Hello :o)

I have a Network Drive connected to one of my Routers and I can access it 
wirelessly.

I've drawn a pretty picture that shows my setup! It's here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/2766286334_d476546cb4_o.jpg

As you can see, the Wireless PC & Wireless Router 1 is a fairly standard set 
up.

I've set up Wireless Router 2 as a repeater (WDS) and I've shoved my spare 
hard drive (inside an enclosure) into that Router's USB socket.

I can surf the web and also access the hard drive as *bt_7g on 'Samba Server 
(192.168.1.253)'* by logging onto either Router, although I normally only 
log onto #1.

Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from 
another PC while I'm away from home?

My home PC would be turned off so Remote Desktop is out of the question - 
just the 2 routers and the hard drive would be powered up.

My IP addy rarely changes but if it did, Router 1 is configured to update my 
DynDNS hostnames if a change is detected.

VPN? I've had a quick look at that and it looks quite complicated [dribble!]

Thanks for any ideas.

Banana :)

In message , Banana 
 writes


>Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from
>another PC while I'm away from home?

It's simply a matter of forwarding some ports on the external router to 
the appropriate ports of the router with the disk. Just which ports you 
use will depend on the protocol you intend to use for access. If I were 
you I would make sure that there was no data on the disk that I wanted 
to keep safe.

Have you considered using one of the free online backup sites instead?



-- 
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author.

"Bernard Peek"  wrote in message 
news:2VpWnFJ+vfpIFwEV@shrdlu.com...
> In message , Banana 
>  writes
>
>
>>Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from
>>another PC while I'm away from home?
>
> It's simply a matter of forwarding some ports on the external router to 
> the appropriate ports of the router with the disk. Just which ports you 
> use will depend on the protocol you intend to use for access.

This is my problem really. Neither router has any kind of ftp server built 
in so what protocol on the remote computer would I use to access the files?

My home PC would be turned off, so no kind of server running on that - just 
the 2 modems and the hard drive would be running.

> If I were you I would make sure that there was no data on the disk that I 
> wanted to keep safe.

Just a few multimedia files at the moment. Nothing sensitive but I could 
encrypt them.

> Have you considered using one of the free online backup sites instead?

I see your point but if possible, I would prefer my data to be kept at my 
home rather than entrust it with a free data storage site. When I'm at home, 
I can stream the multimedia files over the wireless LAN, too.

I would at least like to explore the idea of being able to access those 
files without having to leave my home computer turned on but I have no idea 
how to do it without some kind of dedicated ftp server running at home.

In the past I have run an FTP server & also Apache HTTP server on the PC but 
I don't like leaving it on when there's nobody home.

Cheers for the reply,

Banana :)

Banana  wrote:
> I've drawn a pretty picture that shows my setup! It's here:
> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/2766286334_d476546cb4_o.jpg

Off topic, but what software did you use to help you draw that?


> I've set up Wireless Router 2 as a repeater (WDS) and I've shoved my spare 
> hard drive (inside an enclosure) into that Router's USB socket.

> I can surf the web and also access the hard drive as *bt_7g on 'Samba Server 
> (192.168.1.253)'* by logging onto either Router, although I normally only 
> log onto #1.

If you're using the same wireless configuration on both you should be
able to hop from one to the other seamlessly.


> Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from 
> another PC while I'm away from home?

> My home PC would be turned off so Remote Desktop is out of the question - 
> just the 2 routers and the hard drive would be powered up.

The wireless router #2 sounds like it's running Linux of some flavour
(it shows as a samba server). If that's the case you could potentially
install and configure OpenVPN on it and then connect to it remotely over
VPN. To help you with this, though, we'd need more detail about the router
(make, model, revision, even the amount of onboard memory - if possible)
and an idea of whether Linux meant anything useful to you (!).

You /really/ don't want to expose a filesystem to the Internet. Can you
say warez?


> VPN? I've had a quick look at that and it looks quite complicated [dribble!]

Depends. OpenVPN is "easy". IPSec is "hard" (read "very hard indeed").

Chris

"Chris Davies"  wrote in message 
news:s93jn5xnd5.ln2@news.roaima.co.uk...
> Banana  wrote:
>> I've drawn a pretty picture that shows my setup! It's here:
>> http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/2766286334_d476546cb4_o.jpg
>
> Off topic, but what software did you use to help you draw that?

Hi Chris,

It's Visio:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/visio/default.aspx

>> I've set up Wireless Router 2 as a repeater (WDS) and I've shoved my 
>> spare
>> hard drive (inside an enclosure) into that Router's USB socket.
>
>> I can surf the web and also access the hard drive as *bt_7g on 'Samba 
>> Server
>> (192.168.1.253)'* by logging onto either Router, although I normally only
>> log onto #1.
>
> If you're using the same wireless configuration on both you should be
> able to hop from one to the other seamlessly.

Yes, if I use a laptop and go out of range of one router, it will just log 
onto whichever is in range.

>> Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from
>> another PC while I'm away from home?
>
>> My home PC would be turned off so Remote Desktop is out of the question -
>> just the 2 routers and the hard drive would be powered up.
>
> The wireless router #2 sounds like it's running Linux of some flavour
> (it shows as a samba server). If that's the case you could potentially
> install and configure OpenVPN on it and then connect to it remotely over
> VPN. To help you with this, though, we'd need more detail about the router
> (make, model, revision, even the amount of onboard memory - if possible)
> and an idea of whether Linux meant anything useful to you (!).

They are (dare I say) BT Home Hubs (a.k.a. Thompson Speedtouch 7G's), both 
running firmware 6.2.6.E. I doubt very much if anything can be installed on 
them, unless you know different.

> You /really/ don't want to expose a filesystem to the Internet. Can you
> say warez?
>
>
>> VPN? I've had a quick look at that and it looks quite complicated 
>> [dribble!]
>
> Depends. OpenVPN is "easy". IPSec is "hard" (read "very hard indeed").
>
> Chris

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:17:13 +0100, "Banana" 
wrote:

> Can I access the hard drive - and files on it - over the internet from 
> another PC while I'm away from home?

Take a look at http://www.iopus.com/ and under products see iPig.  There
are both a local VPN server (iPig Server Express V2.06 Beta) you might
install on your Wireless PC and also a client (iPig V2.06 Client Beta) for
installation wherever you are located.  If you install those then you will
be able to address the drive simply (and securely) as 192.168.1.253.

Let me know if you have any problem installing them.  Other than forwarding
TCP port 11888 from Router 1 to the Wireless PC and also opening it in the
Wireless PC's firewall the thing needs no configuration.  If you don't have
a fixed IP then get a free DynDNS account to locate the router while away.

Tony