2014-10-25, 03:17
This mini tutorial might help anyone that wants to network an Airport Extreme shared USB hard disk with XBMC running on any platform.
This will also work for connecting a USB hard drive to a Apple Time Capsule.
My setup Airport Extreme 5th Gen v7.6.4 software + USB disk HFS formatted. FAT32 likely works as well.
Hard drive Setup:
Create a folder on your USB hard drive called "Shared". Place any media files you want to share over the network within. Airport will also create a folder based on the account name you create in the steps below.
Your Apple Airport will serve files from the hard disk Shared folder to OSX machines using AFP and use SMB for all others.
Airport Utility:
1. Open the Airport Utility app > Edit > Disks > Select partition > tick File Sharing
2. Secure Shared Disks > With Accounts
3. Accounts > Hit + > Add Account Name and Password (hint make it short eg. xbmc for both)
4. File Sharing Access > Read and Write > Save
5. Update (bottom right)
Setup from XBMC: (Gotham - Confluence Skin)
1. Video > Files > Add Videos > Browse > Add network location
2. Protocol > Windows network (SMB)
3. Server Name > Browse > WORKGROUP > Airport Name > OK
5. Leave "Shared" blank
6. Enter Username and Password you chose previously when you setup your Airport USB shared disk > OK
7. Back in > Browse for a new share > smb://Airport Name > USB Disk name > Your Media Share > OK
(Try again if operation timed out as the USB disk may be slow to spinup)
8. Settings > System > Power Saving > tick - Try to wake remote servers on access.
Access from the Mac OSX finder;
1. Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Shared > tick Connected Servers and Bonjour Computers
2. Finder> command K > Connect to Server > afp://ip.address.of.airport > hit + to add to Favorite Servers > Connect
Done
This will also work for connecting a USB hard drive to a Apple Time Capsule.
My setup Airport Extreme 5th Gen v7.6.4 software + USB disk HFS formatted. FAT32 likely works as well.
Hard drive Setup:
Create a folder on your USB hard drive called "Shared". Place any media files you want to share over the network within. Airport will also create a folder based on the account name you create in the steps below.
Your Apple Airport will serve files from the hard disk Shared folder to OSX machines using AFP and use SMB for all others.
Airport Utility:
1. Open the Airport Utility app > Edit > Disks > Select partition > tick File Sharing
2. Secure Shared Disks > With Accounts
3. Accounts > Hit + > Add Account Name and Password (hint make it short eg. xbmc for both)
4. File Sharing Access > Read and Write > Save
5. Update (bottom right)
Setup from XBMC: (Gotham - Confluence Skin)
1. Video > Files > Add Videos > Browse > Add network location
2. Protocol > Windows network (SMB)
3. Server Name > Browse > WORKGROUP > Airport Name > OK
5. Leave "Shared" blank
6. Enter Username and Password you chose previously when you setup your Airport USB shared disk > OK
7. Back in > Browse for a new share > smb://Airport Name > USB Disk name > Your Media Share > OK
(Try again if operation timed out as the USB disk may be slow to spinup)
8. Settings > System > Power Saving > tick - Try to wake remote servers on access.
Access from the Mac OSX finder;
1. Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Shared > tick Connected Servers and Bonjour Computers
2. Finder> command K > Connect to Server > afp://ip.address.of.airport > hit + to add to Favorite Servers > Connect
Done