Accessing a shared network drive outside my home network

[w0rpz]

(Correct me if I'm but I assume I’m in the right place for remote storage - I do not own a NAS server - I just use another SSD inside a old pc sitting next to my router (it also runs a minecraft server - not sure if it changes anything))

 

 

Now, I've setup everything correctly, made sure the group: "Everyone" has access in Advanced Sharing & Security with Read & Write permissions. This works as I'd hoped it would, transferring files from my PC to the sever, (i call it a server as it runs two minecraft servers - and hopefully more data) backing up data from google drive or another computer, moving files across machines via the shared drive, etc.

 

However, I also intended to use it outside of my  home network and was disappointed to find out I can’t just use the external IP of the machine for access to it, (I do understand I need to add a user account so random people on the internet can steal my data) is there a possible way for me to be able to access my data/shared drive outside of my local network?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Setup a vpn? Use something like SCP to copy files over the wan?

 

Technically you can port forward it, but you really don't want to port forward smb.

[Remarkable_Day]

As above, you could port forward traffic to your PC (tells your router to setup a NAT rule for any traffic hitting your external IP to forward it to your PC). 

However this is generally a very bad idea security wise, and I'd strongly advise against it.

 

You could setup a VPN server somewhere on your network (reasonably advanced, free)

You could setup an SFTP server on the PC for remote file access (pretty easy, but some limitations, android SFTP clients generally aren't very good, free)

You could setup a free 'personal cloud' service (https://owncloud.com/ or http://www.filecloud.com as an example, cheap or free, free versions probably will have limitations but most likely fine for individual use) 

 

Depending on how often and what devices you'd like to access your files remotely on, I'd suggest either SFTP or a personal cloud service.

[w0rpz]

46 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Setup a vpn? Use something like SCP to copy files over the wan?

 

Technically you can port forward it, but you really don't want to port forward smb.

Would a tutorial like this work

https://pureinfotech.com/setup-vpn-server-windows-10/#:~:text=Click on the Security tab,Click the OK button.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, w0rpz said:

Would a tutorial like this work

https://pureinfotech.com/setup-vpn-server-windows-10/#:~:text=Click on the Security tab,Click the OK button.

Yea that will work if your on windows.

[Gerowen]

+1 for a VPN server.

 

I use PiVPN (OpenVPN) on a raspberry pi as a dedicated VPN server, but any modern solution would suffice just fine.  I would never recommend exposing Windows file sharing (Samba) directly to the internet, especially with an "Everyone" permission set.  A simple VPN server is your quickest and easiest solution.