Help with Vodafone Bewan Modem

cookie1977

I was just wondering if anyone can give me some instructions on how to access a hard drive/usb key thats plugged into my Bewan Modem.It is detected plugged in to the router byt the modem software but I've no idea how to explore the drive. I've searched everywhere for instructions on how to do it but I cant find anything. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

claytonie

Did you ever have any luck with this? Its a very nice router but it seems like the firmware vodafone has on it isn't complete compared to screenshots i've found of the original Bewan firmware. Be a bit silly if they have disabled the hard drive and printer functionality.

cookie1977

No afraid not and I've tried everything. I searched for updated firmware and instructions on the web but found nothing suitable. I can't ask on the vodafone forum because I can't register on it as I'm not a vodafone mobile customer and they require you to be one to use the forum despite the fact it has a section for vodafone at home. I rang them about this but they cant do anything about it at the moment but do plan to update the system for non mobile customers. Re printer I have a wireless printer (Canon 5200r) which I can connect to the wifi but I'd love to have a hard drive plugged into the router for a central backup/media player. We use two laptops in the house and no desktops. If I find anything out I will post back here. Great to see someone else interested in it too. Cant understand why vodafone would offer the service but provide no help with it. Otherwise very happy with vodafone @ home service.

snaps

yes keep ur eyes and ears open, the idea of a hard drive for media streaming is great

fergusyarrow

I got this to work. If you enable UPnP on the modem and your laptop, you should be able to see it in the list of network devices. I was also able to mount it using smb:-

smb://192.168.1.1/Freecom_N012

I am using a MacBook though, and am not too sure off-hand if the procedure is the same on a Windows laptop. I am also too lazy to take my work laptop out and try it, but I guess it can't be too dissimilar

claytonie

Fergus you're a gent you can map a the connected network drive in windows e.g \\192.168.1.1\Freecom_H011 from the map network drive tool. It all connects up and works great you have just made my Sunday!

snaps

how easy is this? Ive been wanting to share a drive for ages via my vodaone modem. My modem shows a hard drive is connected in the device connection map (In modem settings), but not in the hard drive option of the modem???? It doesnt allocate the hard drive an IP address either?

woodsp

Hi,

Did you get the modem working as you wanted? If not please send me on your details to paul.woods@vodafone.com and I'll get one of our technical gurus to support you.

Best regards,

Paul

General Manager, Total Communications
Vodafone

claytonie

Hi guys this is just a quick step by step of what I did to link up with hard drive on my PC hope it Helps

Step 1:
Go to your vodafone router config page usually at http://192.168.1.1 then click on hard disks. Select the name of the Hard disk connected and copy it.

Step 2:
Right click Computer and select map network drive

Step 3:
Choose the drive letter you want to assign to the drive then in the folder field fill in \\routers IP address\hardrive name e.g. \\192.168.1.1\Freecom_H011
Click next and you should be good to go. Repeat this on all the PCs you need to see the hard drive an you are ready to share your files.

snaps

See this is it, any hard drive i attach to the router doesnt show up in the hard drive attachemnet menu, but in the flow chart connections it shows up as hard drive X1???

claytonie

snaps wrote: »

See this is it, any hard drive i attach to the router doesnt show up in the hard drive attachemnet menu, but in the flow chart connections it shows up as hard drive X1???

Have you perhaps tried a USB memory stick. Also which USB port are you plugging it into?

The software version on my router is "A51406-vodafone_IE1.7-23328" maybe compare if its the same and if not ask Vodafone if they can push an update through if it is older.

snaps

it seems the router doesn't like self powered hard drives (Except USB sticks). Ive got it working fine with a powered hard drive. Many thanks for your guides

claytonie

snaps wrote: »

it seems the router doesn't like self powered hard drives (Except USB sticks). Ive got it working fine with a powered hard drive. Many thanks for your guides

No problem glad you got it sorted :cool:

Shoie

Just got my modem yesterday and can not wait to attach a HDD with USB. Does anyone know though if you use a hub will it support them all?

I will try over the weekend anyway.

claytonie

Shoie wrote: »

Just got my modem yesterday and can not wait to attach a HDD with USB. Does anyone know though if you use a hub will it support them all?

I will try over the weekend anyway.

Hi Shoie did it work with a hub was thinking of hooking a few up with a hub but just to lazy to unpug everything downstairs climb into the cupboard upstairs and find it doesnt work.

digitalcuz

I'm getting the same problem
Under "Connected equipment" I get Hard Disk x1
But when I go to "Hard Disk" I just get the message "No hard disk connected to your router."

I have tested all 3 usb ports and its the same with them all.
I have also tested a self powered HDD and a power connected HDD, and they both have the same results.

I find it kinda hard to believe that its just random if your HDD will work with this router, must me some settings somewhere to be able to fix this annoying bug.

The software version is: A51409-Vodafone_IS-RC3-25816

BrianHal

I'm having this problem with my self powered hard drive. There is no entry in the Hard Disk section where the Connected Equipment has an entry for it. Any ideas?

MunsterCycling

Read the thread, the USB port can't power up a usb powered drive.

MC

BrianHal

Ok, I've a USB key and a powered USB drive, both plugged into the router. The USB key appears in the Hard Disk list and the powered USB drive (which is powered on from the mains) is not appearing in the Hard Disk list. Hard Disk x 2 is appearing in the Connected Equpment page.

foggy_lad

digitalcuz wrote: »

I'm getting the same problem
Under "Connected equipment" I get Hard Disk x1
But when I go to "Hard Disk" I just get the message "No hard disk connected to your router."

I have tested all 3 usb ports and its the same with them all.
I have also tested a self powered HDD and a power connected HDD, and they both have the same results.

I find it kinda hard to believe that its just random if your HDD will work with this router, must me some settings somewhere to be able to fix this annoying bug.

The software version is: A51409-Vodafone_IS-RC3-25816

had this problem yesterday also, i had a 500GB maxtor powered usb drive plugged into the usb at the back of the modem which showed as attached in the diagram but when i chose the hard drive section it was not there. i had very little time yesterday to play around with it but will have a better look at it today and hopefully get a better result and post the info.

[edit] i thought afterwards that maybe completly unpluging the modem and leaving it a few minutes then plugging it back in after attaching the hard drive might work?

Ronan H

Thanks claytonie for the walkthrough...

Has anyone noticed a massive transfer speed difference when they have their external hard drives connected through the Bewan USB port as opposed to the Ethernet port?

When I was with Eircom I had a network HD attached to my Netopia router via Ethernet (there was no USB option). Transfer speed of files to the HD over the wireless network was OK but nothing to write home about. Since transferring to Vodafone I have started connecting the network HD via the USB port on the Bewan router and the speeds of transfer are hugely faster. For example I transferred about 2.5GB of data in less than half an hour today via USB. Transferring that via the Ethernet port would have taken a couple of hours. Is this a normal limitation of Ethrent WiFi transfer? I was delighted to discover this needless to say and it's also easier to access the HD mapped network drive in Windows Explorer rather than through the "Network" tree in Windows Explorer.

I know this is a digression from the OP but I think it's loosely related in terms of the whole USB / Connection thing...

Comments and experiences appreciated!

Ro

Edit: In relation to peoples HD's not working, does the HD specifically have to be called a "Network Hard Drive" in order to work through a router? As in, if you buy a "standard" external hard drive (designed to connect directly to a PC or laptop) and a "network" hard drive, what is the difference between them apart from an Ethernet port? Is there some software in them that differenciates them also? Could this software (or whatever it is that makes them different) be what's stopping them working through the router?

Perhaps for the people whose HD's won't work through the router they are using HD's that are designed to be connected directly to a PC or laptop rather than through a router? I dunno, it just popped into my head so I thought I'd mention it, perhaps it makes no difference but you never know. Any thoughts?

Ro

BrianHal

Head (Ro):
By the sounds of things, it can be any type of standard, self powered, external USB hard drive.

Can anyone who has their hard drive connected to the router and working as described in the posts further up the thread tell me, what filesystem the hard drive is formatted as, i.e. FAT32 or NTFS? Does this make a difference? Which OS type does the Bewan firmware work as?

ondafly

a bump for this - I've gotten some HDs to work, while others don't. Very hit and miss. I have a 1TB maxtor that works fine, however I have 2 seagate 1TBs that don't work. Some USB sticks work, some don't.

Also the pages for the modem don't always load fully. Is there an update available which might fix these issues ?

PS Thanks to Paul (Vodafone) for sorting me out with a direct line into the Support guys in Vodafone

Ronan H

ondafly wrote: »

Also the pages for the modem don't always load fully. Is there an update available which might fix these issues ?

That is particularly annoying. I for one would be delighted to see an improvement in the stability of the modem GUI!

Good bump.

Ro

skintythe1andon

Hi

I recently signed up to vodafone dsl and was happy with the router when it advertised that I could connect up a hard drive and usb printer, however I had some initial teething problems.

My hard drive is an Iomega network storage device 320 Gb. It has the option of connecting it over ethernet or USB. I first plugged it in via ethernet, as I didnt have the usb cable anymore. The router would not assign an IP address to it, it did not show up on connected equipment.

I found my usb cable and plugged it in. I followed the above post with the screenshots (thats how i used to mount my Iomega drive on the network) but this didnt work either. I then enabled the FTP server and managed to get it working over FTP. For XP (I use linux) go to network places, add network place and add ftp://<username>@192.168.1.1 where the username is the one you setup on the ftp server.

I then tried to get the USB printer working. I thought this would be a little easier. I enabled the printer in the router GUI. I could not get this going initially. I emailed vodafone and they sent me the manual for this. Why they dont supply this I dont know.

Go to add a printer and add a printer using the URL

http://192.168.1.1/printers/<printer_name&gt;

the <printer_name> is the one you used in the router config.... not the make and model.

To get my hard drive working over samba (the same way you have above... which is much handier) try Firefox to confirm its working. It can connect under samba

in the url bar put
smb://192.168.1.2/share

The name assigned in the router GUI did not work for me. I had to use 'share' instead. Let me know if there is problems

ossoss

BrianHal wrote: »

Ok, I've a USB key and a powered USB drive, both plugged into the router. The USB key appears in the Hard Disk list and the powered USB drive (which is powered on from the mains) is not appearing in the Hard Disk list. Hard Disk x 2 is appearing in the Connected Equpment page.

I have the same exact problem, and I wonder about the File format NTFS , FAT32... I wish someone really has the right answer...

snaps

oldish thread i know, but ive put linux onto an old laptop, i cant for the life connect to my external hard drive thats connected to my vodafone router. I can connect to an external harddrive on my linux based satellite receiver and ftp etc, but just cannot see my harddrive on the vodafone router. Any help appreciated.