridge mode maybe?

Try connecting one of the Netgear's switch ports to one of the Sagem's switch ports. No further configuration required, although switching off the WAP and DHCP service on the Netgear would be a good idea.

Just don't use the "internet" uplink port on the Netgear - unless you actually want to create a separate IP network.

I've done that with a Netgear hanging off a Linksys. Having said that, I was just using the network ports, not a USB connected HDD.

SD

To expand on what Saab has said, ensure the Netgear doesn't have the same IP address as the Sagem, but that it sits in the same subnet.

e.g. Sagem = 192.168.1.1/24 and Netgear = 192.168.1.2/24

Cheers,
Mike.

Netgear on sky
 

Unless the Netgear router does not do ADSL2 and you have a new fancy high speed service you could also consider using the Netgear router on your sky broadband.

A dsl router is a dsl router is a dsl router. Near enough.

Some are locked to the isp by disabling the means to change part of the user id in the setup screens. This can be often be worked round. I have un-skyed a speedtouch router I bought in a charity shop for example.

You may be able to read the user/password combination out of the sky router, otherwise if you call sky they will tell you your user/password combination and you will get the other stuff, VPI/VCI etc., somewhere on-line. Most UK ISP's use the same settings but there are exceptions.

NEVER though confess to sky support that you are not using their router;-) They may well just stop talking to you. This is understandable of course since they do not want to train their personnel in every possible kind of router.

Linksys Router and Sky Broadband - Setup help need :: General Broadband Chatter :: think broadband

"1. Select RFC 2364 PPPoA from the Encapsulation drop-down menu.
2. For the Virtual Circuit ID, enter 0 for the VPI and 38 for the VCI.
3. Select VC for Multiplexing.
4. Select Multimode from the DSL Modulation drop-down menu.
5. Enter the User Name and Password details that you obtained from your sky router"

One problem with that idea
Sky refuse to divulge the logon credentials needed to get onto their broadband network. They say its to make tech support easier - they only have to train the staff on a limited number of systems

I've tried to get the info from them many times and always had it refused

On some of their routers it is possible to take dump a backup of the settings, then convert from hex to binary, do so algorithmic work and extract the settings, the details are around on the web. I've never done it myself and the one time I looked at the instructions I decided I wasn't too keen on trying