Is it possible to assign a network drive in Windows Explorer when my connection type is Direct?

My Cloud Home - Personal Cloud Storage My Cloud Home
1

I have no trouble mapping My Cloud Home to a desktop that’s on the same network.

I’m now away from home, and while I am able to access MCH remotely via the website, I’d like to map the drive to my other pc.

I am sure this has been asked and answered before, but after reading so many articles from WD and Support, I remain as befuddled as ever.

Thanks!

2

@mtheo
Check the User Manual and the Knowledge Base.

User Manual for the My Cloud Home.
WD Documentation

3

Nice try, but not with WD’s servers. WD’s VPN no longer extends to the client OS level for the My Cloud Home.

Before anyone complains too much, this is the same situation with Synology in that they don’t provide a free VPN to users for mapping a remote drive to desktop. A user will have to provide his own VPN for such mapping.

That is because between ~2019 and 2023, WD did provide a desktop program called WD Discovery for desktop (Win & macOS) that did map a remote drive to the desktop but with bandwidth abuse and changing OS network security especially with macOS, WD Discovery desktop became too difficult to support and the feature was deprecated in June, 2023.

The feature you are looking for can be done relatively easily with Tailscale Subnet routing which is free for personal use. This has been documented fairly extensively in this subforum when when it was known that WD Discovery would be deprecated.

Example of copying across subnets from a remote drive with Tailscale.

4

Thanks for the detailed response.

I assume this is vastly more complicated than just using my off-the-shelf VPN when I log on?

5

You don’t have to assume anything, just try it. It is free for personal use and you don’t need your own VPN because one is provided free of charge by Tailscale. It is as close to a free lunch as you can get and there are never any ads, in fact you won’t know anything VPN is running unless you looked under the hood.

Most ‘home’ users don’t bother because using the webapp is good enough for them so they assume that is the best way to do whatever they are doing.

The activation of the Tailscale subnet software router is literally one command line where the ip subnet address is where My Cloud Home is residing:

tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24
6

I installed tailscale, entered the command line on my PC, then clicked on the subnet route setting.

Now what? I still have a direct connection with MCH.

7
  • You need to authorize the PC1 subnet route using Tailscale admin console.
  • You need to install remote PC2 Tailscale subnet that is different from PC1.

This is not a support forum for Tailscale. I just made the information available for My Cloud Home users. Please read the basic idea on

and ask questions in these forums or others:

The basic idea is that you have 2 PCs (PC1 and PC2) or Macs or Linux etc and the My Cloud Home

  1. My Cloud Home (MCH) is locked by WD so it can’t run Tailscale by itself, it needs a router
  2. …
  3. Set up a free Tailscale account and install Tailscale on PC1
  4. Use PC1 as the subnet router, in the same subnet as the My Cloud Home, eg 192.168.1.0/24
  5. Advertise routes 192.168.1.0/24 on PC1 so that it will now route the address of MCH
  6. …meanwhile at remote PC2
  7. Install Tailscale on PC2 as a different subnet, eg 192.168.8.0/24
  8. PC2 will be able to see MCH as a network drive on \\192.168.1.xxx\MCH assuming xxx is the address of MCH and MCH is the name of My Cloud Home private space set up by local access.

** PC1 is acting as a Tailscale subnet router but that doesn’t have to be. There are actual physical routers that can run Tailscale 24x7 all the time and use low power. If you want a persistent Tailscale connection, then get a physical Tailscale router (GL.iNet makes them).

*** Note that it is a simple matter to test the remote PC2 connection by trying it with your home Guest WiFi subnet that is common with most routers. Once you enable the Guest WiFi, a second subnet is created, usually 192.168.2.0/24 range. So test your PC1-MCH setup by installing Tailscale on PC2 (need WiFi on it, another laptop perhaps) and see if you can connect to PC1 and MCH. Normally a router will not allow a guest subnet to connect to the main router subnet, but with Tailscale tunnel and user level authentication and End-to-End encryption, Tailscale will allow such a connection.

8

Ah. A bit more complicated than I’d thought. Many thanks for your help and patience.

1 Like
9

It may help to realize that you are installing Tailscale VPN tunnels on both ends, a client and server network. Forget about ‘direct connection with MCH’ because that only applies with WD servers and WD no longer extends their VPN for desktop OS.

The only time VPN works by installing only on one end is when a customer buys a VPN service and install a client end and uses the pre-installed servers located at different end points around the world.

With Tailscale, the client is responsible for minimum setups of both ends and let Tailscale relay network handle routing in between. Once you learn the basics, the rest is mostly minor details.

Cheers.

** Added a subtext answer above:

*** Note that it is a simple matter to test the remote PC2 connection by trying it with your home Guest WiFi subnet that is common with most routers. Once you enable the Guest WiFi on your home router, a second subnet is created, usually 192.168.2.0/24 range. So test your PC1-MCH setup by installing Tailscale on PC2 connected to Guest WiFi (need WiFi on PC2, another laptop perhaps) and see if you can connect PC2 to PC1 and MCH. Normally a router will not allow a guest subnet to connect to the main router subnet, but with Tailscale tunnel and user level authentication and End-to-End encryption, Tailscale will allow such a connection.