Help me Network a WD TV Media Player to my PC through USB yikes!

blackranger3d

Hey All

I know that this little beauty has no native netwroking ability but I was thinking could I set it up on a USB network.


The two options I was thinking about are:

1. Using a USB bridge between the WD and a PC. (like this)
2. Hooking up an external HDD to both the PC and the WD.

Some of you are going to ask why? Why not get off your lazy ass and just use a jump drive? A few reasons so far:

- Because its there (I want to try)
- Becasue I want to keep the process as simple as possible for the people using it
- Becasue I want to have one central location for all files (mainly music)


Anyway, could the above work? I did some quick google research and didn't find anything.

mrbernz

Option 1 - I don't think it will work. I have little experience with networking with USB cable, but from my understanding you would need to run some sort of software for them to communicate. I could be wrong and it may act like network sharing, in which cause that might work.
Option 2 - Are you implying your computer and the media device both would be plugged into the same external hard drive? Again, I have never tried that, but I don't think that works either.

Velmeran

Option 1 is viable if you get that specialized cable, it wouldn't be possible with just a regular USB cable since normal USB doesn't have any TCP/IP support like Firewire does (well, did until MS killed support for it).

Option 2 isn't viable on a typical external drive, they might have two USB ports, but its simply there for giving extra power when you don't have the external power supply handy. Only one of the USB's will have any ability to communicate data, other with just be feeding power.