Lara Doan1

Q: How do I access airport extreme base station remotely?

I would like to be able to trouble shoot connection issues whilst in a remote location. I have the airport utility installed on iphone, Ipad, and macbook. I have back to my mac set up on macbook. I do not know how to access the airport extreme base station remotely, however. I read that one is able to do this through back to my mac but I do not know how.

 

Many thanks.

Posted on May 10, 2014 12:45 PM

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Q: How do I access airport extreme base station remotely?

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  • by WiseJD,

    WiseJD WiseJD May 10, 2014 1:45 PM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 4 (1,659 points)
    May 10, 2014 1:45 PM in response to Lara Doan1

    If you do an Internet search, "How do I access my Apple Airport Extreme Remotely" You will see several Blog posts that address that.  They are typically quite Technical so you will have to see for yourself if they help you achieve your goal.

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 10, 2014 1:51 PM in response to WiseJD
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 10, 2014 1:51 PM in response to WiseJD

    Thank you.  After retrieving web results laden with technical references that I was unable to successfully implement, I turned to the Apple community for more straightforward instruction.

  • by WiseJD,Helpful

    WiseJD WiseJD May 10, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 4 (1,659 points)
    May 10, 2014 2:19 PM in response to Lara Doan1

    In reading a bunch of the discussions on Remote Access to the Airport Extreme, it looks like the key is to establish a permanent IP Address for the AE.  Then you will know the target Address and you also would have Back to my Mac turned on on the Airport Extreme.  Some of the discussions talked as though you would need a Mac remotely rather than an iOS device to accomplish the Remote Management Tasks. 

     

    Back to My Mac...

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4907?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 11, 2014 8:48 AM in response to WiseJD
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 11, 2014 8:48 AM in response to WiseJD

    Thank you WiseJD ... I appreciate your help.

     

    Using the Airport utility I located a router address (drop down menu for Internet Icon).

     

    Using the airport utility, I also located an IP address in drop down menu for the base station.

     

    I have Back to my mac set up the computer that I am using.

     

    I followed the link you posted and came across the Apple article Set NAT options (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5103).

     

    Prior to proceeding, however, I would like to clarify if by following the steps I will achieve the objective of establishing a permanent address for the AEBS. Or, is this not the route to go?

     

    Thank you.

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 11, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 11, 2014 8:57 AM in response to Lara Doan1

    Whilst still in the network I followed the following steps to connect using Back to my mac, but my base station does not show up in the finder-- I clicked show and still it did not show up.

     

    Connect to a remote Mac or AirPort base station in your Back to My Mac network

    After you set up each Mac or AirPort base station, you can connect to it remotely:

    1. From the Finder menu, choose Preferences, and click the Sidebar tab.
    2. In the Shared section, select Back to My Mac.
    3. Open a Finder window, and look for the Shared section in the sidebar. If you don’t see any shared computers or base stations, place the pointer over the word Shared and click Show.
    4. Select the remote computer or base station that you want to access and click Connect As. (To share a screen with your remote Mac, select the Mac and click Share Screen.) If you don't see the Mac or base station that you're looking for, click All to see a list of available Mac computers and base stations.
  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax May 11, 2014 11:30 AM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 9 (54,573 points)
    Wireless
    May 11, 2014 11:30 AM in response to Lara Doan1

    I understand your goal is to access your AirPort Extreme base station from a remote location.

     

    Accessing an AirPort Base Station Using Back to My Mac (BtMM)

     

    Prerequisites:

    • iCloud Account
    • AEBSn or TC running 7.6.1+ firmware
    • AirPort Utility 6.3+
    • Mac running OS X 10.7.5+
    • A router with a publicly reachable IP address and supports either UPnP or NAT-PMP. (Note: This item is critical. If you cannot reach the remote router, BtMM won't be able to either.)
    • The firewall at both locations that allows for remote connections.

    Setup:

    • Apple Support Article HT4907 - Setup and use Back to My Mac Specifically the sections "Set up Back to My Mac" & "Connect to a remote Mac or base station in your Back to My Mac network."

    Additional References:

  • by Douglas Thom,

    Douglas Thom Douglas Thom May 11, 2014 2:15 PM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 11, 2014 2:15 PM in response to Lara Doan1

    It's very simple, if you know the Internet address of the Airport Extreme.  On the local network, open Airport Utility, and log into the Extreme - on the first page, check the 'Allow access over the WAN' connection.  Now from a remote site, you can use the Airport Utility, and enter the WAN IP address of the Extreme.

     

    Back to my Mac has nothing to do with this setup, so previos posts did not read (or understand) your question.

     

    One thing you should consider is setting up a Dynamic DNS, so you don't have to constantly figure out the WAN IP address.

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax May 11, 2014 3:43 PM in response to Douglas Thom
    Level 9 (54,573 points)
    Wireless
    May 11, 2014 3:43 PM in response to Douglas Thom

    Back to my Mac has nothing to do with this setup, so previos posts did not read (or understand) your question.

    My response to the OP was based on their reference to Back to My Mac. "I read that one is able to do this through back to my mac but I do not know how."

     

    Your approach, which is one of the three that I am aware of to access an AirPort base station remotely, does not rely on BtMM so you may want to rethink your comment.

  • by Douglas Thom,

    Douglas Thom Douglas Thom May 11, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 11, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Tesserax

    Your approach, which is one of the three that I am aware of to access an AirPort base station remotely, does not rely on BtMM so you may want to rethink your comment.

    Technically if you use Back to My Mac (or any other remote access method to connect to a local computer), you are controlling the Airport from a local computer, not remotely.  While the BtMM  approach certainly will work, it is not as efficient as directly conneting to the router via the WAN connection.  And if you have to restart the router, you will loose the connection, and may have considerable difficultly in re-establishing the control.

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 18, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Douglas Thom
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 18, 2014 10:43 AM in response to Douglas Thom

    I have set up a dynamic DNS. I am now to accomplish port mapping. I have reserved the MAC address. However, I am stuck on the selection of TCP and UDP ports.

     

    I believe it is port 80 I wish to forward. Yes?

    "Well Known" TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products

     

    I do not know what numbers to use for

     

    Public UDP ports

    Private UDP ports

    Private UDP ports

    and,

    Private TCP ports:

     

    Thank you for your help.


     

     

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 18, 2014 11:00 AM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 18, 2014 11:00 AM in response to Lara Doan1

    I have tried to use the number 80 following each input request. However, after updating base station and trying the portchecktool.com site, connection fails "timed out".

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 18, 2014 11:18 AM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 18, 2014 11:18 AM in response to Lara Doan1

    status has changed from above "timed out" to "connection refused"

  • by Douglas Thom,

    Douglas Thom Douglas Thom May 18, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Lara Doan1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 18, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Lara Doan1

    Hi Lara -

     

    If you are attempting to change settings on the Airport Extreme remotely, all you really need to do is to set the WAN access.  Then use the Airport utility and enter the Dynamic DNS - or public IP to access the Extreme - FROM A REMOTE location.

     

    Back to My Mac - essentially allows you to access files/documents on your home computer via the Internet.  To accomplish this, set the BTMM ON in you iCloud Preference, and in the Airport Exteme - log into your iCloud account.  In System Preferences, set Sharing - turn on File Sharing, and share a folder.  Now when you are away from your home computer, you should see your computer showing up in the Finder sidebar.

     

    If you wish to access another device on your local network using a web browser, then you will use the Port Forwarding settings. If for example,  you wish to log into a Web page on a web server in you local network, then you would port forward port 80 to the IP address of the server on your local network.  Port 80 is used for web access.  Ports 20-21 is used for FTP (File Transfer Protocol - but is broken the Airport Extreme 6th Generation), Port 23 is used for Telenet, etc.

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by Lara Doan1,

    Lara Doan1 Lara Doan1 May 21, 2014 10:45 AM in response to Douglas Thom
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 21, 2014 10:45 AM in response to Douglas Thom

    Thank you for your help Douglas and Tesserax. I am able to connect to another mac with Back to my mac. However, the base station does not appear in my finder where the other computer appears. Obviously, I have misunderstood some steps. When I try the Mac informational for setting up Back to my mac I seem to have the correct settings-at least for the one computer to which I am able to connect. It is connecting the base station that seems to be the problem.

     

    I have tried reservations and when I do so I am able to connect to the base station but not the Internet.

     

    I have set up a noip dynamic dns.  I thought it would be helpful based on what I was advised regarding losing the connection. But all that seems to happen is that the devices in the house are "booted off" the wireless unpredicatably and there is a problem joining the network, especially with IOS devices.

     

    I am wondering if all that I have tried I have inadvertently created a larger problem than the one that I was seeking to resolve which was simply connecting to the base station remotely (from IOS devices) for troubleshooting etc.

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