RIP HOOTOO nanorouter, Hello GL-SFT1200 for creating your own NAS

RIP to my HOOTOO nanorouter. It has been acting up, so I have decide to retire it.  In its place I purchased this guy:

GL.iNet GL-SFT1200 (Opal) Secure Travel WiFi Router – AC1200 Dual Band Gigabit Ethernet Wireless Internet | IPv6 USB 2.0 MU-MIMO DDR3 |128MB Ram 

GL-SFT1200 on Amazon for $34

It has quite a few options (e.g. Luci interface to Openwrt, a bunch of apps), router, extender, access point modes.

The goal is to use this as a NAS (thumbdrive plugged into usb port) as I did for the HOOTOO.  After much consternation, I was able to get it to work, but only when hard-wired.  It is pretty easy to get it working hard-wired.  It doesn't even need to be on the same subnet as the main router (e.g. it can stay on its 192.128.8.1).  

WARNING: THE NAS FUNCTIONALITY HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE FIRMWARE IN 4.X IN ORDER TO RETAIN NAS FUNCTIONALITY YOU MUST DOWNGRADE TO 3.X e.g. 3.215.  Please see this link for more info on how to downgrade: https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/3/tutorials/debrick/

To get it to work, you follow all of the standard directions for router set up (connect ethernet cable to router, etc). Then plug the thumbdrive into the USB port. I connected it to both my hardwired WAN and my wireless network for good measure.  In order to access the user interface, you need to connect to its wireless network e.g. GL-SFT1200-16d-5G.  Then type its subnet address into a browser (e.g. 192.168.8.1).

Once into the UI, upgrade the firmware (I use auto Upgrade). Once upgraded, go back into the UI.  Go to applications, then click "File Sharing." Turn on:

Share via LAN

Share via WAN

Writable (if you want this)

I also turned on Multimedia Sharing. Finally, hopefully, it will show up under "Network" in windows file manager.  If not, you can try typing the following into the file manager address bar:

\\GL-SFT1200

You can then map it as a network drive.  

The white light on the router is a bit annoying, so you can actually turn it off, once it has booted up. Now this is for the more advanced user!  You can seriously mess things up if you don't do this correctly (of course you can just hold the reset button for more than 10 seconds to reset the entire router).  References telling you how to do it are here:

https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/gl-sft1200-opal-deactivate-led/29139

https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/3/tutorials/file_sharing/

https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/3/tutorials/ssh/

You essentially ssh into the router, use vi to edit the file /etc/rc.local, add the following lines:

/etc/init.d/led disable

/etc/init.d/led stop

save the file and reboot the router.  Depending on where you put these lines, is when the light goes out.  I put them sort of lower in the file and the light goes out after it boots up.

HAPPY SAILING