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.
its jean again…
my problem changed a little. i kicked off the shareport utility v1.15 from my computer and i reinstalled v1.10. now the utility shows my printer online. the drivers are still installed of my printer.
but i still dont get my printer work. even its connected. i guess i need to configure the connection settings on the port settings of the printer local on my computer, because its not working about the settings in the shareport utility.
how do i get my printer work??? thanx a lot.
Try to reinstall that printer driver to your computer and test print to make sure it works then from there connect that printer USB cable to the router. Now it must works.
I agree, it seems the printer is being correctly connected to, remove any cases of that printer that you already have installed as they would be pointing to the wrong device location and then reinstall the printer to change the location from a network device (before) to a virtual usb port (now on shareport).
I have firmware 1.32NA with Shareport 1.2.0 B3. Didn’t work until I opened port TCP/UDP 19540 in my router (DIR-655). Works perfectly now with all my wireless laptops. KK
“I have firmware 1.32NA with Shareport 1.2.0 B3. Didn’t work until I opened port TCP/UDP 19540 in my router (DIR-655). Works perfectly now with all my wireless laptops. KK”
Please let us know how to do that. Thanks.
Do you have any more specific information on where you opened the port kk? There are many ways of opening a port on the router.
I guess that can be in the http://192.168.0.1/Advanced/Gaming.shtml at ADVANCED/PORT FORWARDING and check your Computer name/select + IP/add, to allow it can see TCP/UDP in range of 19540 ? Since mine is working with 1.32NA vs 1.10 Shareport and I did not know much so I try not to touch anything and if kk can give us the correct answer what had been done, that would be fantastic.
The only problem I have with it is that you can’t forward that port to more than one computer and if it does work by forwarding to only one of the computers then I’m not sure how it would change anything, unless it’s some sort of bug in the router.
I assume as Dlink or someone stated that the shareport can only be used for users one at a time, so I also assume the Router Admin can go ahead input all computer name + its IP into the port forwarding list, be readied for users to use as one person at a time. Well if FW 1.32NA + SP 1.10 work as it is, why not just use this configuration, make it simple. My thought.
hello people, its jean again.
i still have this problem to connect my printer but now i can be more specific. i tested it on different computers in my network and it only works on my netbook… so here is what i did:
i connected the printer to the router via usb. the shareport utility shows my printer as available. if i want to connect it, it works just fine (on my netbookk). now i plugged off the printer and i plugged on an usb-hub on my router. now i plugged in a second device, my printer again and an optical disk drive. the utility shows both as available and the connection works fine too on my netbook, even with both devices at the same time.
but this only works on my netbook. maybe (i think) it really must have to do anything with a port opening on my other computers. on my netbook it works. i have win home on it. unfortunately it doesnt work on my other computers in my network (i have win pro on each one on it).
i already know that i only can connect one computer to those devices. even when i disconnect the devices from my netbook, i cant get them run on an other machine. the utility shows those devices on my other computers as available but i damn cant get it connected there.
now im really out of advice here and i need some help. someone please need to tell me how it works with the port opening or some other reason.
PLEASE HELP. thanx alot.
Many people have insisted that re-flashing the firmware on the router does wonders for it’s reliability but I’m not such a fan, but it’s always worth a try.
It’s a good sign that the devices can be seen at least on the other PCs, is there any form of firewall or antivirus software that the other PCs have that isn’t installed on the netbook?
I notice from your previous comments that you are already on 1.32, so flashing the firmware shouldn’t cause any harm, I would recommend trying the firmware here, it fixes a SharePort bug of some kind, it may be the bug that you are experiencing. At the very least some users that have had trouble with 1.32NA have reported that the firmware just works better anyway, which could be caused any number of things from a better flash to it’s ability to wipe the settings. I’m *still* yet to test how SharePort works with it, but I may do so shortly.
The port forwarding idea above is interesting, but doesn’t sound practical as SharePort is automatic and port forwarding is not, so you would be forever going in and changing the port forwarding options to each PC.
last night i tried that thing about opening a port on the router and -how surprising- it doesnt work either.
i need to know how to open this port on the other computers, i dont know. maybe this works.
i have already thought about switching back to an older version of the firmware on the router. but i think that would not change anything. its how you said before, its a good sign, that the devices are shown as available on the other computers.
by the way i have installed on each machine the same antivir software, service pack 3 and included the windows firewall. the only thing different on my netbook is, i have xp home on it and xp pro on the others. oh yes on each machine i also have peer guardian installed.
i doesnt work even if i terminate the task of peer gaurdian or the other firewall software. there is also no way to change something in the win registry about the shareport utility.
so how does this work with the port opening or do you have some other advice maybe i should try to get back to an older version of the firmware.
thanx alot.
For starters I would recommend the fixed firmware here as it really has helped with SharePort’s connectivity and stability for me, you can also try going to the earlier firmware as well, I think 1.30 or 1.31 supports the older version that seemed to work well for people.
I don’t know how the whole port forwarding thing is supposed to work and it just seems really strange to me.
I don’t think the software you are running would cause any problems as I also run them on the computers that don’t have SharePort issues.
This is a little off-topic but I started using PeerBlock a few months ago, it’s a recent fork of PeerGuardian where they have performed many fixes and even have a signed driver, I highly recommend it if you find PeerGuardian to be a little unstable/slow like I did.
im back and i solved this problem. the solution is so damn easy *self-banging-head-against-a-wall*
in the network options i just needed to unmark the utility in the firewall options. now it works fine. 🙂
Great news Jean, glad you were able to get it all worked out properly.
Good info. Hah haha :))) that can make an early TGIF for this week
I have a 1.5TB WD USB hard drive. I have the 655 with 1.32NA A2 firmware. I can connect to the drive but nothing happens I do not get explorer opening up to auto play or anything. Happening with WinXp home and WinXP pro…
I don’t see the drive show up in my computer but if I connect the usb 1.5TB drive to my pc or laptop I can see it and read/write to it.
I also am using shareport 1.10 newest one for this firmware
I used a corsair usb stick and it open and works perfectly!
Some of these drives, especially the newer ones need extra USB power to turn on fully and I don’t believe the router has the power capability in the USB port to do so, if you have a self-powered 4 port usb hub or anything like that you can try connecting through it as it should have the necessary power.
If you a clicking sound that happens every 1-2 seconds at a regular interval from the drive when it’s plugged into that port it’s a sign that it’s not getting the power that it needs as it is stuck in the power up cycle, my external USB drive does the same thing if it connects to a port that doesn’t have enough power for it.
Officially D-Link insist that large drives do actually work, just in reality people are finding that it’s hit and miss.