Can i remotely connect to my external hard disk from my iPhone/iPad?

I'm using FileBrowser successfully on my iPad (and a Window's machine) to connect to a Time Capsule and it's attached USB drive. What specifically are you having trouble with? May I/we can help.

I'm streaming to a Apple TV from an Apple Express, but not a TC, so can't help with that question although I don't see why it couldn't be done.

Apple have no method to connect iOS device to the TC at any time.. LAN or WAN.. so any method you use must come from 3rd party app.

I heard about filebrowser but it doesn't work well.

It works as well as any other app can. Remote access must be based on a network protocol and the only ones supported by Apple are AFP and SMB.

AFAIK people have not been successful getting AFP based file apps on iOS to work remotely although I have not checked closely for a while.

So you have to use SMB.. and at least filebrowser has instructions.

http://www.stratospherix.com/support/gsw_timecapsule.php?page=6remote

It is however unsafe opening SMB at any time. And I suggested people try it with different ports instead of obvious ones.. but that didn't work so why it needs to be 20445 I don't know.. but it does make it fairly obvious.

The alternative method which is really the only safe way to do this is using a different router.. one with built in vpn servers. These used to be expensive but you can buy them now for less than $100.. or use routers with 3rd party. You have to move the TC to being bridged and used as WAP and switch. However that is not a major issue. The vpn router will include a standard ddns client so that fixes not having static IP.

And iOS has good vpn clients built in or app add ons.

VPN is the right way to do this.

And what about apple TV, can i stream from my TC?

TC is a dumb hard disk in a router.. it has no media extensions. Apple TV is not a media player.. it is a streamer. So you must have an application which can stream from TC to the ATV which means you need a computer with iTunes or you need ipad and some software that can read files and stream it.. obviously apple built the system for itunes and itunes pretty much exclusively.

If you get a WD live TV it can play source material directly from TC.. because it is a true media player. Apple TV cannot.

SMB port is now 20445 to external access.

Not 445

Test it with the current public IP direct..

not the no-ip, as that may not be updating correctly and therefore not working.

Does it work for someone?

Sure.. have a real static IP and the issue goes away.

The whole idea of dynamic IP is to stop you running servers.. ISP want more money if you want to run servers so they charge you extra for static IP. So trying to circumvent their systems with dynamic IP will always have issues.. especially if they rotate IP fast enough.

Is there something reliable that i can use for my static IP issue?

Pay for a dynamic DNS account.. as I believe they do work better.

http://dyn.com/dns/

Or use a software in your network.. that means you need a computer always on.. or another router.

And if you have another router then you may as well move the network around and buy vpn.. which I am trying to explain to you is the right way.. !!

Apple routers do not support vpn... and apple deliberately makes it difficult to access other than using BTMM and a computer. You are not supposed to access files via a phone at all.. so apple makes it hard for you.. this is what you sign up for when you accept the apple walled garden.

When you do things the way they want you to.. ie connect via BTMM using a standard Mac computer.. everything works properly.. !!

I presume this is what you are doing when you say it works via a Mac. If not tell me exactly how you are connecting the Mac remotely to the TC.

Can i remotely connect it with my mac without a static public IP?

Tell me how it is working when you use your Mac ..

Are you using BTMM??

When you connect remotely do you see the public IP being used??

I wonder if BTMM and filebrowser using remote access might actually interfere with each other..

Remove the BTMM settings from the TC.. reboot the TC and then try again using the iphone.

FileBrowser doesn't interfere with BTMM, as that traffic is over different port numbers and doesn't use SMB.

The reason for using TCP Port 20445 (or any value above 20000) is because some ISPs block TCP Port 445. However, Apple broke the port forwarding in the most recent Time Capsule/Airport Extreme firmware, preventing forwarding to the TC's own LAN IP address. If your ISP doesn't block TCP Port 445 then you can just enable "Share Disks over WAN" in the Airport Utility and use port 445 in FileBrowser. The only other solutions are to host a VPN server or to use a different Internet router that supports port-translation (the ability to accept incoming connections on one port and forward them to a LAN device on another port) instead of using your Time Capsule.