I have a MyCloud EX2 Ultra.
When I go to Settings > Network > Port Forwarding > both the HTTP and HTTPS have a status as failed.
What does it mean and why is it so. I am still able to access my devise remotely, although I do lose the connection on a regular basis and in order to be able to reconnect remotely I need to turn off cloud access for 30 seconds and turn it back on. From reading the blogs it seems that this is a bug with WD or is it with something I am doing wrong?
I do not use the port forwarding feature of Settings/Network, so I am not able to help with this part of your question.
I am only concerned with port forwarding feature in Settings/General/Cloud Access and have written here often about the loss of cloud access. It does appear to be a bug (or poor design). Turning Cloud Service off and back on again forces the NAS to freshly obtain the port forwarding IP address again, but so will rebooting the NAS accomplish this.
In my experience the loss of cloud service is due to the router rebooting; either on purpose or due to some sort of power interruption to router no matter how briefly. When cloud service is gone i always reboot router and once stable again, reboot the NAS. With over 35 devices on my network, a router reboot fixes any other issues as well.
Ah, it’s been a while since I looked into this.
The menu probably also infers “relay connection established”. This means that the NAS is going straight out to the internet and connecting to WD servers. The WD servers are enabling things like the WD cloud apps on your phone.
Port Forwarding is used when you attempt to access information on your NAS box without first communicating information through WD servers (i.e. if you are not using WD apps, but your own private connections directly through windows).
On the WD NAS boxes, HTTP and HTTPS generally default to ports 80 and 443. So, if your router is sitting on 192.168.0.101. . . . you could reach the HTTPS connection via 192.168.0.101:443
I believe the devices MAY try to establish an external connection on ports 8443 and 8446 respectively for HTTP and HTTPS (I may have this wrong). Where this gets tricky is if you have multiple NAS boxes (or other devices) on your network trying to open the same ports. The way I solve this is with the port management tools on the router itself.
- First, I force most of my network devices to have permanent static IP addresses.
- Second, I use a DNS service so that I can always find my router on the WWW even after my ISP changes my WAN IP address. (Asus provides this for free for their routers)
- Third, in my router I assign values in the port forwarding table so that all “external traffic” goes to the correct place within my network. Mapping looks something like this
external port Local IP Local Port
200 192.168.0.100 80 NAS #1 HTTP port
201 192.168.0.101 80 NAS #2 HTTP port
202 192.168.0.100 443 NAS #1 HTTPS port
203 192.168.0.101 443 NAS #2 HTTPS port
So. . . If I want to find something on NAS #2 at home, I would address 192.168.0.101:443.
If I was NOT at home, I would address “Mystuff.asuscomm.com:203” (The Mystuff.asuscomm.com is the asus DDNS address for my home router: The router “phones home” to ASUS to provide them with my routers current WWW WAN address)
Hope this helps.
Thanks to both Mike and NAS_user for your help. I am very much of a beginner on these issues. As far as losing connection with my NAS drive when I’m away, I can reboot my modem remotely but I cannot reboot the NAS drive remotely. So that the devise is useless if it needs to be rebooted on a regular. Prior to the EX2 i had a Seagate and I had no problems with losing communication with it. I cannot believe that there is no fix to this problem.
NAS_user wrote that Port Forwarding is used when i’m trying to access information on my NAS box without first communicating information through WD servers, meaning that I’m not using my WD apps. But I am using the WD app on my phone. Most likely due to my lack of knowledge I’m not understanding the point that NAS_user is trying to make. Can you explain further? thanks
There may be a simple way to reboot the NAS remotely the same as I can do to turn lamps on or off (locally or remotely) by using my TP-LINK Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini which has an app for controlling it. It also can be controlled via Alexa voice commands. I have thought about doing this for my NAS, but power failures are rare where I live.
Just set up the smart plug and plug the NAS into it.
In case of NAS loss of remote access, be sure router is fully rebooted before rebooting NAS remotely by turning smart plug OFF, wait long enough for NAS to turn completely off. Then, turn power back on via smart plug to reboot NAS.
You can replicate from home your being in a remote location if you turn off wi-fi of your phone and connect to NAS with MC app through your phone’s data plan. It’s how to listen to music from your NAS whenever you do not have access to wi-fi.
Thanks @mike27oct. I did think of using a WiFi switch but ruled it out because I was worried that abruptly cutting power to the drive might damage the disc. Am I worried about nothing?
No more hurtful than a power failure would do. There is a power recovery feature in the dashboard which turns device back on after a power failure.
Thank you very much @mike27oct. I will do as you suggest. Will keep you posted.
good luck with it.
Yeah, Mikes suggestion can work.
The point I was making above is that there are fundamentally two ways you can access a WD NAS remotely:
-
Use WD Servers. This solves many problems, and is intended to be “easy” In this scenario, the NAS itself will periodically “phone home” and figure out the connection path out of your network. This will work even if you have multiple WD Cloud devices on your network. This option eliminates the headache of figuring out all the port forwarding nonsense. All of the WD phone apps use the WD servers to make things easy for the user.
-
Use your own direct connection. This eliminates the WD servers as an intermediary. (This appeals to people like me who have a collection of tin-foil hats). BUT then you have to figure out all the connection nonsense between your PC, home router etc. The WD apps do not have an option to access your NAS in this way. (It is all a bit of a chore)
If your NAS reports “Failed”. . . .the NAS connection to the internet is goobered. Reboot the connection as you and Mike have been discussing.
If your NAS reports “Relay connection established”. . . the NAS is communicating to the WD servers. Your apps will work fine, but something with the ports is wonky and you won’t be able to communicate properly to the internet EXCEPT through the WD servers.
If your NAS reports “Port Forwarding established”. . . the NAS is open the internet. You will ALSO be able to talk to the WD servers. . .and your apps will work.
Hi @NAS_user thanks for the reply. So pardon my ignorance and but if I don’t ask I’ll always be ignorant.
I want to set up my NAS the first of the two ways that you describe to access the WD NAS remotely. What do I need to do to set it up.
Second question: at the moment my NAS is reporting “Relay connection established,” and as you mention, I’m able to connect to my NAS remotely just fine. But you say that I “won’t be able to communicate pproperly to the internet,” what exactly am I missing by only communicating through the wd servers?
thanks
For the way you are using the devices. . .you are probably fine. I would expect all WD PC and phone apps to work fine if “relay connection” is established. In essence, I think you are already set up! You just have to give user access to your phone, per the various instructions WD provides. (I won’t be able to look any of this up myself until Monday - - > so I am being a bit vague)
The “proper connection to the internet” is only relevant if you want to bypass the WD servers when communicating across the internet. Kind of like when using DropBox or OneDrive, when you use WD servers you are working with another company which “sees” what you are doing. (The main difference with WD is that the data fundamentally resides on YOUR drives; not THEIR drives).
got it! thanks @NAS_user
