WLAN USB port and a USB hard disk drive

Hi there,
I want to get a big Hard Drive to serve multiple computers at home through WLAN connection. I can either get a Network Drive which is quite expensive, or change my WLAN router to include USB port. What I don't know if the router would be able to operate the HD and I can see it as a drive over the net. I remember I once got a DVD player with USB port and it wasn't able to operate the HD, similar happens for a PDA. any one got an answer for this?
Regards

Not enough information - need to know more about what you are connecting to. Some devices have limited addressing for mass storage, which means that 2, maybe 4Gb is the limit, others can support hundreds of GB, such as a harddisk. Access format (Windows, Unix) might also be relevant...

I'm intending to access the Harddisk from windows-only systems. I was thinking about Fritz WLAN box which has a USB port. I think asking the guys who sell the router will not help me.

Fritzbox handles large disks well, but not as a shared resource, rather as an FTP repository. There are some "laboratory" versions of the firmware around which improve mass storage access.

And I highly doubt the FB will be able to power the HD thru the USB port, so the HD is going to need its own power source.
There is also very limited/beta type support for NTFS under Linux. If you do manage to get this setup to work your going to
have to format the HD with FAT32, which has a file size limit of 2GB. You will also need a 3rd party Disk Util. to create/format a
partition over 32GB, as this is the largest size partition Windows will allow you to create for a FAT32 Partition.

Thanks guys for the useful information.
It looks that a network drive would be the most convenient and straight forward approach to have a shared drive. I rather put the extra money than going into these problems you have mentioned.

Could you not use an Apple airport which has a built in USB for hard drives and is PC compatible? Obviously you'd also need a modem. I'm interested in this question too as I want a NAS, but preferable with an ethernet connection (and all the reviews for one's below £150 are poor!). Can you get an ethernet to firewire hub? Then you can supersede the 'slow' USB and go directly through your router with a relatively cheap external drive (eg. Western Digital Pro Edition)! Hmmm, it's all beyond me!

Indeed it is...