How to setup my NAS to be accessible from anywhere.

[dsh161]

I have a cable connection through comcast. I cannot find a good tutorial on how to make my NAS accessible only to me from anywhere (not just when I'm connected to my router). I would like to do this with a solution that is not 3rd party. The problem that I run into is that I do not have a static external IP address. I want complete control over all hardware and software. Any on have any ideas?

[KuJoe]

Port forwarding, but then you're opening your NAS up to the whole world so good luck. A VPN is a much better option.

[79wjd]

You can setup DDNS (many high end routers these days support it), which gives you a URL which will redirect to your static IP address.

 

I second setting up a VPN on your home network. 

[dsh161]

So is there a really good VPN setup guide?

[WkdPaul]

16 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

I have a cable connection through comcast. I cannot find a good tutorial on how to make my NAS accessible only to me from anywhere (not just when I'm connected to my router). I would like to do this with a solution that is not 3rd party. The problem that I run into is that I do not have a static external IP address. I want complete control over all hardware and software. Any on have any ideas?

What is your NAS setup?

 

Depending, you might already have DDNS integrated ... there isn't any general tutorials because it really depends on your setup.

 

More informations that could help you;

http://www.bit.com.au/Guide/328703,4-things-you-mightnt-know-you-can-do-with-a-nas-box.aspx

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/192074/5-ways-to-access-your-pcs-files-over-the-internet/

[79wjd]

8 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

So is there a really good VPN setup guide?

What router do you have? I'm running my VPN off my router instead of my NAS (just to give you another option in case your NAS solution doesn't support running a VPN plugin).

[dsh161]

What I really want...

 

is a NAS that acts like a server.

i.e.

I have network drives that I use from multiple computers (laptop desktop surface pro etc.) I would like to have seamless use of these mapped drives from anywhere.

I would like to have my music files accessible from any device including mobile phones from anywhere.

Same with pictures...

 

Is this even possible yet?

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

What I really want...

 

is a NAS that acts like a server.

i.e.

I have network drives that I use from multiple computers (laptop desktop surface pro etc.) I would like to have seamless use of these mapped drives from anywhere.

I would like to have my music files accessible from any device including mobile phones from anywhere.

Same with pictures...

 

Is this even possible yet?

For media file access you can either setup a VPN and remote into your network from your phone everytime you wanted to access your music, or you could setup a plex media server on your NAS and stream your music straight to the plex app on your phone (without the need for a VPN).

 

A VPN (virtual private network) will make the device appear and act as if it's on your home network -- so if you have a VPN on your phone, then it would basically be the same as connecting to your home wifi. 

[WkdPaul]

3 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

What I really want...

 

is a NAS that acts like a server.

i.e.

I have network drives that I use from multiple computers (laptop desktop surface pro etc.) I would like to have seamless use of these mapped drives from anywhere.

I would like to have my music files accessible from any device including mobile phones from anywhere.

Same with pictures...

 

Is this even possible yet?

yes, but do you have a NAS?

 

If not then it really depends on your budget. I personally made a NAS out of an old Core 2 Duo and OMV, it was basically free but uses a LOT more energy than a dedicated NAS! Heard good things of WD My Cloud.

[KuJoe]

8 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

What I really want...

 

is a NAS that acts like a server.

i.e.

I have network drives that I use from multiple computers (laptop desktop surface pro etc.) I would like to have seamless use of these mapped drives from anywhere.

I would like to have my music files accessible from any device including mobile phones from anywhere.

Same with pictures...

 

Is this even possible yet?

Look into Dropbox, OwnCloud, SyncThing, BTSync, and other software like this. You can run these on basically any OS and no server required.

[dsh161]

On 2/24/2016 at 0:55 PM, djdwosk97 said:

What router do you have? I'm running my VPN off my router instead of my NAS (just to give you another option in case your NAS solution doesn't support running a VPN plugin).

How do you set up the vpn if you don't have a static ip address?

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

How do you set up the vpn if you don't have a static ip address?

Well, I'm running openVPN on my router, so my router basically handles everything for me. I download an openVPN config file, which I assume uses the router's built in DDNS functionality to direct the client to the correct ip. 

 

DDNS is a service you run on your home network that gives you a domain name that will point to your IP address. So, on my router I'm running a DDNS service where the address is: something@asuscomm.com and I have forwarded that URL to my router's internal IP Address (192.168.1.1). So when I'm not on my network and I go to something@asuscomm.com it will redirect me to my router's GUI. 

[Sevilla]

I think the question remains: Do you have a NAS? Or do you just have a computer with hard drives shared in your network? Or do you have a dedicated NAS enclosure tied to your network?

 

Depending on your answer, we can recommend. There are solutions to both physical PC turned to NAS and dedicated NAS box to connect to the network, but without knowing any details, we cannot help.

There are tons of solutions for PCs and NAS boxes, but details are needed. 

[dsh161]

Ok the answer is I have a ZYXEL 325 2 Bay NAS running 2 2TB hardrives that are mirrored. I just bought an Asus RT-AC87U router I also own a domain of my own that is hosted with inmotion hosting (not sure if that matters).

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, dsh161 said:

Ok the answer is I have a ZYXEL 325 2 Bay NAS running 2 2TB hardrives that are mirrored. I just bought an Asus RT-AC87U router I also own a domain of my own that is hosted with inmotion hosting (not sure if that matters).

If you use DDNS that's built into your router (that's what I personally use), then you don't need a domain, you can "register" a domain through Asus from within the GUI for free. 

 

Go to your router's GUI (192.168.1.1), navigate to "WAN" on the left side bar, go to the "DDNS" tab, enable DDNS, choose "WWW.ASUS.COM" as the server, put in whatever hostname you want, and then apply the settings. 

 

In addition to using it for the VPN I'm also using it so I can remotely access the router's GUI, so I ultimatley had to forward port 80 to the IP of my router (192.168.1.1) so that going to "djdwosk97.asuscomm.com" would pull up my router's GUI. I also needed to "Enable web access from wan" (a setting under Administration > system).

 

After you're DDNS is all set up, then navigate to the VPN tab, now, I personally used openVPN which caused a lot of problems because the latest version of Tunnelblick (the VPN client that I run on my computer) wouldn't allow me to connect to the VPN due to the fact that Asus doesn't support a high enough level of encryption. PPTP supposedly doesn't have that problem, and older versions of the openVPN/Tunnelblick client have no issues connecting. 

[dsh161]

So If I get this setup through my router I will also have to install a vpn client on my devices as well? Doesn't Windows 10 have a built in client? or is it inferroir? Will this still allow my to access my mapped drives?

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, dsh161 said:

So If I get this setup through my router I will also have to install a vpn client on my devices as well? Doesn't Windows 10 have a built in client? or is it inferroir? Will this still allow my to access my mapped drives?

You can use whatever client you want, so if W10 has a client, then you can use it if you wanted to. I personally just chose to use the openVPN client since I'm running openVPN on the router. Yes, once you connect to the VPN it will be as if you're at home on your own network. 

[dsh161]

I will try this out and see how it goes.  Thank you!