Top Five Best Router NAS Options: Turn Your Wi-Fi Machine into an Easy Network Storage Server Today!

67 thoughts on “Top Five Best Router NAS Options: Turn Your Wi-Fi Machine into an Easy Network Storage Server Today!”

1. Are you aware of any routers that support large (20TB) hard drives via USB? both Synology and Asus AX3000 seem to have a limit on the size hard drive they recognize.

   • That’s the limitation of 32-bit OS, Andrew. You need 64-bit to go beyond 2.2TB in a single partition. No home router I’m aware of uses 64-bit OS. You can use larger discs, but you’ll need to make multiple partitions.

2. I’m surprised… The Asus GT 11000 Pro (10G) WRITE is almost exactly as fast as the GT 16000 (10G); but the 11000 is almost 50% faster at READ.
   Any idea why this might be? And what then might be the reasons that one might prefer the 16000 even if using it for Nas?

   • It’s a router you’re talking about. There’s a lot than just the USB port.

3. “portable SSDs, which are much faster than the router’s USB ports”…
   I don’t understand. How do you connect the portable SSD to the router, if not by using the routers USB port?

   • USB 3.0 is faster than the USB 2.0. So if you connect a USB 3.0 SSD to a router’s relatively slow USB 2.0 port, then the overall speed is by the speed of the router’s USB 2.0 port.

   • Some routers support eSATA, Bob, but that’s not the point of the paragraph — I meant I could have used slow HDD-based portable drives for the testing, which I didn’t.

4. Great review, but it focuses mostly on file-sharing capabilities. I know it would be more time-consuming (and more subjective) but I would LOVE to see a comparative review of MEDIA SERVER functionality. E.g. Can it index and serve media libraries that have 20k-30k songs & videos? Can it “understand” PC-format M3U playlists. (E.g. Can it smartly handle a PC-ish “C:\Music\Beatles\Michelle.flac” M3U reference like my Android phone can do, or can it only “understand” a Linux-ish “…/Beatles/Michelle.flac” M3U reference?) Can it reliably serve Linux-format M3U playlists? Can commonly-used clients access the media (e.g PC/VLC, Firestick/Kodi, Yamaha/MusicCast receivers, etc.)?

   I know that would be time-consuming to do such a review. So if you even make a recommendation or two, I’d appreciate it.

   Here’s why I ask… At home I have a 2016-era ASUS RT-N66U with a 4TB USB-powered HDD attached (and its SMB & media servers turned on). It works great for file-sharing and nightly PC backups. I also use it for media-serving ripped music, movie, and home-video files– primarily to my networked Yamaha MusicCast receivers and to my TVs (via Firestick-4Ks/Kodi). It works well for that too. But out-of-the-box, the RT-N66U could not handle large media libraries– like my 21k-file music/video library. (It could only handle small libraries.) So I had to hassle with adding an EXT-formatted Linux swap-file on a USB flash drive, and hassle with doing some scripting to make the media server (MiniDLNA) use that swap-file. I’d like to upgrade the router (perhaps to something like the ASUS RT-AX86U Pro) but I’d really like the media-server to work reliably out of the box (without adding a Linux swap file).

   Also, for example, my Yamaha MusicCast receivers can play the playlists on the router’s HDD, but not reliably. (It will play a music folder reliably, but for playlists, it stops playing after some random number of songs.) But, for example, the MusicCast receiver can reliably play playlists from a PC-based media server (like Media Monkey). So I think the router’s MiniDLNA server has a bug– or at least some incompatibility with MusicCast.

   Also, I make M3U playlists using Windows Media Player, so I need to hassle with running a batch find-and-replace on my PC-formatted (Windows Media Player based) M3U playlists in order to convert them to Linux format before putting them on the router’s HDD. It would be nice if the router’s media server were smart enough to “understand” PC-formatted M3U playlists (like my Android phone can do even though its Linux based).

   I’d like to buy a new router with a more robust media server. I do not want to buy & power a separate NAS box. Unfortunately, I can find no reviews of router-based media-server functionality.

   • No router can do the network storage services you want at the degree you want, Razz. It’s a router. More here.

     • Thanks Dong! Despite having to do a few workarounds, I’ve been VERY happy with the media server performance of my ancient ASUS RT-N66U (256MB RAM) ever since I added external swap-file space 3.5 years ago. I guess that a new RT-AX86U (1GB RAM) wouldn’t even require external swap-file space– which would be a huge selling point for me. I don’t know.

       Do you know if some brands tend to be better than others for media serving? Or do they all use the open-source MiniDLNA project? I read that ASUS is still using a 6-year old version of MiniDLNA (v1.2.1) even though the open source project is at v1.3.3. I’d expect Synology to have better media-serving software on their routers, but I don’t know.

5. hi Dong, i’m unable to find a solution in the web, so i’m thinking whether you’ll be able to advise on this.

   I’m using a D-Link DIR-868L, running on dd-wrt. It’s not my main router – I’m using it just to connect my HDD (via usb3) to the internal network. All wireless bands have been disabled.

   My issue is that the HDD does not sleep/spindown/hibernate at all. It keeps running, unless i manually eject the HDD from the router and switch the router off.

   Is there a way / or a setting / or another custom firmware that can do that? Similar to how a NAS’ disks sleep after a set timing. Thank you in advance!

   • You have to check with DD-WRT, Leon. Generally, if you choose to use third-party firmware, you’re ready to tell the world that you’re an advanced user who doesn’t need support. 🙂

     Also, there’s no point in having your HDD spun down. Most of the time, the issue is the opposite.

     More about using your router as a mini NAS server in this post.

   • Spinning-down may be a function of the HDD’s firmware rather than a DD-WRT setting. Not sure. I keep a 4TB USB-powered Toshiba Canvio HDD attached to my ancient ASUS RT-N66U (Merlin firmware). My router’s (firmware) does not have an option to spin-down the HDD, but the HDD spins down when not in use. That’s great because that HDD uses 3.4W when spinning and 0.3W when not-spinning (so spinning down saves me about $9/yr in electricity cost, as well as reducing environmental damage (including carbon footprint), and wear & tear. I vaguely recall that my old 1TB USB-powered Western Digital Passport HDD also spun down automatically, but back when I had an AC-adapter-powered USB HDD (maybe LaCie?), it never spun down. As an experiment, I’d suggest attaching your USB HDD to a USB charger only (i.e. with no data-connection to tell it to stay spun-up). If it never spins down, then the issue is probably the HDD’s firmware, not DD-WRT’s firmware.

6. Great summary, Dong! I decided to keep my Amplifi Alien and replace my NAS with a $54 Raspberry Pi. It is on my 1 Gb LAN and is fast enough for daily use.

7. Thank you Dong

   • 👍

8. Hi Dong,
   Hope your well.
   Can you point me to any router that has at least 2 multi-gig ports.
   my internet comes in at 1.2gb and i would like to connect my multi-gig switch direct to the router without having to do link aggregation.

   id prefer not to have to buy adapters for SFP+ ports and like them to be Base-T if possible..

   Thanks
   Si

   • They are all in this post, Si.

9. Hello Dong, Thanks a lot for your post. It gives a lost of options to choose. I bought a QNAP NAS and just trying to get a good Wifi Router as i will connect the SSD’s to the network and would like to access them by all the latops in the house. could you please suggest the best/affordable router with Multi gigibit port ?

   • They are all in this post, Sunny.

     • There are a few but I need something which covers the whole two level house which is a 259 Sqm. Do I need access points or extra ASUS routers for better signal as I have thick insulated walls in all rooms. I was thinking if the ASUS RT-AX8RU. Also do I need to do anything else to get a better speed from laptop to NAS or NAS to devices using this router? Y

       • Only you can figure out if you need an extra broadcaster, Sunny. More on that topic in this post. As for your NAS speed, your question is unclear — it’s kinda a lazy question actually 🙂 — but this post on Wi-Fi speed and this one on Multi-Gig will help. Make sure you spend some time reading those posts (and related ones) before asking more questions.

         • Hey Dong,

           My question is more on the access points if I buy RT AX8RU. Do you have an idea if I can add access points to this router or should I be only buying ASUS routers only to add more signal to the two level house. My question to you on the speed is, if I connect my laptop to NAS to the 2.5GbE port which will be connected to the same 2.5GbE gigabit port on the router. Should I be using a gigabit converter on my laptop or a gigabit car reader to get the appropriate speed as I only have a Ethernet port on my laptop?

         • Read the first linked post in the previous reply, Sunny. Again, the rule is you need to read before asking questions. I generally don’t comment on specific situations, nor do I offer one-on-one consulting.

         • All good Dong. I have figured it out myself. Too much info to read .. lol

         • Use the table of content. Also this post or this one is much shorter and to the point. But reading is good for you, Sunny.

10. Hi Dong,
    Thank you for helping clarify this issue. A lot of information.
    So, my need is simple. I have 3-4 MacBook pro’s on wifi and a iMac on Ethernet and want the Time Machine to run on the router. I bought a Linksys mx5300 thinking this would work per their posted information. Wrong, it does not work with Time Machine, verified by Linksys on two phone calls. So, what do you think is the best way to proceed?
    Thank you for your time.

    • Your need is FAR from simple, Craig — it’s as complicated and demanding as can be! No router can handle that — also Linksys generally doesn’t support this feature officially as I stated here. You need a real NAS server, preferably one with a Multi-Gig connection. Check out this post. Or just get an external drive for each computer.

11. Please change the font on your website its to hard to read…

    • Could you elaborate on “hard to read”? We use generic fonts.

12. Hi Dong,

    I have 1 interesting question, some people say OpenWRT is better than the original, what is your comment?

    • “Better” is subjective, Marco. You have to find that out yourself. 🙂

13. I’ve had a lot of experience with router based NAS over the years and I’ve found none of them to be reliable. The fastest ones I’ve had were the Linksys based ones, but they never really offered all the features I’ve needed.

    If you’re really interested in a NAS I suggest you just buy or build your own and get a decent router. I just built an Unraid setup based on a used Lenovo Thinkstation P300 w/Xeon e3-1226 v3 and 12GB I picked up for $75 off eBay. Stick a few hard drives in there and Unraid and you’re off to the races.

    Speaking of which, Dong, can you recommend any inexpensive, decent 10G (or 5/2.5G) switches? I don’t have a 10G wired setup yet but I picked up 2 Mellanox Connectx-3 cards off eBay and I’d like to do something with them.

    • Yeap, generally, I’d recommend a NAS server, Eric. Router-based NAS is only for casual network storage. As for a switch, check out one of these.

14. Thank you for the detailed review!

    • Sure, Jonathan. 🙂

15. “Note that the scores on the chart are in megabytes per second (MB/s), which is eight times the megabit per second (Mbps) measurement generally used for network connection speed. ”

    I think there’s an error there, which makes it unclear what you mean. Are the speeds in megabits/s or megabytes/s? Because there’s the other way around, there are 8 megabits in one megabyte and not vice versa as it’s implied in the above sentence I quoted. Thank you for your comprehensive review, sir.

    • I don’t think it was unclear, Erick. But I revised the original text to make it clearer. Thanks. 🙂

16. Hi!

    This is a great article, thank you. I found your Time Capsule alternative article and came here. I currently have a modem router combo bought from my ISP. It doesn’t have NAS capability but I don’t have the budget to replace it with a standalone modem and router. Another article I found suggested disabling router of the combo and use another router. The router I have doesn’t have that capability. Do you have a suggestion what kind of a product I should get? Maybe getting a router is not the solution I need, if so I am open to any suggestions.

    Thank you

    • Get a Synology NAS server, Izel. it’ll work much better.

      • Thanks for your reply! I will look into it.

17. Hi Dong,

    I am experiencing a connection loss from my router to my Arris/Comcast modem a few to a dozen hours after plugging in a USB drive. This happens with both n Asus RT-AC86U and a Netgear RAX78 and using either a 1.5 TB Seagate GoFlex Drive or a 6 TB Seagate Backup Plus, though faster with the 6TB. There is no drive activity when the drops happen, affecting wired and wireless connections, and it requires the router to be rebooted.

    Is there anything I can do to prevent this, like use USB 2.0 mode or just use a flash drive? I only need a lightweight NAS for security cams and video transfers. Both routers are new and I can still return them if something else would work.

    Thanks,

    Brandon

    • You should go with a portable SSD, Brandon. The hard-drive-based portable drive can use a lot of power and that might affect the router’s stability. Or get a drive with its own power adapter. More in this post.

18. Hi Dong,
    I have a ASUS RT-AX86U that I am using for NAS server. Asus shows the USB ports as USB 3.2 Gen 1 x 2 which (if I understand) can run at 10 Gbps using 2 lanes. Have you done this or do you know how to do it ? Might require USB-C cable??? Seems this would be great for fast SSD (ext USB) drives. I am planning to upgrade PC to 2.5G Enet as well.
    Thanks for any help!
    John

    • No, John. It’s a 5Gbps USB. Also, the speed would be limited by the network port anyway. It won’t help in your case since the router has no Multi-Gig port. Read the review.

      • Thanks Dong.
        USB is a bit confusing, and I appreciate your article “Device Connections Explained: Thunderbolt or Not, It’s All about USB-C” that helped me a lot.
        Some references to USB 3.2 Gen 1 X 2 (Link removed) indicate 10Gbps over USB-C (dual lane) . Seems the key is the cable with dual lanes.
        Asus site specs show the RT-AX86U has USB 3.2 Gen 1 x 2 which probably refers to quantity 2 ports. They are not USB-C connectors, just standard type A.
        The RT-AX86U does have one configurable (LAN/WAN) 2.5Gbps ethernet port though, which might help the NAS speed a bit. I’ll let you know if I see any difference after I install 2.5G PCIe card in my I7-8700K.
        I’m very pleased with NAS performance on this router now, but “more is better” ! 🙂

        • As I mentioned in that post, the naming of USB 3.2 is a mess — by the way, there’s no such thing as USB 3.1 Gen 1×2. Also, USB-C has nothing to do with speed. So, no need to add more references. That only makes things more confusing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, though, John.

19. Took a few minutes to write up the prices, sorted up – down. Looks like the offering from Synology is the best in terms of price/speed of file transfer. The prices are enormous for the rest :O
    Though even 130 for the Synology would be a hard bargain. Still better than having to get a proper NAS for a single drive.

    Netgear RAX200 599
    Asus GT-AX11000 422.99
    Netgear RAX120 412.41
    Asus RT-AX89X 411.77
    Linksys MX5 399
    TP-Link Archer AX11000 365 Ebay
    TP-Link Archer C5400X 249.99
    Asus RT-AX86U 249.99 limited avail
    Asus RT-AX68U 199.99
    Synology MR2200ac 130.99

    • Thanks, Andrew. I left out the pricing since that changes frequently.

      • What’s interesting is that even though they are all very expensive – they aren’t that widely available. Nor are they discontinued, which would be a good reason if they were.

        Any thoughts on why?

20. Dong,
    Thanks for the great article. Very helpful as I have been desperately trying to figure out how to setup some NAS without buying an actual NAS server.
    Quick question after reviewing all of the routers on your list and a much smaller set of requirements.
    Reqs:
    – no mesh
    – no gaming
    – small environment (750 sq ft)
    – streaming/playback of mp4 h.264 video via VLS over 5Ghz wifi

    What unit would you lean toward for requirements like this that are not as high?

    • This depends on how many devices you have, John. But I’d recommend the Synology MR2200ac, the Asus RT-AX86U, or the Asus RT-AX92U. For such a small space, you can turn off the 2.4GHz band or use it as a separate network in case you have devices hat require it.

21. Hi Dong, came across a few of your articles that really helped me decide on my next router. So I went from this…
    – “Ok” Frontier Fios Arris Wireless with a older Netgear AC1750 for NAS set up. I couldn’t use the AC1750 directly since it produced horrible speeds no matter what tweak I did. Then an Airi 2.4/5Ghz in AP mode + a switch.
    To this…
    – AX82U only, eliminating the Frontier router, the Airi & switch. For the life of me, couldn’t find the AX86U anywhere for the life of me.

    However, I really hate how Asus do their USB storage set up. With my old Netgear, I could plug in 5 external HDs via plugging in a USB hub into the router’s USB 3.0. Then when I accessed “readyshare” via any comp or my Android TV, I’m able to see all HDs separately and enjoy easily accessing anything from any drive. On the other hand, my new AX82U simply combines everything into a single location……. thousands of directories and files.

    So the question is, do you know if Asus have this same ability? To distinguish between drives and keep them as separate views (drives)?

    • No, Drew. ReadyShare is a different technology entirely, available only in Netgear products. If you go with Asus, you need to get rid of that ReadyShare mentality. Also, it’s generally a terrible idea to use that many drives with a router’s USB port. Get a real NAS server :). I’d recommend a Synology.

      • Thanks for your awesome feedback! Unfortunately, I was afraid that you’d hammer home what I already speculated lol.

        Ya, each drive is how I keep my media categorized and organized. I’ve looked into something like the Synology before but I’m unwilling to take the leap…. since after all, I feel I have “perfectly good” external drives with “ok” networking streaming abilities… notice all the quotation marks 😉

        Thanks! I look forward to following your articles.

        • Sure, Drew. You’re the perfect candidate for a Synology NAS. I mean it. Get one, you can start with an older model year (2013 or newer). You can get one used or refurbished for relatively cheap. You’ll love it.

22. Great review Dong! I decided to keep my Amplifi Alien and use a $54 Raspberry Pi as my NAS. It is on my 1 Gb LAN and is fast enough for every day use.

    • Cool, Marshall. That actually works better than using a router-based NAS.

23. Are you sure about the RT-AC86U numbers? I have seen reviews claiming it has around the same performance as RT-AX86U.

    • That’s what o got at the time I tested it, Sam. Things can change via firmware updates.

24. Hi Dong,

    So I finally upgraded my RT-N66U with a RT-AX86U. Everything seems to be working great except for my portable hard drive I plug into the back of the router and use SMB within Kodi to play them. I have both H264 and H265 MKV files that played fine with my old N66U router. However, I’m finding that only the H265 files are constantly skipping/buffering now with the AX86U router which I don’t understand since it’s a way more powerful router. Are there any settings that I need to look at or change within the router that could be causing playback issues? During initial setup of new router I updated it, then reset it as suggested. Even though I don’t have any AX products, I chose the 802.11AX/Wi-Fi 6 Mode that was recommended settings when first setting up the router. Should I not use that option or will that not make a difference? Also, I already completely reset Kodi a few times and started from scratch for SMB, then tried some settings within, but still got the stutter/buffering although sound worked great and picture was crystal clear. Note: Same thing happening on 2 separate Amazon Fire TV boxes that had no problems before. I did try a Raspberry Pi 4 with Openmediavault to host the portable hard drive and added that to Kodi, but that skipped video too. Everything is hooked directly by ethernet too in case you need to know that.

    Sorry for the long message, just trying to get this fixed since my old router worked fine on these same files. Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give to try.

    • Try playing the movie file straight on your computer using VLC player, via regular SMB file sharing. If it still skips then it’s the connection issue. If not then it’s Kodi’s fault. That’s as far as I can suggest. I’ve never tried Kodi with routers before.

    • Hi Dong, I know this is an old review but I’d like your input. By the way, I really enjoy reading your reviews. I am interested in the Wiim music streamer, I’m sure you know it. However, my only disappointment is that one cannot attach an external USB 3 flash drive or hard disk to play local music files. Buying a dedicated NAS drive is costly so that is not an option and I do not want to go through the trouble of building a NAS Drive using Raspberry Pi and Open Media Vault because it is still costly. I have access to reasonably priced routers by TP-Link and Tenda although I do prefer TP-Link. Would it be possible to share music files on a 64 or 128GB Flash-stick via a TP-Link router that has DLNA function? Is DLNA easy to setup? The Wiim Mini is compatible with DLNA. I will appreciate your input and help.

      • If a router has the media streaming server function then it supports DLNA, Samazar. That’s a given. All you have to do is turn the serving function on, pick the shared folder(s) that contain the media, and the frequency it scan for new content.

        • Thank you Dong, I really appreciate your input. I will look into routers that have media streaming function. I have access to Tenda and tp-Link routers and will do a bit of research.

        • How would I add more music files to the shared folder. Is it possible to access the drive on my computer considering I’m using an apple laptop. I suppose the drive or flash-stick could be formatted as a FAT32 or exFAT to retain compatibility.

          • It’s a shared folder so you do what you do with a shared folder. More in this post.

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