Media Sharing Home Backup in a Portable Form Factor

DIR-505 Side and Port View

Gone are the days when a router is as big and clunky as your good 'ol telephone. Enter the portable wifi access point/router category from D-Link. The DIR-505 All-in-one Mobile Companion from D-Link gives you 4 modes of operations: Router mode, Access Point, Wifi-Hotspot and Repeater mode which includes an option to attach a USB Storage Device making this one of the smallest Media Storage server in the market. 

Different Modes supported by DIR-505

With the companion D-Link SharePort Mobile app both for Android and IOS devices, this makes it easy to share your photos, videos, or any file for that matter with others who are connected to the same wifi network.

Android SharePort Mobile App

Review (Wifi Hot Spot Point Mode with USB Storage Device)

Setting up the device is easy, it can be done using your Android or IOS device via the D-Link QRS Mobile app or via the browser.  There is a default URL to connect and default username/password, which you have to change later in the Maintenance tab. From there, depending on the mode selected, you can use the wizard or the manual configuration option. Pretty standard router/access point settings.

There is an additional setting for Media Server which allows media streaming on DLNA supported TV's or Windows devices and as well as for Storage devices where you can configure access rights per user and also restrict on which folder on the storage device are they allowed to read/write or both.

Media Server Configuration

Storage Device Configuration

After all is set, apps downloaded and the USB storage device is connected, accessing the files in the remote storage is as easy as launching the app and navigating to the folders in your storage device. For Windows devices, you can also access the USB storage through the browser by the link provided at the bottom of the Storage configuration page.

The file access, transfer and browsing functions of the application and from the browser leaves much to be desired. For one, in the Android application, the UI is a bit clunky and there is no option to view thumbnails of images other than their filenames. Tapping on the files will launch a built-in image browser and an option to download/share through another application is also supported. For video, the file will be downloaded first to your mobile device before it can be played so watch out for storage space.

Is it a viable solution for personal backup in your own home-based storage? Yes, if by definition ,storage and access of files from a central location is the only feature you need, but for a more professional, automated backup, there is much left to be desired from this setup. 

Does portability makes sense here? Well, if you have a scenario where you are on a trip and you want to share files across multiple devices then this is useful. Plus the fact that this device can serve as a repeater for wifi access in hotels that restrict you to one device per account only. As a full-pledged home backup system, there might be better alternatives, unless manual transfer on a tight budget is your acceptable compromise.