Remote Access to files from my Laptop to Office Network WD Hard Drive

-I was able to make it work using Mionet…but I refuse to pay $700+ to access my files when the free trial runs out. WD Photos only allows photos from what I can see. 

-What I am hoping to do is…since I travel for work. I would like to be able to access my Network WD external drive which is connected to a switch coming from my modem. There are no computers logged in at night. So when I am away and staying in a hotel, or at home. I would like to be able to login and access or save files to this drive. Is this possible? 

-I would also like to access it using my Motorola DroidX if that is possible. 

Please let me know if this is possible, and if so, what steps should I take.

Thanks in advance.

Maybe you should try contacting WD’s Technical Support about this. You can do so either by phone or email.

To Contact WD for Technical Support
http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en

It is possible, but the level of comfort depends on what outgoing connections are allowed on your laptop and what your modem supports.

What I did:

  • Registered a domain name with dyndns.org
  • Entered the dyndns data in my modem (AVM Fritz!Box)

Now each time the DSL modem connects, it sends the IP address reveived from the internet provider to dyndns.org which updates the name resultion. Now my modem can be found from the internet by a fixed domain name regardless of its current IP address.

  • Told the modem to allow incoming traffic on port 21 (FTP - File transfer protocol) and route it to the WD My Book

Now anyone from the internet can connect to the WD My Book via FTP (but access to a share still needs a user name and password).

When the laptop is in the company network, I have no direct connection to the internet. The only hole is through a http/https/ftp proxy server.

  • On the laptop, installed FileZilla FTP Client, and set it up to use our proxy server using the HTTP 1.1 CONNECT method
  • Set up a FileZilla connection to .dyndns.org using the user name and password that was given for the share in WD My Book

Now I can connect with two clicks (one to start FileZilla and one to connect). Then I can see the directory and transfer files.

There are better solutions, but it depends on what traffic you are allowed from your notebook.

If traffic on port 445 (CIFS - Common Internet File System) to/from the internet is not blocked, you could allow incoming traffic on this port in your modem, allow CIFS in the WD My Book, and connect to it from your notebook using “Map Network Drive” in the windows explorer.

If not restricted by firewall policies, you may also set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network). You would need a client software on your laptop and some VPN server at home. Some modems already include a VPN server, but if not you could set it up on a PC in your home network, provided the PC is running all the time.

The advantage of a VPN is that you can access everything in your local network (i.e. what’s after the modem) with the local addresses from everywhere. This means you always have the same view on the devices; you do not need to make anything different when your are at home or travelling.