I’m trying to enable cloud access without needing the relay function (which I guess means going via WD servers? This phrase is not explained that I can find). I confess that I don’t understand the port stuff of my router.
I don’t want to enable UPnP control of the router, because I don’t like the idea of autonomous opening of holes in my router.
I have a Technicolor 582n router. It offers a custom ‘game and application sharing’ setup, but I have no idea what I am expected to enter for the fields, other than the ports 80 and 443 used in ‘Manual’ mode for ‘Cloud Access Connection Options’. The router has a number of preconfigured game and applcation access modes, but none look appropriate.
The router interface cusatom setup has the following fields:
Protocol: Any|TCP|UDP
Port range:
Translate to…
Trigger protocol: Any|TCP|UDP
Trigger port
Any ideas on the appropriate values for these fields, or how to otherwise configure my router to allow cloud access without needing relay mode?
Thanks
After digging around in my router UI, I think I might have assigned port forwarding…
The router has online help, and that suggests you only need to set the ‘from’ port value, which will select just one port, and forward it to the same port. I guess the range allows multiple ports to be forwarded to a single port, and I don’t think that is needed.
The ‘trigger port’ is for dynamic port translation. Not sure if this is needed, but I suspect not.
So I now have two ports forwarded, 80 and 443, for TCP and UDP traffic. Now to see if this allows direct cloud access…
I rebooted my router, which forces a MyCloud reboot. I enabled cloud access using Settings|General and it’s now reporting that a port forwarding connection has been established, using manual mode. So that seems successful. I’ll have go somewhere rermote and try it…
I confess that I’m still not sure of the difference between ‘relay mode’ and ‘port forwarding mode’, or about port forwarding. Time for some reading, unless anyone fancies giving me a quick primer…
With Relay Mode, the My Cloud NAS creates an SSL VPN to WD’s servers. The client then connects to WD’s servers and rides the VPN tunnel back to your NAS.
With Port Forwarding Mode, the client connects directly to the NAS, using WD’s servers only to find the NAS’s IP address.
Thanks, Tony; I figured it must be something like that.
I imagine the IP lookup must be done every time you open a connection (or maybe every time your router reboots?), since most people using an ISP are likely to have a dynamically-allocated global IP. I.e. WD is providing a limited scope dynamic DNS like service?
Yep… The NAS probably checks in with WD periodically, or if it detects an outside IP address change to update WD’s servers with the new IP.
Went somewhere remote. Tried remote access. Success!
