help FTP over internet

[George.]

Hey guys, I need some assistance...

I have a router (Strong AC1200) with a usb port and I want to setup a ftp server (external hdd) to use over internet, not only intranet.

I'm struggling to do so... I only got it to work in my LAN so it's purely down to settings...

Please, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[callmejaccob]

You need to setup port forwarding on your router. You also need to type, ftp://yourip

 

I have my own ftp server setup, and I enjoy being able to access it at school.

 

Edit: Don't use FTP, use SFTP. I say FTP but really mean SFTP.

[Windows7ge]

Is it FTP or SFTP? Don't broadcast a FTP server over the Internet.

[beersykins]

As above, traditional FTP transmits data in cleartext including credentials.

 

You'd want to either wrap it in a VPN, or use SFTP/SCP which are encrypted protocols.

 

SFTP is easier too since you just have to forward TCP22.  Traditional FTP has a couple of different modes and data flows between TCP20 and 21.

[George.]

10 hours ago, callmejaccob said:

You need to setup port forwarding on your router. You also need to type, ftp://yourip

 

I have my own ftp server setup, and I enjoy being able to access it at school.

 

Edit: Don't use FTP, use SFTP. I say FTP but really mean SFTP.

I will try to setup the port forwarding, however I kind of tried and got stuck to the point where I cannot find the IP assigned to the external hdd I have plugged in the router (usb). Does that mean it uses the gateway IP? I've heard the router should assign one of its own. Thanks!

[George.]

Thank you everyone, I will look into either adding vpn for ftp or sftp. Is Sftp something my router has to additionally support, or is it just forwarding :22 instead of :21?

 

Also do I need to look into DDNS services because being stuck in that phase I got to, I looked into all the router settings many times and even tried setting that up, however it turns out not so free

[Windows7ge]

If the router is remotely modern and if it was designed with the intention of broadcasting the storage over the web it should support SFTP but it's something you may have to setup along with password authentication or Public/Private Key authentication.

 

Some providers don't randomly switch your IP even though it's set to DHCP. Ideally look into a service such as No-IP. It's a free Dynamic DNS service. I've seen some routers support No-IP so you don't have to dedicate a 24/7 online machine to ping their server every 5 minutes.

[mtz_federico]

10 hours ago, George. said:

I will try to setup the port forwarding, however I kind of tried and got stuck to the point where I cannot find the IP assigned to the external hdd I have plugged in the router (usb). Does that mean it uses the gateway IP? I've heard the router should assign one of its own. Thanks!

Which router are you using?

[George.]

13 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

Which router are you using?

Strong 1200AC

[mtz_federico]

On 2/24/2020 at 11:57 PM, George. said:

I cannot find the IP assigned to the external hdd I have plugged in the router (usb)

USB hard drives don't get an ip, you need to port forward your routers ip (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1)

[Alex Atkin UK]

11 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

USB hard drives don't get an ip, you need to port forward your routers ip (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1)

If its hosted on the router itself then it wont be port forwarding, merely a firewall rule to allow remote access for that service.

I'm not sure its guaranteed to support it though as its not really a great idea to open up any part of the router OS to the WAN side, in case there are any security bugs that would allow it to be compromised.

AFAIK router NAS support is generally intended for LAN use not WAN, even then I wouldn't recommend it as most routers are woefully underpowered to do it.

[mtz_federico]

12 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If its hosted on the router itself then it wont be port forwarding, merely a firewall rule to allow remote access for that service.

I'm not sure its guaranteed to support it though as its not really a great idea to open up any part of the router OS to the WAN side, in case there are any security bugs that would allow it to be compromised.

AFAIK router NAS support is generally intended for LAN use not WAN, even then I wouldn't recommend it as most routers are woefully underpowered to do it.

Yeah, op is very off getting a rpi 4 and setting up sftp in it with the external hdd

[George.]

The router supports No-IP ddns, would that make it work? I asked my ISP for assistance, and since they are a small local ISP they couldn't really help much on the phone and refused to send a technician for further assistance. They told me, however, that I probably have to use VPN to make it work. What does a vpn have to do with it? Some kind of tunneling has to take place or what? I'm no network guru so I'm only as good as following guides on the i-net. That area is kinda lacking community support on the internet so that's a bummer. There's a lot of info on stupid stuff like how to restart your router and a lot of info on quite advanced stuff, but nothing inbetween. QQ Would've saved me a lot of time if Linus made a video on how to use your router-hosted usb ftp server outside your LAN....

[George.]

Update: Just figured out that my WAN is PPPOE type. that could be a problem...

[mtz_federico]

On 2/29/2020 at 3:05 AM, George. said:

The router supports No-IP ddns, would that make it work? I asked my ISP for assistance, and since they are a small local ISP they couldn't really help much on the phone and refused to send a technician for further assistance. They told me, however, that I probably have to use VPN to make it work. What does a vpn have to do with it? Some kind of tunneling has to take place or what? I'm no network guru so I'm only as good as following guides on the i-net. That area is kinda lacking community support on the internet so that's a bummer. There's a lot of info on stupid stuff like how to restart your router and a lot of info on quite advanced stuff, but nothing inbetween. QQ Would've saved me a lot of time if Linus made a video on how to use your router-hosted usb ftp server outside your LAN....

No-ip would help you but it's not needed. Have you tried port forwarding to the router's ip?

[Xenexo]

You say that you can connect locally correct? I would look into the properties of the drive and find either the port or share location. If it's a shared location, ping that in CMD to find the IP. If the IP matches your router then you will need to port forward your router IP (which is not secure in any means). I would then look into if your External HDD has a mac address or an assigned IPv6 and port forward that on port 21. This bypasses your router and would go directly to your HDD. I would also look at mapping the drive when connecting to it. You can use a FTP client but it's easier to use mapping instead. 

[George.]

13 hours ago, Xenexo said:

You say that you can connect locally correct? I would look into the properties of the drive and find either the port or share location. If it's a shared location, ping that in CMD to find the IP. If the IP matches your router then you will need to port forward your router IP (which is not secure in any means). I would then look into if your External HDD has a mac address or an assigned IPv6 and port forward that on port 21. This bypasses your router and would go directly to your HDD. I would also look at mapping the drive when connecting to it. You can use a FTP client but it's easier to use mapping instead. 

The drive shares the router's ip and I get an error when trying to forward that ip, I guess the software wouldn't let me expose the router. The router software provides no information about the drive (except for partitions and capacity). I will try to obtain the drive's mac address and see if I figure sth out from there  Thanks!

[George.]

16 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

No-ip would help you but it's not needed. Have you tried port forwarding to the router's ip?

Yeah I figured that out, I've been trying to do it, following guides for other brands (cuz it should be pretty much analogical) however I am not able to connect to it outside the LAN. 

[Xenexo]

The only way that you would be able to get this to work is by setting up a VPN server if your Router allows it. 

[George.]

2 hours ago, Xenexo said:

The only way that you would be able to get this to work is by setting up a VPN server if your Router allows it. 

I don't really know how to do that, so I'll have to enlighten myself before I can share any results here

[Alex Atkin UK]

Like I said earlier, if the drive is on the router itself then its NOT port forwarding.  Port forwarding is when you need to direct traffic from the routers WAN to a different machine on the network.

 

The router documentation is severely lacking but it does mention personal FTP server for secure remote access (secure, really?) so I'd expect there to be an option somewhere for opening up the port for this on the WAN side.  Its bizarre that it has all these features and the manual tells you nothing about how to use them.

You're probably better off contacting the manufacturer about this, is this right? https://www.strong.tv/en/ContactInfo

 

Although if you want secure access, then FTP is really not the way to go as already discussed.  Although considering the lack of details on the routers documentation, for all we know it might support SFTP.

[George.]

9 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Like I said earlier, if the drive is on the router itself then its NOT port forwarding.  Port forwarding is when you need to direct traffic from the routers WAN to a different machine on the network.

 

The router documentation is severely lacking but it does mention personal FTP server for secure remote access (secure, really?) so I'd expect there to be an option somewhere for opening up the port for this on the WAN side.  Its bizarre that it has all these features and the manual tells you nothing about how to use them.

You're probably better off contacting the manufacturer about this, is this right? https://www.strong.tv/en/ContactInfo

 

Although if you want secure access, then FTP is really not the way to go as already discussed.  Although considering the lack of details on the routers documentation, for all we know it might support SFTP.

The manual is really gross but I literally digged under every single button and line in the settings page and couldn't figure it out, that's when I created this post. Anyway, I will keep trying, it might work somehow. Tried contacting the manufacturer, waiting on a reply.

[George.]

The manufacturer said they couldn't help and that my ISP has to open a given port for me.     "Only that way traffic will flow in and out of       your ftp server over internet"

Okay, so that's probably gonna be a NO from my ISP. They should add a note to all the "5 steps guide on easy ftp server accessible from outside your LAN by usb hdd" that it's pretty messed up and might not work in most situations...

[Alex Atkin UK]

11 hours ago, George. said:

The manufacturer said they couldn't help and that my ISP has to open a given port for me.     "Only that way traffic will flow in and out of       your ftp server over internet"

Okay, so that's probably gonna be a NO from my ISP. They should add a note to all the "5 steps guide on easy ftp server accessible from outside your LAN by usb hdd" that it's pretty messed up and might not work in most situations...

Ah, I take it this is an ISP customised version?  If not, they're talking out of their arse.

 

Kinda odd if it supports port forwarding but not opening up ports on the router itself. (did you find port forwarding in there?)

 

Either way, its probably a better idea to get something like a Raspberry Pi and port forward to that, then you can use something more secure like SFTP or even just a plain web server.  Of course, this is assuming your ISP is not using CG-NAT in which case them needing to open the port (technically they would have to port forward to your router) would be relevant (and unlikely to happen).

Is the file sharing just so you can access your local files remotely or for multiple people to do so?  That rather determines how complicated and secure a system you would want to implement.

[George.]

2 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Ah, I take it this is an ISP customised version?  If not, they're talking out of their arse.

 

Kinda odd if it supports port forwarding but not opening up ports on the router itself. (did you find port forwarding in there?)

 

Either way, its probably a better idea to get something like a Raspberry Pi and port forward to that, then you can use something more secure like SFTP or even just a plain web server.  Of course, this is assuming your ISP is not using CG-NAT in which case them needing to open the port (technically they would have to port forward to your router) would be relevant (and unlikely to happen).

Is the file sharing just so you can access your local files remotely or for multiple people to do so?  That rather determines how complicated and secure a system you would want to implement.

Well I initially designed it as a file server for me and my family to use while away from LAN. (I live in another city because of University...and the server is at their house, so I had to setup remote router settings first). My ISP provides a PPPoE network over fiber and that pretty much all I know about them tech-wise. They give me a username and password to access the internet. I guess I'll just leave it as it is now - at least my parents have a working home media server  and a ftp server and sharing files between all devices is easier. 

I will figure sth out in the future. Maybe a raspberry pi or an old otherwise purposeless laptop.