50M : Iomega Network Hard Drive - Cloud Edition - Help!

[AndyCalling]

Please read the following I posted on the Iomega forums. Can you guys help? Note that port 50500 is the port my NAS is using to connect to the internet (the standard port for Iomega cloud NAS units).

I have recently bought a Home Media Network Hard Drive - Cloud Edition 1TB.

As a lan NAS it works fine. I can't connect over the internet to the personal cloud I have set up however. I am in the UK and have a 50meg down 5meg up Virgin Media cable connection with the Virgin Media Superhub (a Netgear combined cable router and modem).

Using UPnP port 50500 shows as open at canyouseeme.org but I have set the NAS internal network IP as the DMZ anyway (I have it on a reserved IP of 192.168.0.5) so I can be sure.

The router firewall is disabled.

On my netbook I can connect to the NAS when on the same network as my NAS, as expected. The Iomega utility shows the cloud connection as active as well in these circumstances.

If I connect via Vodafone 3G however, the Iomega utility just keeps trying to connect and fails. This is also true via O2 3G.

My mate on TalkTalk ADSL broadband (about 15meg down, 1meg up) cannot get a connection to my cloud either.

The cloud access codes my mate and I are using are as shown in the NAS configuration pages, as I have set one up for his PC and one for my netbook.

So, to test, I have set up a guest wifi network on my Virgin Media router which does not allow me to connect to the NAS over the lan of course (as it is on an different IP range and is not part of my normal home lan network). It does connect me to the internet however (I'm posting this over it). The usual type of guest wifi network that routers provide these days. This will not connect to the cloud either. It just keeps trying to connect, getting to the second stage (ticking the 'world and cloud' icon) but failing to connect to the NAS (red cross). Turning the NAS off and on again does not help.

I have Windows 7 32bit on my netbook and Windows Firewall has the Iomega storage manager allowed through. I have Microsoft Security Essentials as my virus killer. The Iomega VLAN driver is disabled automatically, but shows as enabled and connected when I get a working connection over my normal home lan. On the guest network or over 3G, when I only have internet access to connect over, it remains disabled. If I manually enable it it just says it is disconnected.

I have the latest firmware installed on the NAS and both me and my mate are using the latest Iomega storage manager utility. My mate has Windows7 64bit and I have made sure he has the Windows Firewall allowing the storage manager through and we have tried putting his PC's internal IP address into his router's DMZ.

What am I doing wrong? Please help, I love this Iomega box and don't want to give up but I may have to return it to the store if I can't solve this.

Ta chums.

[Kymmy]

If you can connect via the LAN then the system is working and it sounds like it's a port forwarding issue with the superhub

[AndyCalling]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

If you can connect via the LAN then the system is working and it sounds like it's a port forwarding issue with the superhub

Except I have checked with http://canyouseeme.org and the port is open. Putting the NAS in the DMZ doesn't help either. Wouldn't that mean it couldn't be a port forwarding issue?

---------- Post added at 18:05 ---------- Previous post was at 17:59 ----------

I have now tried enabling remote access on the NAS, so I can access the web interface from my external IP. This is not a perm solution as the VM Superhub won't allow a dynamic DNS service.

I can access my IP and the web interface over my O2 3G connection like this, but not through the Superhub guest network. It seems that VM won't allow a PC on a VM external IP address to loop back and access itself over the internet. Can anyone confirm this?

If so, the problem may be caused by my mobile networks not allowing port 50500 (though I thought Vodafone and O2 didn't block ports on their 3G networks...) and my mate doing something wrong at his end. I shall experiment more with my mate on Sunday.

Any input on this is appreciated.

[Kymmy]

The guest network will still use the same external IP so yes you would be correct in that you won't be able to access it via the same connection (guest or not) that is the same for any router, that's not VM but the fact that you can't go out through the NAT and then return through it

[AndyCalling]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

The guest network will still use the same external IP so yes you would be correct in that you won't be able to access it via the same connection (guest or not) that is the same for any router, that's not VM but the fact that you can't go out through the NAT and then return through it

Great, thanks. Nice to know, that's another piece of the puzzle in place.

I still need a solution though, so any more thoughts from you folks before I try again with my mate tomorrow will be welcome.

If only the standard Netgear dynamic DNS option hadn't been banned from the Superhub by VM... ~

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by AndyCalling

If only the standard Netgear dynamic DNS option hadn't been banned from the Superhub by VM... ~

It hasn't been banned. The Superhub doesn't update your DynDNS account settings but it doesn't do anything to stop programs running on a PC updating it or updaters on things like IP cameras or NAS devices from operating. I am using a DynDNS update option on a webcam and that hasn't changed from when I had a Superhub.

If your NAS is in the DMZ then it can't be a port forwarding issue. The device appears to be correctly configured as you can access it locally. That really only leaves the DNS so far as I can see so try accessing it using your public IP.

As you have found you won't be able to test the external access properly from a device on your network as the router will recognise the IP as its own and either redirect it internally (my Superhub did that ok) or some will just not work. As the guest network is on a different subnet it won't work when looped back so you can't test external access that way.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

The guest network will still use the same external IP so yes you would be correct in that you won't be able to access it via the same connection (guest or not) that is the same for any router, that's not VM but the fact that you can't go out through the NAT and then return through it

Actually you should be able to do this, and on most decently designed routers it works. This is however, not what the guest network is designed for - the guest network's there for security to prevent access to your internal network, so more likely the side effects of that.