Which connection is more secure: “Relay Connection” or "Port Forwarding"

  1. Which connection is more secure from unauthorized access and brut force attack: “Relay Connection” or “Port Forwarding”? What are the differences between them in terms of security and unauthorized access?
  2. In which case VPN is required: “Relay Connection” or “Port Forwarding”.
  3. In which case it is necessary Securing WDMyCloud SSH & FTP Remote Access | TeaNazaR.com “Relay Connection” or “Port Forwarding”? Or is required only when opening SSH and FTP?

Port Forwarding, Port forwarding - Wikipedia

Relay connection.

A relayed connection would refer to one that is being passed through one or more third parties, rather than being direct from the source to you. While your connection may be protected by encryption, it is possible for a third party to know that there is a conversation between you and another person and to see how much data is being transferred.

Look at the Dashboard (Help).

Thanks, but which connection to WD My Cloud is more secure from unauthorized access and brut force attack? I don’t open SSH or FTP. I just did port mapping to ports 80 and 443 on the router and WD device and obtain a Port Forwarding Connection. The Relay connection was not more secure from brut force and other atack?

I think the answer is shown in the Dashboard if you know what HTTP and HTTPS stands for.

I don’t understand what you’re talking about?

Look at this: HTTPS (HyperText Transport Protocol Secure) Definition

I suggest you do a Google search or use your favorite search engine and search for Port Forwarding.

You may want to look at this too. It comes from the Knowledge Base.
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3945/kw/relay%20connection

image

https is more secure than http. https //files.mycloud.com › login use https. Its ok, but my ask is about conection mode. It is safe to open the ports on the router or better leave the relay connection with the ports on the router closed?

I think the link I provided in my last reply from the Knowledge Base should answer that. See Connected.

While most of the time I am on Port Forwarding sometimes I have been on Relay. I haven’t had any problems and have been using a My Cloud for almost five years now.

There is this post (if the poster is accurate) which may answer or partially answer the question being discussed.

The problem we users appear to face is there doesn’t appear to be much verifiable information from WD themselves on how exactly the My Cloud remote access works and what types of security it uses. One can, if their router supports it, see the logs on what ports the Relay Mode is using versus Port Forwarding Mode.

The question should be, yes we have a secure connection to MyCloud.com (using HTTPS) but what about the connection from that point (WD servers) to the remote My Cloud. How is that connection handled? Is it always over HTTPS and or some sort of VPN tunnel? Are WD’s servers always in the middle?

There is a workaround to one’s worries over the use of My Cloud ports. Go with a VPN server setup instead and bypass the whole MyCloud.com/My Cloud port settings entirely. Some consumer level routers offer free VPN server capability (usually OpenVPN and or PPTP) built right in. When using VPN one would access the My Cloud (generally) just like they would if they were at home/office with that My Cloud.

Solved! Thank for All!

I understood correctly: My clod accepts VPN connection only from WD servers, and my ports 80 and 443 can only receive the VPN connection of the WD server and it is not possible to do brutforce on my ports 80 and 443?

@fortunadiamant Glad what you wanted has been answered. How do you have everything set up in the Dashboard? I use Auto but a person can do a Manual setup. See image below from the Dashboard under Settings>General>Cloud Access.

I thought this would have helped too.

Connected

A Connected status indicates the My Cloud device can successfully communicate with Connected

A Connected status indicates the My Cloud device can successfully communicate with MyCloud.com servers, and at least one email account or device is registered. There are no troubleshooting steps required when the My Cloud is Connected and in Port Forward or Relay Connected Status.