Can anyone suggest a way or product to connect a USB 3.0 Ext HDD to a router?

[StrandedonEarth]

The basic question is in the title. Here are the particulars of what I have:

I bought a 3TB WD MyBook external HDD (USB 3.0) with the intention of connecting it to the USB port on my router to share on my home network, for file sharing and a DLNA media server. I was disgusted to find out the hard way that my router at the time supported less than 1TB through the USB port. Then I had internet problems, that Shaw eventually solved my replacing the old cable modem with a brand new top-of-the-line combined modem/wireless router (with gigabit Ethernet) made by Arris (Motorola), which doesn't have USB. I want to get the extHDD on my network, to be shared by all the laptops, iThings, and TV's in the house. There are no desktop PC's in the house, so sharing it through a PC isn't an option. I also don't want to spend much more than Cdn$100, if possible.

I've looked at various options, mostly NAS enclosures with USB expansion ports., such as a Dlink DNS-320L or a TrendNet TN-200, which are only USB 2. A little research has shown that gigabit is faster than USB 2.0, so I would prefer a USB 3.0 device to connect my eHDD to my router/modem. I also saw other USB NAS devices for this purpose, such as in this article

Bottom line: Can someone suggest or recommend a decent, affordable device to connect a USB 3.0 external HDD to a gigabit router? Or in practical use will a 2.0 device be good enough?

Note: While we mostly use wireless around the house, I can hardwire some devices and plug in my laptop when necessary for max ethernet speed.

[Nibb31]

What you are looking for is the functionality of a NAS, so if I were you, I'd just buy a NAS. Remove the drive from the USB enclosure and stick it in the NAS. This is the solution that will get you the best performance and a decent NAS can also act as a home server to run all sorts of useful stuff.

Another solution is to buy a router with a USB 3.0 port that supports 3TB drives.

Or you could just plug it into your PC and leave it always on.

[InterCity]

Plugging stuff into router is useless unless you are having a piece of hardware that assigns the said stuff network addresses. For that, you can get a NAS, i think that cheap ones cost about €100 (Am I wrong?).

Or, if you are tech savy, you can just buy a dirt cheap old computer just like I've done, anything with a 1 GHz processor and about 1-2 gigs of RAM should do, hook the drive there and install a server utility (Apache might work, probably there are some specialized tools as well), and access the server via FTP or PHPMyAdmin. (Sorry for tech speak, google it up). For best results, use linux.

The NAS is still, IMO, the way to go if you have enough cash to afford it.

[StrandedonEarth]

Yeah, I caved and bought a WD MyCloud 2TB NAS. I just didn't want to spend the $160 plus tax (Cdn) for it, but ah well. Hopefully I can recoup some of that by selling my barely-used 3TB MyBook. Thx for the replies, I knew it was a long shot.