woelrutie

Q: Remote access to airport disk from Windows

I would like to access my Airport Disk from my Airport Extreme (802.11n) over the internet; not just from my network, but from any pc in the country (similar to ftp). Please help me with the Airport Extreme settings that will enable me to access my Airport Disk from any Windows based computer, from anywhere over the internet.

 

I've read several discussions which either describe how to access the Airport Disk on your home network or how to access you disk over the internet on a Mac. This is not what I'm looking for. Again, I want to access my disk over the internet from any PC.

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Windows 7

Posted on Aug 19, 2011 9:07 AM

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Q: Remote access to airport disk from Windows

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  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 19, 2011 9:49 AM in response to woelrutie
    Level 9 (54,786 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 19, 2011 9:49 AM in response to woelrutie

    Ok, here are the basic steps to configure the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) to share an attached USB HDD to the Internet from a Windows 7 PC.

     

     

    1. Start the AirPort Utility > Select the AEBSn, and then, note the IP address shown.
    2. Select Manual Setup.
    3. Verify that Connection Sharing = Share a public IP address is selected on the Internet > Internet Connection tab.
    4. Select Disks, and then, select File Sharing.
    5. Verify that both the "Enable file sharing" and "Share disks over the Internet using Bonjour" options are enabled.
    6. Verify that Secure Shared Disks = With a disk password. (Recommended)
    7. Verify that AirPort Disks Guest Access = Not allowed. (Recommended)
    8. Select Advanced, and then, select the Port Mapping tab.
    9. Click the plus sign to add a new port mapping.
    10. For Service, select the "Windows Sharing" option. The will open the appropriate UDP/TCP ports for the SMB file sharing protocol. (Note: This option would only allow PC or Linux clients to access the AirPort Disks. If you want both Macs and PCs to connect, you would need to also select the "Personal File Sharing" option as well.)
    11. In the Public UDP Port(s) and Public TCP Port(s) boxes, type in a 4-digit port number (e.g., 8888) that you choose. In the Private IP Address box, type the internal IP address of your AEBSn that you wrote down in step 1. In the Private UDP Port(s) and Private TCP Port(s) boxes, type 548. Click Continue.
    12. In the Description box, type a descriptive name like "AirPort Disk File Sharing," and then, click Done.
    13. Click on Update.

     

     

    To connect to the shared AirPort Disk from a remote location using a PC running Windows 7:

     

    1. From Start > Computer > Map network drive
    2. In the Folder window, enter the DynDNS-provided Domain Name or Pubic (WAN-side) IP address of the AEBSn, followed by a colon and the Public port number that you choose in step 11 of the previous procedure. For example: \\www.mydyndnsdomain.com:8888\<AirPort Disk Volume Name>  or \\123.456.789.123:8888\<AirPort Disk Volume Name>
    3. Click Finish.
    4. You should be prompted for your user name and password. The user name can be anything you like; the password should be the Disk password for the AEBSn that you created in step 6 previously.
  • by woelrutie,

    woelrutie woelrutie Aug 27, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Tesserax

    I still haven't been able to get it to work. I have a dynamic ip address so maybe it would be easier to go through dyndns.com or no-ip.com and use a dynamic global hostname in the AEBS. Can you help me on the configuration of this? Also, where do I type the address in windows: the browser address bar or under Map network drive in My Computer?

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 27, 2011 4:10 PM in response to woelrutie
    Level 9 (54,786 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 27, 2011 4:10 PM in response to woelrutie
    I have a dynamic ip address so maybe it would be easier to go through dyndns.com or no-ip.com and use a dynamic global hostname in the AEBS.

    The AirPorts do not have a means to configure for DDNS, so you would need to download a simple client that runs on a Mac or PC to keep the DynDNS server updated everytime your dynamic IP address changes.

     

    Basically, all you need to do is go to the DynDNS site (or whichever DDNS supplier you prefer) and sign up for their service. They will then provide you with both the DDNS client and the URL that will be assigned to you. Once you have these, you would install the client on your computer and run it. You would then use the URL when attempting to access your router from the Internet.

     

    In this case, you would enter the URL into the Map Network Drive's folder window as I described earlier.

  • by woelrutie,

    woelrutie woelrutie Aug 29, 2011 8:14 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 29, 2011 8:14 PM in response to Tesserax

    I set up a custom domain at dyndns.com. I am able to access the airdisk by mapping a drive to \\aebs_name.custom_domain.com\disk_name. This works fine as long as I'm on the same network as the airdisk, but I still cannot access the drive remotely from another network. Any suggestions?

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Aug 29, 2011 8:56 PM in response to woelrutie
    Level 9 (54,786 points)
    Wireless
    Aug 29, 2011 8:56 PM in response to woelrutie

    Regardless of, whether your ISP provides you with a Dynamic or Static IP address, they need to provide one that is accessable from the Public network. Some ISPs only provide Private IP addresses that are restricted to their own network. The latter types of addresses may not work with DynDNS. You may want to check with your ISP on this.

     

    In the AirPort Utility on the File Sharing tab, double-check to see if you have "Share disks WAN" enabled.

     

    CapturFiles.png

  • by woelrutie,

    woelrutie woelrutie Aug 29, 2011 9:14 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 29, 2011 9:14 PM in response to Tesserax

    "Share disks over WAN" is enabled. I am able to remotely access the disk through AFP but as far as I know, Windows does not have an AFP client so that doesn't really help me. I am unable to access the drive remotely via the "Map network drive" in Windows computers.

  • by noraa,

    noraa noraa Sep 15, 2011 2:48 AM in response to woelrutie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 15, 2011 2:48 AM in response to woelrutie

    Unfortunately, from what I have read and experienced (been trying to setup something similar as yourself) the vast majority of ISP's actively block any remote SMB connections. Essentially, regardless of what you have done on your end to open up the SMB ports, the ISP has them blocked. I'm not entirely sure why this is, something to do with security. The only way around this is to either find a Windows program that can do AFP or set up a VPN - which is a bit easier said than done.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Sep 15, 2011 10:47 AM in response to woelrutie
    Level 9 (54,786 points)
    Wireless
    Sep 15, 2011 10:47 AM in response to woelrutie

    I would second noraa's comments, especially about ISPs that actively block SMB traffic. You may want to double-check with yours to find out if not only SMB is being blocked, but what else is as well.

  • by rockmyplimsoul,

    rockmyplimsoul rockmyplimsoul Sep 15, 2011 11:00 AM in response to woelrutie
    Level 5 (7,219 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 15, 2011 11:00 AM in response to woelrutie

    Have you considered other alternatives that might be much simpler, such as Drobox or SugarSync?  These services copy your designated folders (which can be anywhere on your computer or networked disk) to a cloud storage, which is then available anywhere in the world.

  • by Graeme.man,

    Graeme.man Graeme.man May 22, 2012 9:25 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 22, 2012 9:25 PM in response to Tesserax

    I have tried all the settings suggested in this discussion, however I am still unable to connect to my hard drives connected to my Air Port Extreme from a PC that is at a remote location. I am able to map PCs that are connected to this Air Port Extreme but from a remote location I can't. Is there something I am missing? I have contacted my ISP and they say that SMB file sharing is not blocked. Any suggestions?