TechGremlin
Update 16th January 2010: 1.33b01NA has been released.
Update 2nd November 2009: All users having issues with SharePort, check out this post for the latest information.
Update: Make sure you read the comments below to find out anything new about this feature, many bugs has been fixed since the original release, as of August 2009 Firmware 1.32NA FINAL is the latest firmware, read about it and download it here.
I have owned a D-Link DIR-655 router for the past year and it is by far the best router that I have ever used, although I did pay $150 more than what I have paid for a router before, so I’ve gotten what I have paid for.
Starting with the version 1.21 Beta 04 of the DIR-655 firmware there is now SharePoint functionality available. SharePoint as the media and other sites partially call it or SharePort as it is called everywhere else including the software itself is a way for D-Link products to share a USB device over the LAN, i’m going to try to not confuse you any further so I will refer to it only as SharePort from now on.
SharePort is an interesting feature that I actually wanted to be able to do a few years ago, by sharing USB devices from a computer so they can be used on another PC as if the device was actually plugged into your PC. D-Link have finally brought this technology to life in a limited fashion with SharePort.
This is how SharePort works, I will use my DIR-655 and Brother DCP-150C MFC as an example.
The DIR-655 has a USB port on the back, tests seem to indicate it is a USB 1.1 port, up until now the port was used for wireless settings that could be stored on a USB key.
After installing the new firmware however the USB port has found more use, we’re greeted with a new menu under Setup that controls the use of the port.
As you can see there is not much to the setup of this USB port, WCN Configuration is the default, this is used for the wireless configuration key, choose the dropdown box:
Choosing Network USB puts the router in SharePort mode, choosing 3G USB Adapter is a bit of a mystery to me, I’m not sure what devices are compatible with this yet, however as most people do, I have a 3G service and using it as a backup by only connecting the device up to the USB port and choosing 3G USB Adapter would be very handy.
Once you have chosen Network USB the device is automatically shared, however in order to connect you must install the SharePort software from D-Link, this is still in Beta it appears so use with caution etc etc, I haven’t had a problem with it yet and it seems fairly polished. once it is installed make sure you allow it to run at startup and run it straight away, otherwise you won’t be able to use the device without manually running the SharePort software each time, it only uses 2MB of ram so it’s not a resource hog.
If your USB device is on and connected then the SharePort utility should display like this once you double click on the icon in the system tray. It will then allow you to run through a wizard for installing the device, you will need your device’s driver cd or the latest driver for their website, at the end you will be asked if you want to automatically connect to the device when you print if it is a printer, this is a good idea otherwise you must manually choose to connect.
Once that is all set up on each computer that uses the device, you will notice that each device states that the printer is paused and offline, print to the printer anyway, the SharePort software detects that a print has been sent to the printer and it automatically assigns the printer to your computer and while the printer is communicating with your PC it will show as connected, once the print job has been finished it will then return back to offline, paused.
The limitation of this feature is that it will only work on one PC at a time, USB devices simply aren’t designed to be connected to 2 PCs at once so it makes sense why this is the case.
I have not tried such things as webcams however they have been known to work, however at a slower rate than normal, the scanner feature of my printer works fine, however you must manually connect using the SharePort software to use it, make sure you disconnect after you are done.
As I stated at the start of this article the SharePort software is something I have been waiting a long time for, it’s a great feature considering my router is not the latest out there now and it almost seemed like D-Link had given up adding new features to it, it also shows how well the device can work if it can handle a USB device while it is performing all it’s other duties.
They are having alot of trouble keeping customers at this stage, It would have helped them alot if they had not advertised shareport as a feature.
I tried getting Shareport to work for a while and finally gave up and uninstalled it. Now I am trying to print the old fashioned way (over the network and not using the d link’s USB hub) and I am having huge problems. Printing over the network was fine before shareport, now after intsalling and uninstalling it I have serious issues. Printing takes FOREVER. I mean it is VERY slow. Could the shareport software have left something on my machine that is causing this? Thanks.
It could have done something, SharePort connects you straight to the printer, so you install drivers for the printer that are configured to connect via usb, if they weren’t uninstalled properly then there may be some redundancy that is causing the slowness, try removing all of the printers listed in “Printers & Faxes” and reinstall the network printer driver, unfortunately printer drivers are tricky to remove completely but that should at least remove some connection to the old (USB SharePort) drivers.
Thanks. Where exactly would I find the “network printer driver?”
Well when you have all your printers uninstalled and you find the printer over the network windows should prompt to install the printer, you may have to right click it and click connect if double clicking doesn’t work, here’s an example:
Often it will get the driver for the printer from the other computer or windows update so you don’t have to find it, however if it asks for a driver simply use the printer’s driver cd and it will install those instead.
Hello all, I noticed you guys are posting on the shareport Utility.
I just wanted to give you guys out there a heads up on the New firmware for DIR655 (ver 1.31) that requires you to upgrade the shareport utility to ver 1.10
It seems there is a bug in the utility or the firmware. Once installed the utility is able to “see” the printer and connect to it with the connect button, however, if you want to be able to connect to the printer automatically (like with ver 1.14)your not going to be able too.
After spending a couple of hours on the phone with Dlink and various support personnel, I was finally told by a “software specialist” that it will not work and I will have to manually connect every time I want to print.
Some may thinks, that’s no big deal just hit the connect button, but when you have several computers and they all want to print from that particular printer it can be a hassle to go to every machine and connect then disconnect.
So if you decide you want to upgrade your firmware, keep this bit of info in mind.
Until then I have to wait till another software upgrade to become available and hope that it resolves the problem.
Oh! and by the way once you upgrade the routers’ firmware to ver 1.31 you CAN NOT revert back to the previous one.
Thanks for the information, I wasn’t aware of the bug in the newer version, hopefully they fix them all later on, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Hey Ben,
Thanks for the tutorial and screenshots. I have tried your method to set up the SharePort 1.14 with my DIR-655 Firmware V. 1.21. It is working well. Thanks!
Initially, the print job encountered a problem. I just restart the print job and use SharePort to disconnect with the printer then reconnect again, then it starts printing as normal.
Thanks!
Dennis
Hey guys!
I am also interested in the D-Link DIR-655 and I want to connect my USB hard disk to it as some kind of mini-NAS. Has anyone here successfully connected a USB hard disk yet and (more importantly) tested the speed you can achive through this connection? Thanks a lot in advance,
David
Connecting a hard disk works however the connection is limited to USB 1.1 speeds (12 Megabits/Second or 1.5 Megabytes/Second), so it’s quite slow, generally not recommended if you’re going to be transferring large files.
Hi guys, just letting you know there is a new version of the DIR-655 firmware that you can read about here that fixes a few SharePort issues.
Hey…
Anyone know if the usb utility can be used when the router is configured static as an access point? I ask because I have had no luck in doing so. ‘-‘
Thanks in advance for any help.
I just upgraded to the latest firmware…
Firmware Version : 1.31NA, 2009/04/24
Besides the Web Environment not working in Opera, the speeds for the SharePort with a USB2.0 HDD are really slow… I get from 800KB/s to 2MB/s… while I think USB2.0 directly connected should be around 30MB/s.
Hi Julio,
SharePort only works at USB 1.1 speeds and you’re getting the correct speeds for that. I wouldn’t recommend hard drive usage with it as there have been a few people talk about losing data when the software/connection decides to act up.
Hi Ben,
I am from India.
Recently bought the DIR 655. (H/w Ver: A3 & F/w Ver: 1.11WW)
and couldn’t use the usb port for accessing the external hard disc or a printer. on calling the tech support, they said the hardware version you are using doesn’t support this feature, it should be A4.
Is this the problem of h/w ver. or F/w version.
I don’t think they have been telling the truth there, the A3 can use SharePort, however you will need to upgrade to a newer firmware version to be able to use this, either a 1.2x version or a 1.3x version, keep in mind if you upgrade to the 1.3x series of firmware you will not be able to downgrade again.
thanks a lot Ben for clearing this confusion. I have another query. After speaking to the D Link tech support, they say if i upgrade the firmware version, then the warranty on the product won’t be valid. so should i just go ahead with the upgrade.
and why do you think after upgrading the firmware, i may need to downgrade it again.
When it comes to the 1.3x firmwares they do have problems that the 1.2x series don’t have, but they do fix a few problems with SharePort that were causing a few users to not be able to use it, all DIR-655 routers respond differently to different firmwares so what works for one may not work properly for another.
To be safe I would recommend using a 1.2x version firmware to use at first, if it doesn’t work properly for whatever reason you can downgrade the firmware back to the version you currently have.
Most people have only a few problems with 1.31 but if you want to readup on these check out the D-Link Forums here
Had the same problem with SharePort not finding the USB-printer (connected to a DIR-825 router) on one my computers. Tried updating firmeware, s/w, just about everything, but no. At one time though, it did find the device, which set me off thinking. This might just sound stupid: but don’t touch the mouse (USB-connecdted) while rebooting”. Works for me every time!!! Anybody that could understand why?
That is a very odd solution for it, but if it works then I would encourage people to test it out if they have that issue, doesn’t hurt to try. Perhaps disconnecting such usb devices while rebooting would also work?