I have a WD My Cloud account setup which allows me to access my NAS from mobile apps.
I am just wondering, technically - how this actually works ? When I access my Share(s) from my mobile device and I am not connected to my WiFi network (i.e., away from home), how am I able to see the files and folders on my NAS ?
has the wd my cloud service actually created a direct route to the IP of the NAS via the internet ?
is the service used to securely connect to the drive and then send this secure connection to the mobile app ?
is the connection secure (am I the only one who can access the files) ?
sorry, I know little about the service, that’s why I ask.
Yep, you basically have it figured out. When you were home and setup your NAS and connected to it with My Cloud app, you did some configuring of both that joined the two as electronic “blood brothers”. and both your NAS and phone know each other, because your phone app knows the IP of your NAS, and My Cloud recognizes your phone (likely from the password previously setup). So, you could tell someone the IP of your NAS, but without that password, they can’t get into it from inside home or outside. Another point is that your router is also involved. It recognizes your phone from the password you use to access it, so it lets you into your network so that you can access the My Cloud.
There are other apps that do something similar to what the MC app does. I have an ASUS brand router. There is an optional app that accompanies it, called AiCloud. This app allows me to access my entire home network from home or away. I can attach and access a drive to router with media on it – at home and away. I can even access all my network shared devices (e,g, drives) – including the My Cloud! It connects and works in a similar way as the My Cloud app, but it accesses more devices than My Cloud.
thanks for that detailed explanation, exactly what i was looking for.
i too have an asus router with that feature although i havent tinkered with it yet. will try it out.
now, about the NAS: i have all my files on a public share that every device can access. i saw no need in setting up private shares since i dont have concerns to restrict file access to the devices the NAS interacts with.
is that a security concern at all for ppl from the outside (anywhere in the world) that are able to find the drive’s IP ?
It’s only a concern if someone gains access to your network. The idea of the share is to restrict access via user name, password and also a code for the IOS/Phone app.
If you have a public share, anyone on your private network can access the public share, no restrictions.
I prefer to do private shares and grant access as needed. This also comes in handy when you want to do a specific share for data, pictures, and music. Because each share will allow you to turn on DNLA access. So if you have mp3’s in your Data Share but don’t want them as streaming audio, you can turn off DNLA on your data share, but leave DNLA “on” for your audio, video and pictures shares.
Having individual shares not only gives more access control but flexibility as well.
If you disable Remote Access, from the My Cloud Dashboard and disable any port forwarding and UPnP to the My Cloud in the router then your broadband firewall generally should prevent any intrusion to the My Cloud from the internet side of your broadband connection. Then you pretty much just have to worry about someone either hacking your WiFi or your broadband firewall or a wired Ethernet wire to gain access to your entire local network.
There has been some discussion on some potential security issues with the My Cloud in the following threads.
a VPN Tunnel with Token Authentication (OAuth2) will be established between a Mobile Device and the device
yes, but the procedure is much more complex. If you are interested in the background procedures, please take a llok into the descripiton that is available within the Developer Section of Mycloud.com:
I supplied the first answer here and thanks guys for the great fill ins.
I wanted to add a few things. I, too, only keep my media and some innocuous documents on my DL2100 My Cloud. Any personal data, like user name and passwords, bank and CC accounts, etc. is kept in a password-protected MS Word file on my PC. If I forget a user name or password, I only have to remember one password – the one for my locked Word doc to find the others. I even periodically email it to my online email address whenever I can’t refer to it if I’m not on my computer. Wife also does same thing.
Since it is only she and I here, nobody gets into the NAS but us, so I “live dangerously” and get into the Dashboard with the default username and no password. Nobody wants my data, anyway! Even if they did, and find out the IP address of it they can’t even get into the router or beyond.
No other users on my NAS. If I want to send people files I have an unlimited online Cloud service called Pogoplug that is off site (in a real cloud) and I sometimes upload files there for people to download. That way nobody bogs down my network bandwidth either. I admit, with few users it makes it easier for me.
Oh, I did have someone get into my router once – and for a good reason, too. A few years ago there was a odd text message on my PC’s desktop. I scanned it with Norton and then opened it. Someone sharp who obviously wanted my router manufacture to fix something important, sent anyone found on the internet using same router a text file, telling us there was a hole in the router’s firewall and that anyone could get through when the SAMBA service of router was running, and advised all using samba to turn it off until Asus fixed it! A few days later Asus posted a firmware update with this very fix! After that, I have felt assured nobody unauthorized is going to get into my router again.
i posted this question in a new topic then remembered this existing discussion, so I’ll add it below, perhaps you guys can help out with this ?
not sure exactly what happened to my connection
… i was able to access my WD My Cloud from wd2go and the mobile app
up until about 1 week ago. Since then I cannot access my device from the
app or via the web login.
I checked my network settings and cloud access in the dashboard - it is on and showing that remote access is working.
anyone have some tips or ideas on what could be the problem ? i had
not changed anything in the dashboard and had not updated the firmware,
so I don’t really know why it suddenly stopped. almost got me worried
because I was away on vacation and thought the drive might have failed,
but it’s been working fine and performing safepoint backups daily as I
was away.
