Cross-compiling ncat onto the MyPW

Hi everyone,

Following up on my earlier post about using the My Passport Wireless as an automated rsync backup server, I did some more experimenting and was able to compile and run ncat (nmap’s version of netcat) on the device!

I put up a github repository for this (and for my backup script) here:

https://github.com/ksylvan/MyPassportWirelessHacks

This is so amazing! Using the My Passport Wireless and the UVerse gateway, I can now access all my devices on my home network from anywhere.

The basic steps:

  1. Set up crosstool-ng for the cross-compile toolchain.

  2. Compile ncat

  3. Copy the ncat binary to your device.

The step by step process is here:  https://github.com/ksylvan/MyPassportWirelessHacks/tree/master/ncat 

I have a premade binary for those who don’t want to reproduce the steps.

Best regards,

----Kayvan

P.S. These hacks will void your warranty! Proceed with caution! I’m using them myself and feel confident, but that is not a guarantee that it will work for you!

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Hi everyone,

An update:

I uploaded a much smaller “nc” binary here:  busybox-based netcat

This performs the same as the official netcat binary I linked to earlier but is about 12K versus about 288K. I also updated the instructions for building your own binaries.

Best regards,

—Kayvan

>>>    This is so amazing! Using the My Passport Wireless and the UVerse gateway, I can now access all my devices on my home network from anywhere.


All this is beyond my expertise, but no matter, I have a much easier way to access my entire network from anywhere:

My Asus router has an app that can access my entire network from afar (and when home) called AiCloud.  Asus sets up a unique DDNS address for me at asuscomm.com with a click of a button; which enables all this to take place.  I can access anything that is on the network and turned on; including the MPW.  I also use a Pogoplug device, cloud, and some attached drives to it, so with decent internet service elsewhere, I am good to go to get at all my mobile device media files.  I can even FTP if I want to.

I presume many other routers can do similar, or there could be some apps that can enable this.

I also have another wireless drive with me on trips so the MPW can be at home, and I still have access to my media when no internet around.  Like tomorrow – on an airplane!

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And this has further expanded the functionality of the WD My Passport Wireless. Kudos :slight_smile:

Regards,

That is awesome that you can do that with your ASUS router.

However, my point was that even with the braindead and limited uVerse gateway that AT&T installs for uVerse customers, you can have the MyPW disk drive set up as the device to point ssh requests to, and with the “nc” binary sitting on the device, you can set up easy ssh-encrypted tunnels and get access to all internal devices and services.

Best regards,

—Kayvan

Well, folks there is a “catch” in using my Asus AiCloud to access my MPW from afar. . . I cannot always see it. Right now, i am out to town a few thousand miles from home, and my main PC at home is turned off, although my router and network is on. Under this condition I cannot see all my devices as being online now —one important device I cannot see is the MPW! It appears my PC needs to be on to see the MPW this way, so that is a disappointment. Fortunately, I can see and access the drive directly connected to the router and my two shared drives connected to my WDTV. In addition, I can access my Pogoplug drive using the PP App, so all is not lost.

Go figure! we had a bad storm last night back home, so I checked my electricity by accessing my router via AICloud and low and behold my MPW showed as being online. So, I accessed it with the app and have been listening to music on it via my iPhone. So, negate what I said above about not being able to access it – it DOES work as I expected it to, and why it did not work before is a mystery.

Well sometimes even the most reliable internet providers have occasional downtimes. Glad it’s working as you expected now.

Best regards.