Need Some Help

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Here is my setup then I will explain what I want to do. I have Qwest DSL service with their Actiontec modem....standalone version...no wireless on it. Then I have a Linksys WRT610N router. That router has a USB port where you can attach external HDDs. I have one attached. Right now, I can access the drive when I'm at home. It shows up on my PCs at a network drive. However, I want to be able to access the drive when I have my laptop with me and not at home. I can enable internet access to the device in the WRT610N but, I have no idea how to access from outside my home network. I have the firewall in the DSL modem itself turned off. NAT is on, which is how Qwest sets it. The firewall on my WRT610N is on. Can some help me out? Is this even possible? I would appreciate any input anyone can provide. Thanks.

[alphamale]

The internet access to the router is for router management not for access to your storage.

if you want to access your network/storage you need to setup your network for remote access. I would start with a static ip address from your isp so you can find the network. Then you can use something like remote desktop to dial in.

Another much simpler way would be to use something like "go to my pc" or someone here recently wrote about "crossloop". I have used go to my pc and it works very well. With these you would just dial in to your home pc and access your storage drive.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

  alphamale said:

The internet access to the router is for router management not for access to your storage.

if you want to access your network/storage you need to setup your network for remote access. I would start with a static ip address from your isp so you can find the network. Then you can use something like remote desktop to dial in.

Another much simpler way would be to use something like "go to my pc" or someone here recently wrote about "crossloop". I have used go to my pc and it works very well. With these you would just dial in to your home pc and access your storage drive.

There is a seperate remote management. The one I speak of is for accessing my storage device.

[+BudMan MVC]

Ok couple of things to start with.. Your not going to want or more than likely even able to use CIFS or SMB to share out the external drive to the public net. ie windows file sharing doesn't really work natively over the net.. Nor would you WANT to open those ports up to the public net, even if your ISP allowed those ports. Most of them should be blocking them, etc.

To use windows file sharing you would need to VPN into your network, and access that way. Hamachi comes to mind, or Teamviewer has a vpn option now, etc.

But I do believe that the wrt610N has a FTP server that would allow you to access your external drives.. RTFM for how to enable use the FTP server and access your drives.

Once you have that working internally -- then setup your gateway devices to foward ftp, 21 to the IP address of the wrt610n ftp server.

Problem #2 is it REALLY sounds like your doing a double nat. You state your quest "modem" -- really a gateway (modem/router combo) has "NAT is on, which is how Qwest sets it"

So how do you have your wrt610 setup -- I would assume its also doing NAT, unless your using it as just an ACCESSPOINT - which is how you should be using it. Or I would suggest you turn your qwest device into just a BRIDGE and then control access to your network at the wrt610N.

Is it possible to get ftp working thru a double nat -- sure maybe, but its a pain! Either just use your wrt router as an accesspoint, since you already have a device doing nat (qwest device) and control access to your network there with port forwards.

Or turn that device into a bridge and control access at your wrt router -- this would be the best option in my opinion.

Another option would be to put the WAN ip of your wrt into the dmz of the quest. Crappy solution to be honest since your still double natting, control access inbound to your network on the lan side of the wrt at the wrt then. Or you could foward the traffic you want at your quest, and then forward it again at your wrt to the private ip on the wrt newtork you want to send it to, etc.. Again more crappy than the dmz, since you will always have to make multiple setting changes any time you want to forward traffic.

Your 2 better options are;

qwest into a bridge, only nat at your WRT

qwest as nat, wrt as accesspoint. http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/wireless-...cess-point.html

Or more on the VPN solution.. Since lets assume your box is behind a double nat currently if its connected to the wrt router.. You could setup hamachi or teamviewer to allow access into this private network behind the wrt. And then you could use windows file sharing or ftp, etc from any device also connected into this hamachine or teamviewer vpn (your laptop while away).

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

  BudMan said:

Ok couple of things to start with.. Your not going to want or more than likely even able to use CIFS or SMB to share out the external drive to the public net. ie windows file sharing doesn't really work natively over the net.. Nor would you WANT to open those ports up to the public net, even if your ISP allowed those ports. Most of them should be blocking them, etc.

To use windows file sharing you would need to VPN into your network, and access that way. Hamachi comes to mind, or Teamviewer has a vpn option now, etc.

But I do believe that the wrt610N has a FTP server that would allow you to access your external drives.. RTFM for how to enable use the FTP server and access your drives.

Once you have that working internally -- then setup your gateway devices to foward ftp, 21 to the IP address of the wrt610n ftp server.

Problem #2 is it REALLY sounds like your doing a double nat. You state your quest "modem" -- really a gateway (modem/router combo) has "NAT is on, which is how Qwest sets it"

So how do you have your wrt610 setup -- I would assume its also doing NAT, unless your using it as just an ACCESSPOINT - which is how you should be using it. Or I would suggest you turn your qwest device into just a BRIDGE and then control access to your network at the wrt610N.

Is it possible to get ftp working thru a double nat -- sure maybe, but its a pain! Either just use your wrt router as an accesspoint, since you already have a device doing nat (qwest device) and control access to your network there with port forwards.

Or turn that device into a bridge and control access at your wrt router -- this would be the best option in my opinion.

Another option would be to put the WAN ip of your wrt into the dmz of the quest. Crappy solution to be honest since your still double natting, control access inbound to your network on the lan side of the wrt at the wrt then. Or you could foward the traffic you want at your quest, and then forward it again at your wrt to the private ip on the wrt newtork you want to send it to, etc.. Again more crappy than the dmz, since you will always have to make multiple setting changes any time you want to forward traffic.

Your 2 better options are;

qwest into a bridge, only nat at your WRT

qwest as nat, wrt as accesspoint. http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/wireless-...cess-point.html

Or more on the VPN solution.. Since lets assume your box is behind a double nat currently if its connected to the wrt router.. You could setup hamachi or teamviewer to allow access into this private network behind the wrt. And then you could use windows file sharing or ftp, etc from any device also connected into this hamachine or teamviewer vpn (your laptop while away).

I think bridging may be an issue because Qwest uses PPPoA and not PPPoE and on the Linksys there is PPPoA option. I was looking at TeamViewer but, does that not require the HDD in question be attached to an actual PC? Here is some other info I can tell you. My Qwest modem uses the 192.168.0.x scheme. The Linksys is setup on the 192.168.1.x scheme. I have "Internet Access" portion of the storage enabled for the driver in the Linksys. The FTP port is also selected. This is the point where I'm stuck. LOL. I would appreciate some more help.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well your clearly doing a double nat.. So your qwest device does not support half bridge? This allows you to use the PPPoA on you the device, but put the public IP on your wrt router. What is the exact model number of your qwest device?

As to hamachi or teamviewer requiring the device to be connected to that PC -- um NO.. They would only be your vpn connnection into your network.. You would then be able to connect to any network device on your network.

If you can not do half bridge, then why not just turn your wrt into an ACCESSPOINT only! Then everything would be on the qwest devices network, the 192.168.0.0/24 This would be the easiest option to be sure.

I would suggest you read the VPN section of the teamviewer manual

http://www.teamviewer.com/help/teamviewer_manual.pdf

Starts on page 31.

4.9 VPN connection

With the VPN option you can establish a virtual private network between you and your partner. Two computers that are connected with VPN are in a common network. You can access the network resources of the other computer and accordingly your partner also can access the resources of your own local machine.

Worse case is you most likely have to create static route to the other IPs on the remote network.

NOTE: If you connect to the remote PC with TeamViewer VPN, both computers are in a common virtual network. If you need to communicate with further computers located in the partners network, you have to set static IP routes. In order to do so advanced skills in administering Windows? networks are essential.

Keep in mind if you are creating a teamviewer connection to some PC that has access to the windows share off your wrt.. You should just be able to access the files directly by connecting to it.. If the drive is mapped to that PC, it would look like a local drive to remote software like teamviewer

Just map the wrt external drive share as drive letter on the pc running the teamviewer software. If you go this route you would not need the ftp server. The ftp server option would only be if you were going to share it out directly to the public net, by port forwarding at your gateway.

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

  BudMan said:

Well your clearly doing a double nat.. So your qwest device does not support half bridge? This allows you to use the PPPoA on you the device, but put the public IP on your wrt router. What is the exact model number of your qwest device?

As to hamachi or teamviewer requiring the device to be connected to that PC -- um NO.. They would only be your vpn connnection into your network.. You would then be able to connect to any network device on your network.

If you can not do half bridge, then why not just turn your wrt into an ACCESSPOINT only! Then everything would be on the qwest devices network, the 192.168.0.0/24 This would be the easiest option to be sure.

I would suggest you read the VPN section of the teamviewer manual

http://www.teamviewer.com/help/teamviewer_manual.pdf

Starts on page 31.

4.9 VPN connection

With the VPN option you can establish a virtual private network between you and your partner. Two computers that are connected with VPN are in a common network. You can access the network resources of the other computer and accordingly your partner also can access the resources of your own local machine.

Worse case is you most likely have to create static route to the other IPs on the remote network.

NOTE: If you connect to the remote PC with TeamViewer VPN, both computers are in a common virtual network. If you need to communicate with further computers located in the partners network, you have to set static IP routes. In order to do so advanced skills in administering Windows? networks are essential.

Keep in mind if you are creating a teamviewer connection to some PC that has access to the windows share off your wrt.. You should just be able to access the files directly by connecting to it.. If the drive is mapped to that PC, it would look like a local drive to remote software like teamviewer

Just map the wrt external drive share as drive letter on the pc running the teamviewer software. If you go this route you would not need the ftp server. The ftp server option would only be if you were going to share it out directly to the public net, by port forwarding at your gateway.

I have a total of three PCs connected to the network along with a Blu-ray player and two satellite receivers. LOL So if I'm assuming that I got multiple devices on the network that I cannot turn it into a access point. I will look further into the software solutions you presented earlier.

[+BudMan MVC]

Does not matter if you have 100 devices on the wireless network, you have a gateway device already -- you do not need to 2. Turn it into an accesspoint and control access at the qwest device. I have about 10 different computers and devices, plus countless machines I am working and laptops on and off my network -- and my wrt54g is being use as just and ACCESSPOINT ;) even if its running dd-wrt. I have pfsense working as my gateway.

It takes about 30 seconds to turn it into a accesspoint, which is all you ever needed to add wireless to your network in the first place. Why you set it up as a double nat in the first place is beyond me!

Here is the link your after again.

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/wireless-...cess-point.html

How to Use a Wireless Router as a Wireless Access Point

Even if you use teamviewer to access it, you still have no point double natting.

And while your at it.. take a look at this little rant piece I did ;)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?auto...;showentry=1565

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

Ohh, sorry about the quoting thing. LOL Anyway, the TeamViewer software works great. I also did away with the double nat setup. I got a question in regards to that though. Does the linksys firewall still come into play even though I'm not using the WAN port. In other words, I should leave it on and not turn it off right?