Can someone give me with instructions to connect to Airport Extreme (6th gen) USB attached drive over SMB (public port 20445 mapped to 445) using Windows? I notice that AFP (port 458) is on when selecting "Share disk over WAN" (formatted HFS+) is enabled under Disks in Airport Utility (7.7.3)?
Is the Windows computer attempting to connect remotely??
Have you setup the AE as the main router of the network, so it takes the public IP on the WAN interface?
How are you going to get the public IP remotely? Did you buy a static IP from your ISP .. this is the pro method.. and hugely superior to using global dynamic naming methods. If you must use Global naming system.. have you set that up and got it working? It is not easy.. and there are many many posts here about it working for some and failed for others.. you need to follow all the instructions and probably use the right service.. I bought a static public IP .. it is hugely better way to go.
Once you do those things the actual access is fairly trivial.
And since that is the case.. waving an open port at 20445 is so completely obvious to anybody who wants to hack you.. be warned.. the security of this is not good.. you do have a password set (I hope a very strong one) but passwords can be cracked easily by man in the middle attacks.
Thanks for the reply LaPastenague,
Windows/Mac SMB remotely (smb://XX.XXX.XX.XXX)
AE is my only router (DHCP + NAT)
Port Settings 20445 open -VERIFIED
Error logging in but works fine with afp://XX.XXX.XX.XXX
The purpose of this exercise is to make my 1TB drive available to me on my iOS devices basically DropBox without the subscription $$$. Any suggestions to solve the SMB issue LaPastenague?
Apple Senior Support's take on this is "I talked to a few people about the issue at hand and found that we have no process set up for doing what it is you are trying to do. To connect a mac to an external drive tethered to an AirPort over the net, we use the “Back to My Mac” protocol. Since "Back to My Mac" is not supported on PC..." For me Back to My Mac is overkill just to share a drive connected to my AE. In fact I wouldn't even need the AE if I used Back to My Mac and I'm not prepared to have a Mac running 24/7 just to share a hard drive.
Windows/Mac SMB remotely (smb://XX.XXX.XX.XXX)
You must change the port.. don't forget you opened 20445 for SMB.. but Windows and Mac OS still expect standard port..
So you type.. SMB://xx.xxx.xx.xxx:20445 in the Mac. That should work.
In windows explorer you would type,
\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:20445 ???
I am not so sure MS will do easily change ports.. also you probably need to open 135-139 as well for both TCP and UDP.
Tell me what happens.. SMB over internet.. never a good idea.
Thanks for your reply LaPastenague,
Yes -the first attempt I made (early on in my investigation) on my Mac (command K) to connect SMB was "smb://99.231.32.238:20445" tethered to my iPhone which produced an error. Again I verified that the port was open with www.yougetsignal.com.
Suggestions?
I was using mapping:
public UDP ports 20137-20138 to private ports 137-138 (but I tried expanding to include 135-139 as you suggested -no success)
public TCP ports 20139, 20445 to private ports 139, 445
I will see if I can reproduce what you have done.. It might take me a little while..
There is surprisingly little on the internet.
I actually thought the Mac would work ok since it is using SAMBA rather than true SMB.
What OS are you running on the Mac??
What happens when you try with windows computer?
Clearly windows access is more difficult than AFP.. and unfortunately I really don't know where you can get AFP protocol for windows.
Remote access to airport disk from Windows
Airport Extreme attached HDD remote access (mac to Mac)
Can you please open the other ports.. 135-139 but don't translate it.. and see if that helps.
In fact just briefly and I mean like absolutely min time.. try opening the ports as is.. no translation and see if it works.. if not then translation has nothing to do with it.
I am going to run out of edit soon..
Are you using the LAN of AE address to map to??
Check my profile as I have my email address open.. if you want to try and see if I can allow SMB to access my system..I can set it up sometime we are both available..
Note .. I have told everybody not to do this.. and I still think this is wrong..
The right method is vpn.
But you must replace the apple router with something else.
Thanks for the suggestions,
I have decided to give up on this. Apple Senior Support maintains this is not possible on the AE. I have spent too much time wrestling with this already.
Sorry you wasted the time.. but I think the outcome is correct one.. Opening SMB over the internet is not wise!!
Can someone provide me with instructions to connect to Airport Extreme (6th gen) USB attached drive over SMB using Windows?
