Belkin F5L049 User Manual

Home Base

User Manual

8820-00256 F5L049

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTIONS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1510 11 12 13 14Table of Con tent s

1 Introduction ........................................... 1

2 Get ting Sta rted......................................... 3

3 Wireless Set up ......................................... 5

4 Available Devices List ................................... 8

5 Devi ce Proper ties ...................................... 9

6 Local Bac kup ......................................... 12

7 Picture Shar ing........................................ 15

8 Control Center Options................................. 24

Home Base

9 Media Se rver.......................................... 26

10 Upgrading Home Base Fir mware .......................27

11 Troubleshooting ......................................30

12 Firewalls ............................................ 32

13 FAQs ................................................48

14 Technical Su pport .................................... 51

15 Informat ion ..........................................52

INTRODUCTION

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Thank you for purchasing the Belkin Home Base. By following these simple setup instructions, your Belkin Home Base will allow you to share your USB printer and hard drives, with any computer or laptop on your home network. The Control Center software offers a convenient central location to configure the Home Base and the USB devices you attach to it.

Home Base Capabilities

• Share and control printers and scanners among all

the net worked computers in your home

• Share ex ternal drives with all the networked computers

in your home

• Back up critical and precious content from all your networked

computers to an external drive for safekeeping

• Schedule automatic backups to regularly archive new content

and changes

• Automatically share pictures on Flickr® and Picasa

• Set up an external drive to act as a DLNA server for

your media content

• Media files served through Home Base’s drive can be

accessed directly from Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, and

other DLNA client devices

(A) Wireless Securit y – Indicates wireless securit y is enabled when lit

(B) WPS Connect Button – Automatically establishes secure wireless

connection to router s with similar WPS connect button feature

(D) Power – On/Of f

(A) (B)

(C)

(D)

Home Base

INTRODUCTION

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Benefits of Home Base

• Share – Easily pass files back and forth across the network. Share

music, photos, video, documents, or any content you want by

placing it on the external drive attached to Home Base.

• PeaceofMind – All your critical content can be backed up to the

drive(s) attached to Home Base. All your family photos and critical

documents will be safe from computer crashes.

• Mobility – Print and scan from anywhere in the home. You are no

longer tethered to the computer, nor do you need to email print

jobs to a computer physically connected to the printer.

• Freedom – Hide your printers, scanners, and external drives

out of sight.

• Flexibility – Any USB peripheral can be shared among all your

networked computers simply by attaching it to Home Base.

Home Base

Package Contents

• Belkin Home Base

• Quick Installation Guide

• Belkin Setup Assistant Sof tware CD

• RJ45 Ethernet Networking Cable

• Power Supply

• User Manual on the Setup Assistant CD

System Requirements

• Windows®, XP, or Vista® 32- or 64-bit

• Mac OS® X v10.4 or v10.5

• Minimum 1GHz processor and 128MB RAM

GETTING STARTED

Setup CD

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Connect Home Base to your network

First, connect Home Base to

your router with a network

cable. Next, plug the included

power supply into Home Base

and into a power outlet.

Run the setup software

Run the setup software to make Home Base a member of your network.

Insert the CD, and the setup software will run*. Choose “Set Up Home

Base”. If you don’t already have it installed, the setup software will also

install Control Center on your machine.

If you’d like to use Home Base wire-

lessly, plug it into your router for now.

The setup software will help you

make Home Base operate on your

wireless network. You can

also use WPS to wirelessly set up

Home Base. See the help ﬁle on the

CD for details.

Home Base

GETTING STARTED

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Install Control Center on other computers

You will need to install Control Center on each additional

computer that will use Home Base. Insert the CD and the

setup software will run*. Choose “Install Control Center”.

Connect USB devices

Once Home Base is a member of your network, you’re

ready to plug in printers, hard drives, and other USB

devices to share among your computers. Simply plug each

device into an open USB port on the back of Home Base.

Note: If you plug a printer into Home Base, each

computer will ask you to install the printer’s driver if it

hasn’t been done already. You’ll only have to do this once.

Home Base

*If the setup software does

not run automatically, browse

the CD and run “Setup”.

You can manage these devices via the Control

Center, the icon of which appears in your system

tray (Windows®) or menu bar (Mac OS® X). It is

also accessible via the Start menu (Windows) or

Applications folder (Mac OS X).

WIRELESS SETUP

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There are three ways to attach your Home Base to your wireless network:

• WiredSetupofWirelessMode

• WPSPushButtonConfiguration

• WPSPINConfiguration

Wired Setup of Wireless Mode

Note: If Home Base is powered on while plugged into a router, it

will operate as a wired device. To enable Wireless mode, follow instructions below.

The setup sof tware will help you make Home Base operate as a member of your wireless network.

1. Start by connecting your Home Base to your router. (You’ll unplug it later.)

2. Connect the AC adapter.

3. Run the setup sof tware and follow the software’s instructions

to set up the Home Base.

4. When offered wireless setup, select a wireless network.

5. The setup software will tell Home Base what network you chose.

Follow the software’s instructions to unplug your Home Base from the router and turn it off and on.

6. Your Home Base will then operate as a member of your wireless net work.

Home Base

WIRELESS SETUP

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WPS Push Button Configuration

If your router supports WPS, the WPS Push Button Configuration (PBC) is the quickest way to get Home Base onto your wireless network.

1. Make sure Home Base is NOT plugged into your router.

2. Connect the AC adapter.

3. Push the WPS button on your router. (Refer to your router’s

instruction manual.)

4. Push and hold the WPS button on Home Base. Release the WPS button when the blue security LED on the Home Base and the LED start blinking. Once the LED starts blinking in longer intervals for approximately three seconds, release the button.

5. Home Base and your router will negotiate a connection.

Home Base

Status of WPS Wireless Security:

Off Wireless security is of f

Blinking Blue WPS handshaking in process

Solid Blue Wireless security is on

If a connection is established, Home Base’s security LED will come on in solid blue.

If a connection is not established after more than two minutes, the security LED will flash quickly and continuously for 10 seconds, then stop, and you’ll need to try again.

If Home Base couldn’t determine to which router to connect, the security LED will flash in bursts of five for 10 seconds, then stop, and you’ll need to tr y again.

WIRELESS SETUP

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WPS PIN Configuration

If your router does not suppor t the WPS Push Button Configuration, the alternative is to apply the WPS security using the PIN Configuration. Locate the 8-digit PIN code on the bottom of Home Base and enter this pin into your router to manually initiate a WPS connection.

1. Read the PIN code from the bottom of Home Base.

2. Make sure Home Base is NOT plugged into your router.

3. Connect the AC adapter.

4. Push and hold the WPS button on Home Base. Release the WPS

button when the security LED on Home Base starts blinking shor t blinks after about 10 seconds.

5. Enter the PIN code into your router’s interface. (Refer to your router’s instruc tion manual.)

6. Home Base and your router will negotiate a connection.

Home Base

If a connection is established, Home Base’s security LED will come on in solid blue.

If a connection is not established after more than two minutes, the security LED will flash quickly and continuously for 10 seconds, then stop, and you’ll need to try again.

For more information on wireless setup, see the “Troubleshooting” and “FAQs” sections in this manual.

AVAILABLE DEVICES LIST

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The “Available Devices” tab displays a list of USB devices connected to Home Base and allows you to select devices and specify connection settings for them. For more information, see the “Device Properties” section below.

To connect to a USB device, select it and click “Connect”. Alternatively,

you can double-click on a device to connect to it. If you double-click on a disk drive, you can access the contents of the disk drive.

By default, disks attached to Home Base are shared with all computers on the network. A disk can be unmounted safely by selecting it and clicking “Disconnect”. A disk that is not mounted can be mounted again by unplugging and plugging its USB cable back into Home Base.

If some one is using a device you’d like to use, select the device and click “Request Use”. A me ssage will appear on the user’s computer notifying him or her that you wish to use this device. They can elect to make the device available to you, or not.

Home Base

DEVICE PROPERTIES

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To access the properties sheet for an individual device, select the device in Control Center and click “Properties”. The properties sheet allows you to specify general settings such as the name that the device will appear as in the Control Center, whether the device should automatically connect with a computer via the Home Base as soon as the computer starts, and more.

General Properties

The “General” tab of the “Device Proper ties” screen enables you to change the name the device appear s as in the Control Center and displays various reference information about the device.

In the “Display Name” field, enter the name of the device as you want it to appear in the Control Center. The default name is gathered by the Control Center from the device itself. This default name will always appear as the USB device name, even if you change the “Display Name”.

“Device speed” is shown as repor ted by the particular device. Actual performance is also affected by other factors such as your network configuration.

1. Hi-Speed: USB products that carry the “Hi-Speed USB” logo and support a speed of 480Mbps.

2. Full Speed: USB products that carry the basic “Certified USB” logo and support a speed of up to 12Mbps.

3. Low Speed: Supports up to 1.5Mbps.

The “General” tab also contains reference information about the device.

Home Base

DEVICE PROPERTIES

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Device Connection Properties

Home Base

The “Connection” tab of the “Device Properties” screen enables you to specify if the device should connect automatically to this computer when the computer is star ted, and if any software should start automatically when the device connects. The information in this topic applies to all devices except printers and disks that are share d via NAS mode. To learn about connection properties for printers, see the “Printer Connection Properties” section.

Check the “Automatically connect this device when the Home Base Control Center star ts” check box if you want to this computer to automatically connect to this device each time Control Center starts. If you mark this check box along with the box that specifies if the Control Center should star t, the device will automatically connect each time you start the computer.

Connections to devices may occasionally be lost due to network failure s or other factors. If you want the Control Center to automatically reconnect with the device should this occur, check “Attempt to reconnect the device if the connection is lost”. The Control Center will try to reconnect with the device until the connection is reestablished or the computer is shut down.

Use the “Launch Program” field to specif y set tings for any software associated with this device. For example, a webcam probably has software that captures video. By checking “Launch a program when this device connects”, you can specify that the software starts automatically when the webcam is available. You can also check “Disconnect device when the program is closed” if you want to free up the device for use by other computers when you close the soft ware.

In the “Program” field, browse to find the software you want to associate with the device. You can also enter the path to the program directly into the field. Once your settings are saved, only the name of the program appears in the “Program” field.

DEVICE PROPERTIES

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Printer Connection Properties

When a printer is selected, the “Connection” tab of the “Device Proper ties” screen offers additional functionality spe cific to printers. In par ticular, you can select one of three options for automatically connecting the device.

Home Base

If the printer is being shared among multiple computer s, we recommend selecting “This is a shared printer, automatically conne ct and disconnect only when printing”. With this option, the printer is automatically connected when a print job is sent to it, then is disconnected as soon as the job completes so the printer is then available for other computers.

Check “Automatically connect this device when the Home Base Control Center starts” if you want this computer to automatically connect to this printer each time the computer star ts, preventing other users from connecting to the printer automatically.

You can force users to manually conne ct to the printer with the “Never automatically connect, I will always connect manually” option.

The “Printer” field is enabled if you select one of the automatic connection options. From the drop- down list, select the printer driver associated with this printer.

Connections to devices may occasionally be lost due to network failure s or other factors. If you want the Control Center to automatically reconnect with the device should this occur, check “Attempt to reconnect the device if a connection is lost”. The Control Center will try to reconnect with the device until the connection is re established or the computer is shut down.

Use the “Program” field to specify settings for any software associated with this printer. You can also check “Disconnect this device when the program is closed” if you want to free up the device for use by other computers when you close the software.

In the “Program” field, browse to find the software you want to associate with the printe r. You can also enter the path to the software directly into the field. Once your settings are saved, only the name of the program appears in the “Program” field.

LOCAL BACKUP

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The Belkin Home Base Control Center Local Backup tab enables you to easily back up the files from your computer to USB drives connected to Home Base.

To set up a backup from your computer, select the volume to which you want to back up and click “Choose Disk”.

The backup job screen will appear. The name of the disk, and its free space, will be shown, as well as the date and time of the nex t backup.

If you want to change the disk volume used for backup, click “Change Disk”.

Your backup will be gin when indicated by “Next Backup”, or you can start backing up immediately by clicking “Backup Now”. The status of your backup will be shown via a progress bar. The first backup can take a while as it copies all of the files on your computer. Once the initial backup is complete, the Control Center will monitor your computer and only back up new and changed files.

Home Base

LOCAL BACKUP

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Click “Options” to exclude files from the backup. This can help your backup happen faster. You can choose to exclude “Log files and caches”, “Operating system files”, and “Applications”, and elect to exclude one or more “Specific folders”. To exclude specific folders, click “Set Folders” and choose which ones you don’t need to back up.

Home Base

To restore files back to your computer, you can right-click on a file or folder you wish to restore and choose “History” to bring up the history browser, which will list all versions of the file/folder existing in the backup. Select an item from the list and click the “Restore” button, which will allow you to choose a restore destination. You may also drag an item from the histor y browser to a location of your choice. You can also browse to the “Local Backup” folder on the backup disk to find a version of the file.

LOCAL BACKUP

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If you want to perform a full restore of your computer, launch the “Restore Utility” found in the “Local Backup” folder of the drive that received the backup.

Home Base

PICTURE SHARING

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The “Picture Sharing” tab enables you to automatically upload pictures from USB disks connected to the Home Base to picture-sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa.

If you want to change the time that Home Base performs the picture uploads to the online services, click “Options”.

To enable this feature, click “Add a share” and select a folder from the disk(s) connected to the Home Base. Home Base will monitor this folder for pic tures.

Home Base

PICTURE SHARING

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Now select the photo-sharing site you want to use and follow the prompts. If you don’t have a Flickr or Picasa account, you will nee d to sign up for one, which you can do for free.

Home Base

The “Picture Sharing” configuration wizard will ask you for your online photo-sharing account information; you will need to authorize your Home Base product so it can access your account and automatically upload your pictures. The wizard will also ask you how often you want to check for pictures to upload them.

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