FTP to WD Cloud using Mac

[BobAndrews]

I’ve read this post and can’t make sense of it. I’m using a Mac and I’d like to FTP into my WD Cloud.

In the dashboard I’m swicthed on FTP Access - Port 21. On my router I believe I’m port forwarding to my WD Cloud device.

When I enter my outside IP address into the browser, then poromted for my username and password, I’m connect. Well I’m connected to something within the Finder but it isn’t my WD Cloud Drive.

[Trancer]

Have you tried an FTP client as opposed to a web browser? Are you certain port 21 is _ not _ set to your computer as well? 

[BobAndrews]

I’m using FileZilla and I’m gettng this error, which I don’t understand. I don’t understand what you mean - port 21 being set to my computer?

As shown in the photo above the FTP Server is being sent to the WDCloud - which is the name of WDCloud within my network.

[BobAndrews]

I’m supprised to find that no can help with gaining FTP access to the WD Cloud on a Mac, after 256 views of this thread. Does anyone have any info on this?

[Ralphael]

BobAndrews wrote:

I’m supprised to find that no can help with gaining FTP access to the WD Cloud on a Mac, after 256 views of this thread. Does anyone have any info on this?

Well, most of us are just customers like you, except for the few moderators, none of us are getting paid to reply lengthily on a “How-to” post  :-P Thus to re-write the other post in easy to understand english is a task in itself thus you really will have to do most of the research yourself,

However I have just tested my FTP access from a MAC to confirm that my memory of FTP is still working, I’ll try to guide you a little bit, but you have to do some serious reading and some additional research for the most part.

1. make sure all your users and shares are set up corectly under your Cloud UI. There you will set up the device name (mine is WDMyCloud), shares (mine is Cloudy) and user names (Mine is well, not letting you know). You can of course test the setup by mapping the cloud to your Mac using the finder “Go”, “Connect to Server”, then typing in the using the server name, or ip like so…

afp://WDMyCloud/Cloudy <== afp is the protocol, WDMyCloud is the device name and Cloudy is the share name 

smp://WDMyCloud/Cloudy 

afp://192.168.0.15  <== this is the alternative method of connection. 

You will need to know your IP later for connecting using FTP. Now this is your inside IP (yeah like your inside voice, just kidding). Yes there is also the outside IP which you must have tried. Remember both of them. You need the inside IP of your Cloud.

2. now once all that above is setup, mainly the user name and password, and Shares. Turn on FTP in your WD US under settings.

3. I use a Mac FTP program called cyberduck which I think it is free, but on the Mac app store it is $28. However I think this version of it is free… click here

I don’t know if that version is safe though, check around, google it and figure out which version is safe to download and run.

4. now make sure you can connect within your own home. So start up the Cyberduck app and click on “Open Connection”, and you will need the IP of your cloud for 

a. Server <==== ip of your cloud (inside iP) You should set up a static ip for your cloud. You can reserve it in your router.

b. Username: <==== this is your username from your setup 

c. password: <===== likewise again from your setup.

and there you will see port: 21 <=== this is your FTP port.  port 21 must be mapped from your router later on when you connect your router to your cloud, but for now just be aware of it.

click connect

5. So there you have it. If you did not connect, go back and review all the previous steps from 1 to 4. Usernames, shares and the ability to map your cloud as an external device are all part of this process.

Last step.

Now that you can FTP within your LAN (Local Area Network) you can now try to access outside your house if that is your intentions. There is a link on the other post that shows you how to map ports from outside to your inside devices.

Now I’ll try to explain why we have to set up your router to re-direct your ftp access from outside to your Cloud. The WAN (wide area network) theorectically does not have access to your LAN (inside house), but you do have an IP specifically for your house which is given to you from your Internet company. You can find this in your router. Now since I don’t know what type of router you have and I’m not about to look it up for you even if you give me the model number, but you will need to research this for yourself.

Get your IP number from the internet. This is your FTP IP from outside.

However, accessing that IP will do nothing because the router doesn’t know that your cloud needs to respond to that FTP call. This is where you need to research how to do this.

on mine…

1. on my router, Applications & Gaming

port filtering

start port 21

end port 22

Protocol: I leave it both TCP and UDP (I forgot which one FTP uses, so I just leave it at both)

enable: checkmarked

Port range forwarding

start port 21   <== on mine this is the outside port meaning I could use port 2912 and 2913 (use for your FTP program instead of 21)

end port 22

ip address 192.168.0.15 <=== this is your internal cloud IP (set a static IP for your Cloud, otherwise if it changes port      forwarding will forward the FTP call to either your MAC, or printer).

again

start port 21 <==== which maps to the internal port of 21 and 22 if you use different ports above.

end port 22

and finally on mine, I have port range triggering, which means when those ports are active then it triggers the port forwarding

same thing

start port 21 <=== or if you use 2912 and 2913 

end port 22 <=== 2913 

This whole process with the router simply sends the FTP request to your internal devices. 

So this whole post took me about an hour to research and type up. Please send me a cheque for $125 for tech support, alternatively write to WD about this great tech support customer and he would like a pair of 6TB Cloud and 6TB My Book.

Please don’t hesitate to review the other “how to” post again after reading mine; it may make a bit more sense.

edit: Please come back and post up that it is working or not, I’ll appreciate it.

[BobAndrews]

I’ll be trying this tomorrow and I’ll get back to you. I appreciete the in depth reply. I hope it works for me.

[BobAndrews]

Time to do some research, as I can’t even manage to FTP into the WDCloud when I’m on the same network! :neutral_face: