Can't access LAN remotely

sjdigital · 26-09-2006, 11:01

My home LAN is a basic one with a wireless router, a couple of PCs and a NAS box. I want to be able to access the NAS box remotely via ftp but when I try to connect to my IP address 82.7.xxx.xxx the connection gets rejected. I can't even get to the set up screen of my router. I called NTL Tech Support (what a joy!) and was told that it is not possible to have remote access! Can this be true?

TheNorm · 26-09-2006, 11:10

Yes this is possible - I do it using DynDNS (http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/), a free application. Works like a charm!

sjdigital · 26-09-2006, 11:28

Thanks for this quick reply. I'll have a look at this and see if it will do the trick. Can I set it up without actually being on my NTL connection as I'm abroad at the moment?

Aragorn · 26-09-2006, 11:32

Your router as a built-in firewall which is, rightly, blocking incoming traffic.

In order to access your data remotely, you need to configure the router to forward FTP (port 21 & 22) packets to the NAS - however..

FTP is one of the most insecure protocols around - when you logon to an account using FTP, your password is sent in clear text! If you allow write access to the ftp server, it will quickly fill up with loads of carp from any lowlife on the internet. - Basically opening up an FTP server on the www opens it up from anyone to look at!
If you want to access data at work, why not get a 2GB USB key and take just what you need?

---------- Post added at 11:32 ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 ----------

And you won't be able to open up your firewall from anywhere but home!

Horace · 26-09-2006, 12:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aragorn

..

And you won't be able to open up your firewall from anywhere but home!

Unless he has remote access on his router enabled.

Aragorn · 26-09-2006, 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horace

Unless he has remote access on his router enabled.

I'm assuming the failure to do so up to now indicates the usual default of remote admin disabled

TheNorm · 26-09-2006, 13:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjdigital

Thanks for this quick reply. I'll have a look at this and see if it will do the trick. Can I set it up without actually being on my NTL connection as I'm abroad at the moment?

You have to install a small application on your computer at home. Can you access your computer remotely?

sjdigital · 26-09-2006, 14:37

Thanks to everyone for their input and suggestions. The situation is that I enabled remote access on my router before leaving home, it doesn't have a firewall as far as I know (it's a very old SMC Barricade!), but I still can't access the router set up page, presumably because of the dynamic IP address issue. But since I'm not at home, and don't have remote access (hence this query), it would seem as though I can't get the DynDNS system operational from afar.

As for using ftp, I had the same NAS box set up as ftp back up storage on a cable internet system in Poland and it worked just fine without any problems. And I could log into the router without any difficulty. But I think it had a static IP address which may have made the difference.

TheNorm · 26-09-2006, 14:54

I have an "old" SMC Barricade router. What is your model number?

sjdigital · 26-09-2006, 15:08

It's a 7004AWBR (and I see from the instructions that I have on my notebook that it does apparently have a firewall!)

Aragorn · 26-09-2006, 15:46

Looking at this page it says the default web admin port is 88, not the standard http port 80. Have you tried browsing to http://80.7.x.x:88 ? It might work. That page also shows how to forward ftp traffic.

sjdigital · 26-09-2006, 19:19

No, browsing to 80.7.xx.xxx:88 doesn't work either.

sjdigital · 28-09-2006, 11:10

The great thing about forums such as this one is that even if you don't get exactly the answer you were looking for, you get pointed in the right direction and a bit more digging can generally solve the problem.

Signing up with DynDNS partially solved the problem in that by running their application on my computer I could keep my dynamic IP address accessible from outside via their service. But I wouldn't necessarily have a computer running on the network I would be wanting to access remotely and then I discovered that my router has the capability of using the DynDNS service and updating it without the need for a computer to be running on the network. Problem solved :-)

28-09-2006, 16:43

...and when Vista arrives, you can say goodbye to DynDNS!

Graham M · 28-09-2006, 16:47

How come?