Setting up a Samba file share with La Fonera

I have been playing around with La Fonera, which I received the other day. When it arrived I installed the latest firmware (2.1.0.2) and got that working without any problems (so far). One of the things you can do with it is plug in a USB drive in the back and then mount it over Samba. This is a brief note that describes how to set-up the Samba share and access it as a network drive on Mac OS X. I couldn’t find anything on the FON wiki so I had to poke around but it didn’t take too long to set-up.

Firstly, plug in a USB drive into the back of the router. Login to the FON management console and from the dashboard select: Services > Network Shares. The first time you go to the page, you will be prompted to enter a password for the Samba user; the default username is “fonero”, which you can’t change. You can always change the password later on by clicking on the key symbol on the share details page. That’s all you need to do on the router.

To mount the share do the following:

Click the Finder icon in the dock
Choose Connect to Server from the Go menu
In the address field of the Connect to Server dialog, type the following URL: smb://FON;fonero@192.168.10.1/usb-discs
Click Connect
In the Authentication dialog enter the password that you chose when you set-up the Samba share on the router

If everything worked the USB drive should now be viewable as a network drive from the Finder window. All I need to do now is figure out how to unmount the USB drive from the router without trashing it 🙂

5 thoughts on “Setting up a Samba file share with La Fonera”

nervokid June 24, 2009 at 3:38 pm

Lucky you! With me it didn't prompt for a password and now I am always getting access denial … even using the Fonera password. This is driving me crazy! If you have any clue regarding this, would you ming sending me an e-mail? Would be very much appreciated 🙂

nervokid June 25, 2009 at 2:13 am

Ok, I've managed to get this working, just had to reset the Fonera password. Something got messed …

Simon Buckle June 25, 2009 at 4:13 am

Glad you were able to solve your problem. I wouldn't have been very helpful anyway as my Fonera was stolen a while back and I have been 'Fonless' ever since. For whatever reason they don't seem to be shipping the latest version to the UK at the moment – I didn't have a problem getting one in November last year so no idea why there should be a problem now. Oh well!

nervokid June 25, 2009 at 9:13 am

Ok, I've managed to get this working, just had to reset the Fonera password. Something got messed …

Simon Buckle June 25, 2009 at 11:13 am

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nervokid June 24, 2009 at 3:38 pm

Lucky you! With me it didn't prompt for a password and now I am always getting access denial … even using the Fonera password. This is driving me crazy! If you have any clue regarding this, would you ming sending me an e-mail? Would be very much appreciated 🙂
nervokid June 25, 2009 at 2:13 am

Ok, I've managed to get this working, just had to reset the Fonera password. Something got messed …
Simon Buckle June 25, 2009 at 4:13 am

Glad you were able to solve your problem. I wouldn't have been very helpful anyway as my Fonera was stolen a while back and I have been 'Fonless' ever since. For whatever reason they don't seem to be shipping the latest version to the UK at the moment – I didn't have a problem getting one in November last year so no idea why there should be a problem now. Oh well!
nervokid June 25, 2009 at 9:13 am

Ok, I've managed to get this working, just had to reset the Fonera password. Something got messed …
Simon Buckle June 25, 2009 at 11:13 am

Glad you were able to solve your problem. I wouldn't have been very helpful anyway as my Fonera was stolen a while back and I have been 'Fonless' ever since. For whatever reason they don't seem to be shipping the latest version to the UK at the moment – I didn't have a problem getting one in November last year so no idea why there should be a problem now. Oh well!