# Shared Network resources and the Kindle Fire.



## jbcohen (Jul 29, 2011)

I am going to be migrating my home network from a desktop centric model to a mobile centric model where the desktop really has no role at all.  I have a printer in my basement and some external USB drives that hold a lot of software on it.  All items are attached to a single wireless router.  I will shortly be adding a NAS adapter for the USB drives and a print server for the printer in order to attach them directly to the router rather than having them attached to the desktop, which will be going away.  So here comes the question: How do I configure my fire to recognize the shared drive when I get the NAS adapter and the printer server once I get them installed?


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Huh?      I wish I was half as techie.


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

You can use the ES File Explorer app to access your NAS. While I haven't tried it with my wife's Fire, I would assume it works like Dropbox (which we have on her Fire) and then allows you to transfer files to what programs can read them. If you'd like I can test it out (if my wife ever stops using hers for a moment :>).

I don't have wireless printing on our network (the closest we come is I share my laser printer) so I can't tell you exactly how to do it, but if you can print on the Fire (which I have no experience with) I don't know why you couldn't just use any printer it could see (so, in theory, it should just be able to access any printer on the network). Again, if you'd like me to play with this I can see if I can get my shared laser printer to work (she might even let me try that, as printing might be something she wants to do as well <g>).


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## jbcohen (Jul 29, 2011)

I have read something about ES File Explorer and Explorer Pro.  I would preferr to check out the free version before deciding to pay for the pro version.  I understand that the free version is not as capable as the pro version, and that OK.  Don't you need to identify the NAS with some sort of address?  Don't I need to apply a address to the printer.  No doubt this will be accomplished by the NAS adapter that I will need to put on the external drives and the print server that I sit next to the printer.  Obviously there are things her that I do not understand that I need to learn and I am happy to see there are other PC Techs hanging around the kindleboards.

For others NAS stands for network attached storage and its what you get when you buy an external hard drive and connect it directly to your wireless network.  US B stands for universal serial buss and is the preferred way to attach things to a PC these days such as hard drives, mice and what not.


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

The NAS will just appear as another source or sources to you in the File Explorer (actually, I suspect any free file manager will work as well. As I said, if you want me to try I'll pry her Fire from her hands and see <bg>). Have you used Dropbox or similar variants? If so, you're familiar with the concept. Whatever files you have in there should be accessible to you and as long as they are the right file formats, can be imported to the Fire for use. Right now we're using Dropbox to transfer ePub files for her to read but I could just as easily put them on the NAS (I actually hadn't realized the eReader app we're using, Aldiko, could point to any folder for import it can see on the Fire or I might not have bothered to install Dropbox. Although Dropbox is so insanely useful I think I would have anyway).

I'm not sure if you can stream from the Fire in this manner -- my NAS is used primarily to stream video throughout the house to our various media players, but I'm nowhere near enough familiar with the Fire to know if you can point it at an external video file and have it play. That would be ideal, though, since storage space on the Fire is so limited.

NAS devices are pretty sophisticated (essentially they are tiny little Unix boxes, much like the Fire is) and there shouldn't be much you have to do one way or the other to set it up. Once set up it will just appear as a disk or disks to all computers and devices you have on your network (for example, my NAS shows up as a V: for video drive on both my Win 7 boxes as well as my Macbook Air). It will handle getting an IP address and all that assorted crap for you.

Same goes for any printer server -- they take care of the overhead. It's actually amazing how easy this stuff is nowadays -- I hooked up someones net printer for them for Christmas and all we really had to do was run the setup disc on some machine attached to their network. From there it just worked -- just appeared as a printer not only for their PC but for their iPhone as well (a far cry from the old days when I could easily spend hours trying to get someone's machine on the network, let alone "air" printing).

I'm actually more of a software guy than hardware ("How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, that's a hardware problem.") but I was an IT manager and in my retirement I find people think I know everything (perhaps I foster that believe. I dunno -- I keep telling them how dumb I am). I can't say I'm going to hang around here much, though -- I bought a Fire for my wife and now that she's settling in I don't know that I'll do much more than drop in here from time to time as problems arise. But I'll be around here for at least the next week or so (after that I'm going to report here on her experience with it for the benefit of those who put up with all my questions the last week or so).


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## jbcohen (Jul 29, 2011)

How do  I get my fire to use the network resources like my windows based laptop does?


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

Could you be more specific?

I was able to use ES File Explorer to access my NAS files from my wife's Fire -- just had to add it as a server.  I was able to browse the JPGs easily, but when I tried to play an MP4 video file it said that file format did not support streaming (or perhaps it said the player did not -- can't remember and now she's back on it) and it would download and then play so I cancelled the download (as it would have taken all the remaining memory).  That's actually encouraging, though -- it means that either there is a format that can be streamed, or perhaps a player than can do it.

Obviously other apps (built in or not) will work with your NAS depending on whether they are written to do so.  When I try to load in an ePub, for example, it will ask me if I want to read it with Aldiko (which is an eReader app I've installed on her Fire) and we can then transfer or read it that way (again, from File Explorer, although it also works in Dropbox).

I wasn't able to figure a way to use my shared printer but I didn't have a lot of time (and it really is only shared through Windows).  A network printer server should be a whole different deal (as different as an NAS is from sharing a drive on another computer -- it has its own built-in Unix and handles the assignments across the net for other devices much more elegantly).


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## Bigal-sa (Mar 27, 2010)

Look at Samba, which is Linux's way of acting like a Windows share. Not sure if it's in the Amazon store:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.funkyfresh.samba


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

jbcohen said:


> How do I get my fire to use the network resources like my windows based laptop does?


You need to list out your goals, not everything will be able to be done with One solution (more than likely).

I'm completely unaware how printing on the Fire/Android works, I know that on my iPad the best solution for me right now is the old HP app that recognizes my networked printer (hardwired to the router). I can print most everything i need to moving it around. The new version of the app however dropped support for KY older printer. I'm not buying a new one just to print from the iPad.

So the solution will depend on the specific needs you have rather than be an all encompassing solution (in my opinion).


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