Using a USB3 drive as a NAS

[Siron]

I currently back up my MBA by connecting a Toshiba 1TB portable drive but would like to allow Time Machine to do this automatically. The Toshiba needs a powered USB3 port. at&t just installed U-verse but unfortunately the NVG599 gateway's USB port is of no use as it's not powered and apparently is only for use by at&t.
Fortunately the gateway has a 802.11 ac WiFi and I can get close to 0.8 Gbps so it's ideal for back up. I need a device that has a Gigabit Ethernet port as well as a powered USB3 port.
I purchased a PogoPlug thinking it would work but you can only access the attached drives via their network -- something I do not want to do.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to purchase such a device? I though of maybe a router with a USB3 port (the at&t gateway allows pass through to an attached router) but did not know if the at&t gateway would process the WiFi signal and pass it on to the router to access the attached drive.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks
Alan

 

[LiveM]

I don't think you will ever get a NAS setup that can take advantage of anything faster than USB 2.0. Your drive will be wasted in such a role.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

By the time you purchase all the hardware you need and figure out how to create such a duct-tape solution you could have bought a Time Capsule from Apple that is engineered to do exactly what you need it to do.

 

[Altemose]

Can anyone point me in the right direction to purchase such a device? I though of maybe a router with a USB3 port (the at&t gateway allows pass through to an attached router) but did not know if the at&t gateway would process the WiFi signal and pass it on to the router to access the attached drive.

Apple does not support Time Machine to a third party router. For a truly supported solution, you would need to put the AT&T gateway into bridge mode and use either an AirPort Extreme or a Time Capsule.

 

[Fabian90]

Apple does not support Time Machine to a third party router. For a truly supported solution, you would need to put the AT&T gateway into bridge mode and use either an AirPort Extreme or a Time Capsule.

or OS X Server

 

[adit262]

You could use a third-party solution like WD's MyCloud drive that supports Time Machine backup. You would have to connect it via ethernet to your AT&T router (hopefully you have more than one port). Be warned though, it seems there have been some issues around the integrity of the backups that get created.

 

[LiveM]

MyCloud would also be super slow to copy everything back agan, and I find the disk stays spinning all the time and the drive is always warm.

 

[A Hobo]

or OS X Server

+1
Mac pro 4.1 in the cupboard with server and a 8tb drive in bay 4 set as a time capsule.
Thats wired into my AC network and it backs up much faster then my time capsules used to.