Thumb drive droid as a NAS?

[pengyou]

I have a home network that I would like to attach a "freestanding" hard drive to. I have looked into NAS devices and then I noticed a "gadget" at my local computer shop. It is the same shape as a thumb drive but about 50% and has a full size usb port on it. In a nutshell, it is a smart phone without the phone or camera. It has both wifi and bluetooth - there is another one that is slightly larger that has a full size rj45 port on it. Comes with Android 4.x and has an hdmi interface to plug into a monitor.

Is there software out there to let me connect my hard drive to this, and then connect it to my network via either wifi or the rj45? If so, what kind of speed can I expect to get from it? The main function is to let friends who come to my house share files with each other via wifi or bt. I am hoping I can use a device like this to help protect my server from the various evils that lurk in the heart of men. I don't like to connect wifi anything to my home server.

 

[Rukbat]

If your router has a USB port for a network drive, just plug an external USB drive (or a USB thumb drive) into that, and open a guest account. Your friends can connect to the guest account, access the drive and share files. (Or they can use existing wifi or Bluetooth file sharing apps and bypass any drive [or your entire network with Bluetooth].)

If you want specific advice about a specific device, the name and model number would help us to kjnow what device you're talking about.

 

[pengyou]

It looks a bit like this, with a full sized usb port. They are called things like tv's in a box, box tv's, etc. They are a smart phone computer, minus the smart phone and camera, with tv circuitry. Some have wifi and bt, some only wifi. They need 5v to run. If I mentioned the brand name you wouldn' t know it - it is a generic Chinese product.