Hard Drive Sharing

AirPort Extreme can turn your external USB hard drive into a drive you can share with all the users on your network and access securely over the Internet. This feature — AirPort Disk — is a simple and convenient way to share files among everyone in your family, office, or class.

AirPort Utility setup screen

Simple to use.

How does it work? Just connect the external hard drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and — voilà — all the documents, videos, photos, and other files on the drive instantly become available to anyone on the secure network, Mac and PC users alike. It’s perfect for file sharing, collaborative projects, and more.

You can set up password-protected accounts for everyone on the network or allow read-only access to certain files and folders. If you’re using Mac OS X Leopard, you’ll see the drive in your Finder sidebar, where it’s always available for accessing files and folders. For Mac OS X Tiger and Windows users, a simple-to-use AirPort Disk Utility provides a variety of setup options, including setting the disk to become available whenever you connect to the network.

AirPort setup diagram

Access your drive over the Internet.

Say you’re traveling and you need a file on the hard drive connected to your AirPort Extreme back at home. If you’re a MobileMe member using Mac OS X Leopard, no problem.* You can now access all the files on your shared drive over the Internet. Simply register your AirPort Extreme with your MobileMe account, and your drive appears in your Finder sidebar just like any other attached drive. It’s like having your own personal file server wherever you go.

AirPort setup diagram

Print. Share. Do it all.

What if you’d like to exchange files over your wireless network and still have access to a wireless printer? Easy. Just connect a USB hub to AirPort Extreme and attach your devices to the hub. Share both a printer and a hard drive, multiple printers, multiple hard drives, or a combination.

*MobileMe is available to persons age 13 and older. Annual subscription fee and Internet access required. Terms of service apply.