Accessing the Time Capsule while travelling with your MBA

[Terwal]

Hi,

Question which emerged in a different thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=450406), but thought we should make a separate thread out of it.

The question is to know if (and if so, how) one can access the files stored on one's Time Capsule, while traveling on the road ?

Wouldn't it be great, given the small-ish capacity of the MBA's HD, to keep all your files (music, pictures, videos,...) on the Time Capsule and being able to access from anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection ?

... similarly to what clayj described in the following and now "stickied" and "guide'ed" thread: accessing remotely the files stored on a MBP (or any other high HD capacity Mac) which seats at home through an internet connection (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=429956).

Thanks for the input...

W.

[clayj]

Please note that I am not actually using a Time Capsule in this test, but an AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) with a 320 GB USB hard drive connected and shared out with the following settings in the Disks > File Sharing dialog box:

Enable file sharing: checked
Secure Shared Disks: With base station password
Guest Access: Not allowed
Share disks over Ethernet WAN port: checked

This should be functionally equivalent to a Time Capsule, with one notable exception (see below).

With this configuration, I perform the following steps on my MBA, which is connected to the Internet via a neighbor's open WiFi network (which means my MBA is "not at home"):

1. In Finder, click Go > Connect to Server.

2. Type in the proper URL/IP address for my home network (e.g., afp://www.myhomedomain.com or afp://123.123.12.123) with no port number specified. I am not trying to connect to a machine inside the firewall, so port forwarding is not necessary and I do not need to specify port 548.

3. Click Connect.

4. I am prompted for my user name and password. I type in my own user name, and the password which I set up on the AEBS. (Note that this is not necessarily the same as my password on my Mac Pro or MBA. The AEBS/Time Capsule has its own password, which you set on the Airport > Base Station screen, right below where you set the Base Station Name.)

5. Click Connect.

Voilà! I am now connected to the USB hard drive which is connected to my AEBS, via the Internet. The Shared section of the sidebar in the Finder shows the Base Station Name of the AEBS as though it were a server name, with the hard drive contents listed on the right side of the window.

So this is all pretty much what I would have expected so far... I can read the drive, copy files to and from it, open files, etc. But the big question remains: Can I enable Time Machine functionality to use this hard drive which I am connected to via the Internet?

6. Go to System Preferences > Time Machine.

7. Click Choose Backup Disk.

EXCEPTION: No disks are shown.

Now, here's the problem: We know that Apple has (stupidly) hobbled the use of Time Machine to a USB drive on an AEBS... so this last part really wasn't going to work, even if my MBA was on the same network as the AEBS/USB hard drive. In fact, I can confirm that this is the case: If I put my MBA back on my home network and then connect it to both my Mac Pro and my AEBS, Time Machine will detect hard drives on my Mac Pro that I've connected to; but it will not detect the shared hard drive on my AEBS.

So, someone still needs to test this properly, with an actual Time Machine. My original suspicion, however, still stands: I do not believe that you can use the actual Time Machine functionality across the Internet.

My challenge to someone out there who has a Time Capsule and the technical wherewithal to try to connect to it from across the Internet: Follow the steps I've written above and let us all know if you can enable Time Capsule functionality when your MBA (or other Apple notebook) is connecting to it via the Internet.

[clayj]

Well, I may have to retract what I said earlier about Time Machine not working over the Internet. I am pretty sure now that it will, with caveats. Here's what I did to test this:

1. I connected my MBA to my neighbor's open WiFi network, so that my MBA is "away from home".

2. I then connected to my Mac Pro via the Internet, using my home domain name and secret port number. I selected one of my Mac Pro's hard drives to connect to, so it shows up in the Finder under Shared.

3. I went into System Preferences > Time Machine > Choose Backup Disk.

Result: After a few seconds, the remotely-connected hard drive showed up in the list of hard drives!

Based on this, Time Machine can connect to a hard drive over the Internet. It seems like it would probably be able to connect to a Time Capsule as well, as long as you establish the connection between your MBA and your Time Capsule first...

... and here's where that asterisk from above comes into play. You have to create the connection to the Time Capsule/Time Machine before it will work... and even then it's at the mercy of network conditions (speed, dropouts, etc.). Time Machine may do a lot of shuffling of data back and forth, and I would be very concerned about how well the system would perform under those circumstances. All that network traffic as Time Machine writes files up to the Time Machine repository is gonna drain your MBA's battery fairly quickly. (Not to mention, any changes made while disconnected from Time Machine might not be preserved properly.)

So, it looks like you can use Time Machine over the Internet, to either a Time Capsule or a shared hard drive on a server in your home. But do I think it's a good idea? Let me answer you this way:

I'm not gonna do it.

EDIT 3/19/2008: Apple has now enabled using a USB hard drive, connected to an AEBS, as a Time Machine repository with the AEBS 7.3.1 firmware. AEBS + USB HD = Time Capsule, basically. Testing to follow.

[clin86]

how do you find the url/ip for the drive connected to the base station?
does this work even without your computer at home turned on?

[clayj]

how do you find the url/ip for the drive connected to the base station?
does this work even without your computer at home turned on?You can find out your home network's external IP address by going to http://checkip.dyndns.org. In my case, I happen to have a domain name which is dynamically mapped to whatever my IP address is, so I can get to my home network using just that domain name. (This costs about $50 a year to do. Check dyndns.org for details.)

And no, your home machine has to be turned on in order to access it. An AEBS or Time Capsule would presumably always be on.

[sidharth80]

You can find out your home network's external IP address by going to http://checkip.dyndns.org. In my case, I happen to have a domain name which is dynamically mapped to whatever my IP address is, so I can get to my home network using just that domain name. (This costs about $50 a year to do. Check dyndns.org for details.)

And no, your home machine has to be turned on in order to access it. An AEBS or Time Capsule would presumably always be on.

I am new to mac.. so some of my qns might be silly.. :)
- Cant I access my HDD connected to AEBS without any home machine?
- Does ISP dynamically change the IP address? If so, how can i know the new IP address if I am away from home?

[Terwal]

Voilà! I am now connected to the USB hard drive which is connected to my AEBS, via the Internet. The Shared section of the sidebar in the Finder shows the Base Station Name of the AEBS as though it were a server name, with the hard drive contents listed on the right side of the window.

So this is all pretty much what I would have expected so far... I can read the drive, copy files to and from it, open files, etc. But the big question remains: Can I enable Time Machine functionality to use this hard drive which I am connected to via the Internet?


clayj, another great thread you are providing us with here !! :) Thanks a lot for your efforts and the clarity of your explanations...

Not having yet received my TC, I will not be able to try before a few days, but just reading your 2 posts (and even though I am very new to Mac and not at all a tech specialist), this seems all to make sense.

As far as I am concerned, my motivation for accessing the TC over the internet is really to be able to read/write files on the drive; less so to be able to do back ups by using Time Machine.

Therefore, if I understood you correctly, that should work (to be confirmed with an actual TC)... :) Even without a second computer at home... re-:)

This great news...

Thanks again.

w.

[Patriiick]

It could be interesting to have it really work for say.. the ultimate road warrior who crashes his HD miles from home and who wants to do a restore..

But if it works the speed would be...frighteningly slow i'm afraid..

[clayj]

It could be interesting to have it really work for say.. the ultimate road warrior who crashes his HD miles from home and who wants to do a restore..

But if it works the speed would be...frighteningly slow i'm afraid..Yes. Time Machine is undoubtedly going to be expecting a "fat", high-bandwidth connection between your Mac and the Time Machine repository; either they should be on the same machine, or they should be on two machines on the same network connected by a fast network connection. Trying to use Time Machine across the "thin" connection of the Internet is just asking for trouble.

[clayj]

I am new to mac.. so some of my qns might be silly.. :)
- Cant I access my HDD connected to AEBS without any home machine?
- Does ISP dynamically change the IP address? If so, how can i know the new IP address if I am away from home?1. Yes, you should be able to do this. However, you will need to configure the AEBS at some point, and that will require a home machine during the configuration part.

2. They can, unless you pay for a static (fixed) IP address. It's been my experience that I will have the same IP address for months or longer, as long as nothing funky happens with my cable modem or anything. But not wanting to risk a problem due to an IP address change, I signed up for a domain name which gets its IP address from a dynamic DNS client installed on one of my home machines. That way, if my home network IP address does change, my domain name will update automatically.

[twynne]

But not wanting to risk a problem due to an IP address change, I signed up for a domain name which gets its IP address from a dynamic DNS client installed on one of my home machines. That way, if my home network IP address does change, my domain name will update automatically.

Incidentally you can do this for free if your router supports dynamic DNS. You'd have to check your router configuration and/or manufacturer to see if it does. Then you just set up a free account with dyndns.org and enter your signon details into your router. There are also free clients for PC's (and I assume Macs) that can do this if your router can't.

And yes, I know this is a thread about Time Capsule, but you can have a Time Capsule on your network behind another router (I do this with an AEBS using it as an 802.11n bridge effectively).

[izibo]

In my case, I happen to have a domain name which is dynamically mapped to whatever my IP address is, so I can get to my home network using just that domain name. (This costs about $50 a year to do. Check dyndns.org for details.)

DynDNS is free for up to 5 host names and as long as you update the host name every 90 days or so. They have a mac client if your router doesn't support it.

Just select "Dynamic DNS" under services and it will map your an IP to a hostname like "example.getmyip.com" that you can select.

Never had to pay them a penny, even though they give great service.

[clayj]

DynDNS is free for up to 5 host names and as long as you update the host name every 90 days or so. They have a mac client if your router doesn't support it.

Just select "Dynamic DNS" under services and it will map your an IP to a hostname like "example.getmyip.com" that you can select.

Never had to pay them a penny, even though they give great service.Yeah, I forgot that they offer free domain names as long as you use a domain name off their list. I prefer to have my own dedicated domain name, hence the cost. I also have MailHop MX Backup through them so that my e-mail doesn't get lost during those rare times (knock on wood) when my cable service goes out or my Exchange Server is offline.

[Terwal]

Yeah, I forgot that they offer free domain names as long as you use a domain name off their list. I prefer to have my own dedicated domain name, hence the cost. I also have MailHop MX Backup through them so that my e-mail doesn't get lost during those rare times (knock on wood) when my cable service goes out or my Exchange Server is offline.

How much did you say was the cost for your own domain ? Thx.

[clin86]

oh i thought u guys said you need a 2nd computer at home turned on to access the drive plugged into the base station. so now is it possible to have only 1 macbook air and still access your drive while you're outside?

[clayj]

How much did you say was the cost for your own domain ? Thx.Through DynDns.org, it's something like $30/yr for the custom DNS (the part that actually points you at the right spot when you use your domain name) and $15/yr for the domain name itself.

And clin86, yes: You don't actually need another machine at home if you've got a Time Capsule or AEBS with USB hard drive attached.

[Indydenny]

Thanks for the help everyone!

I'm about to set up my Time Capsule but have a question I haven't seen answered:

Can I split the signal coming from the cable modem --taking one line to a router (Vonage phone and Slingbox) and the other going to my Time Capsule. I don't want to use the TC in bridge mode and would like to have it as the only router/firewall on the line.

Thoughts for a better route?

[clin86]

i tried it but it says error code -43 abd there was an error connecting to the server. please check server name or ip address. i just typed in my ip address as it is on the website you guys provided.
am i doing something wrong?

[clayj]

i tried it but it says error code -43 abd there was an error connecting to the server. please check server name or ip address. i just typed in my ip address as it is on the website you guys provided.
am i doing something wrong?Are you "at home", with your notebook on the same network as the AEBS/Time Capsule? Or is your notebook "away from home", on a different network? If you're "at home", you may not be able to connect to the AEBS/Time Capsule using the external IP address you got.

[Sesshi]

As I did in the other thread of clayj's, I'd throw in a suggestion for a low-cost SSL VPN box. They're available from Netgear, Zyxel, etc.

What SSL VPN does is to create an encrypted virtual private network tunnel over SSL, the same protocol used for buying stuff online - and wherever you are, while hotels may block other protocols / ports they're highly unlikely to block SSL. Practically speaking what it means is that you crank up Firefox and point your browser to your home IP / DynDNS address (SSL certificates are an additional expense, but most boxes should allow you to use self-signed certificates) to access a login page your home. Log in, and you're at home.

It's a comparatively fuss-free and easy way to establish a direct link to your network, with your connected notebook becoming a part of your home network. For networking n00bs there might be a setup learning curve, but it can't be insurmountable. This way there's also no need to expose ports which aren't properly secured to the Internet.

[clin86]

away from home.

[sidharth80]

i tried it but it says error code -43 abd there was an error connecting to the server. please check server name or ip address. i just typed in my ip address as it is on the website you guys provided.
am i doing something wrong?

I am also facing the same problem. I hooked on to my neighbour's wi-fi and tried accessing my ip address, but it gives the same error.
fyi.. I am actually using a trendnet router and was trying to see if i m able to connect to the IP address and see how it works... before i take the plunge and buy the time capsule.

Do i need to tweak any other setting?

[Pine-Tree]

Great thread, and thanks for the tips clayj very helpful. This is exactly what I've been wanting to do since I've gotten my MBA. I'll have to try this as I have a similar setup at home.

[clayj]

OK, it turns out that today's release of the 7.3.1 firmware for the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) now allows you to use the Time Machine functionality with a USB-connected external hard drive. In essence:

AEBS + USB hard drive = Time Capsule (of whatever capacity your HD has)

Because of this change, I can now properly test Time Capsule/Time Machine functionality with my MBA across the Internet. I'm currently setting up a 320 GB USB HD as shared on my AEBS and I will be configuring my MBA to do backups there. As soon as I have some information/results to report, I will post them here.

[bcaslis]

OK, it turns out that today's release of the 7.3.1 firmware for the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) now allows you to use the Time Machine functionality with a USB-connected external hard drive. In essence:

AEBS + USB hard drive = Time Capsule (of whatever capacity your HD has)

Because of this change, I can now properly test Time Capsule/Time Machine functionality with my MBA across the Internet. I'm currently setting up a 320 GB USB HD as shared on my AEBS and I will be configuring my MBA to do backups there. As soon as I have some information/results to report, I will post them here.

Geez, of course! I just broke down and bought a Time Capsule last night. Now of course they release this update (I have 3 AEBS already).

[clayj]

The steps I had written before will need to be updated slightly if you have the 7.3.1 firmware on your Time Capsule or AEBS+USBHD... specifically, it appears that Apple have tightened the security up a bit in the new firmware release, so you may have to set up port mapping to map a port number to the 548 port of the TC/AEBS+USBHD. If I drop back to the 7.2.1 firmware, I am able to connect using no port mapping and just going to afp://www.myhomedomain.com or afp://123.123.12.123.

I've confirmed this is correct... the new firmware requires you to use port mapping to connect to the TC/AEBS+USBHD over the Internet. I will update the steps in the Guide appropriately.

[clayj]

OK, I have updated the Guide entry:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Using_Remote_File_Access_to_Save_Disk_Space_on_Your_MacBook_Air

with the new steps for how to connect to it remotely (across the Internet) from your MBA.

[mcvaughan]

Geez, of course! I just broke down and bought a Time Capsule last night. Now of course they release this update (I have 3 AEBS already).

I bought a TC on Sunday to replace my AEBS. :D

[TaishasMan]

Hi there!

After reading through your instructions, I still don't know how to figure out the internal IP address for my time capsule so I can enable port mapping.

Also after I set up an account with dyndns.org obviously I cannot install their software on the time capsule to tell them what IP address to link to that domain I set up with them. So if I just have one computer, how can I make sure that the domain address I set up with them is constantly linked to the correct IP address so I can actually establish a connection to my time capsule from anywhere?

Or is afterall the only way to remotely connect to my time capsule without having a second computer running at home to get a static IP from my ISP...but then I still need to know the internal IP address for the time capsule if you are saying that the new software requires port mapping.

Thanks so much.

[clayj]

Hi there!

After reading through your instructions, I still don't know how to figure out the internal IP address for my time capsule so I can enable port mapping.

Also after I set up an account with dyndns.org obviously I cannot install their software on the time capsule to tell them what IP address to link to that domain I set up with them. So if I just have one computer, how can I make sure that the domain address I set up with them is constantly linked to the correct IP address so I can actually establish a connection to my time capsule from anywhere?

Or is afterall the only way to remotely connect to my time capsule without having a second computer running at home to get a static IP from my ISP...but then I still need to know the internal IP address for the time capsule if you are saying that the new software requires port mapping.

Thanks so much.Getting the internal IP of your Time Capsule is easy:

1. Launch the Airport Utility.
2. In the list of stations on the left, select your Time Capsule. (If you have only one base station, this should already be selected.)
3. On the right, you will see the IP Address.

This is the IP address you need to specify in the Port Mapping: External port number "xxxx" (a number you choose) maps to internal IP address "ip.ip.ip.ip" and internal port number 548 (this is ALWAYS 548).

Don't forget that you also need to enable File Sharing under Disks > File Sharing in AirPort Utility.

As far as using a dynamic DNS client goes when you don't have a machine that will be at home all the time, that's a bit trickier. You can't install the dynamic DNS client on your MBA, because then when you log in from somewhere else, your home domain name will change to point to wherever in the world it is you are right now. If you are lucky like I am, your home external IP address will not change very often... I had the same IP address for over TWO YEARS at one point, only changing when I had to reset my cable modem.

[TaishasMan]

Just found something amazing in an Apple Forum. If this should work it would be the very ultimate solution for the issues we are having. It says that one can set up the Time Capsule with Back to my Mac so it automatically shows up in the shared section of the finder. Unfortunately I just can't get this to work. The problems I have is that I don't know what my machine name is - I wonder if I can just pick a random one - and second has my .Mac name a "." in the middle and in the keychain entries for Back to my Mac this seems to be replaced with a "\." ...however, I tried both and it doesn't seem to be working...anyone else tried this and had more success:

Re: Time Capsule
Posted: Mar 12, 2008 7:52 AM in response to: Snoop Dogg
Reply Email

I'd be very curious on how to make this happen. I tried this on my Time Capsule, which has fruited no results so far:

From AppleInsider.com:
"Can the drive be accessed over the internet, e.g. using a MacBook away from home to browse a documents folder on the Time Capsule drive?"

Yes, it supports Wide Area Bonjour, the basis of Back to My Mac. However, Apple hasn't made it obvious how to connect the device to its .Mac servers in order to do this. Savvy users with access to their own DNS-SD server will be able to set this up themselves, but the rest of us will need to wait for Apple to make things more obvious.

Both Leopard and Time Capsule allow users to enter a Hostname, User, and Password for a "dynamic global hostname," which means creating a Wide Area Bonjour name that can be looked up by Back to My Mac from any location. This panel (below top) is brought up by clicking Edit next to the Time Capsule Name (below bottom), or in Leopard, by clicking on Edit next to the Computer Name in System Preferences : Sharing.

There's no clue how to set this up provided by Apple, but it appears that this can be used to register the Time Capsule (or Mac) with .Mac. An anonymous Tim, commenting in the Apple support forums, suggests trying the following, with 'Foo' being your machine name and 'Bar' your .Mac account:

Hostname: Foo.Bar.members.mac.com
User: Foo.Bar.members.mac.com
Password: you get this by finding the Back to Mac entry in the system keyring, and copying the password from that.
I did this, and so far have gotten nothing. Am I on the right track?

Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz 2GB RAM and iMac G5 2.16 GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Snoop Dogg


Posts: 628
Registered: Oct 15, 2003
Re: Time Capsule
Posted: Mar 12, 2008 10:40 AM in response to: Big Cankles
Reply Email

Hey BigC. Yep this is close, but there's one slight mistake. You have to do this...

Hostname: foo.bar.members.mac.com
User: bar.members.mac.com
Password: You get this by finding the Back to My Mac entry in the System Keychain, and copying the password from that.

Make sure the "foo" part is unique and isn't the same name as any of your other Macs.

[beatledud]

Thanks for the heads up on the new port forwarding with the 7.3 firmware. However, there are still some questions that I have. Currently I have a AEBS with the 7.3 firmware, and a Western Digital 1TB drive plugged into the AEBS.

1. What are the work arounds to apple file protocol (afp) and some network's abilities to block it (i.e. my school and hotel wi-fi's). The issue comes in two accounts. First off, only macs can easily understand afp servers, therefor if I have a friend that needs a file that I have, and they are on a PC, and there's no easy way, often for the illiterate. Secondly, I find that there are many places where I often want to access my home Airport Disk, but it will just not work, such as my university's network.

2. Is a solution to this to use a domain name that directs to my server? For instance, I have my own website, lets call it www.myweb.com. I can create a subdomain in the server, lets call it server.myweb.com. I would like this subdomain to point to my Airport Disk. Lets say my ip address (which hasn't changed in months) is 75.106.32.40, and my port is 5980 which is port mapped as the guide states. I can connect to my server on another persons open network by going to connect to server in Finder, entering afp://75.106.32.40:5980 and the password for my disk.

Now, if I go to my websites contol panel, go to redirection for my subdomain, and enter afp://75.106.32.40:5980 as the address, it will not allow me to connect. So it works in finder if i enter the ip address, but not in firefox or finder if i enter the subdomain name. Does it change the afp protocol to http protocol?

3. What is this Global Bonjour business. What does advertising my disk globally with bonjour accomplish? There used to be more settings for bonjour in your airport utility control panel, such as entering domain names that host it, and such, but they appear to be gone now.

[clayj]

Thanks for the heads up on the new port forwarding with the 7.3 firmware. However, there are still some questions that I have. Currently I have a AEBS with the 7.3 firmware, and a Western Digital 1TB drive plugged into the AEBS.

1. What are the work arounds to apple file protocol (afp) and some network's abilities to block it (i.e. my school and hotel wi-fi's). The issue comes in two accounts. First off, only macs can easily understand afp servers, therefor if I have a friend that needs a file that I have, and they are on a PC, and there's no easy way, often for the illiterate. Secondly, I find that there are many places where I often want to access my home Airport Disk, but it will just not work, such as my university's network.If your school or place of business blocks port 548 or the other port number you're trying to use, you're out of luck.

And yes, if your friend has a PC, he's out of luck too, as far as I can tell. PCs don't do AFP, even if they have Bonjour installed.

2. Is a solution to this to use a domain name that directs to my server? For instance, I have my own website, lets call it www.myweb.com. I can create a subdomain in the server, lets call it server.myweb.com. I would like this subdomain to point to my Airport Disk. Lets say my ip address (which hasn't changed in months) is 75.106.32.40, and my port is 5980 which is port mapped as the guide states. I can connect to my server on another persons open network by going to connect to server in Finder, entering afp://75.106.32.40:5980 and the password for my disk.Yes, you can certainly use a domain name that directs to your home network, along with a port number; that's what I do. Without telling you my home domain name (which is set up through DynDNS.org) or port number, when I connect to home using my MBA on the road, the URL looks like "afp://www.myhomedomain.com:5678". This does require that the network I am on with my MBA allow outbound traffic on the port number I specified.

Now, if I go to my websites contol panel, go to redirection for my subdomain, and enter afp://75.106.32.40:5980 as the address, it will not allow me to connect. So it works in finder if i enter the ip address, but not in firefox or finder if i enter the subdomain name. Does it change the afp protocol to http protocol?I'm not sure I would expect this to work. AFP is a protocol, obviously, but that doesn't mean that Safari or Firefox or any other browser is going to know that that's supposed to be redirected to Finder.

VNC (which is what Screen Sharing in Leopard uses) is supported in this manner; for example, I can type "vnc://www.myhomedomain.com:7890" in Safari and it will connect to Screen Sharing for one of my Macs at home (I have "7890" set up to forward to port 5900 on a Mac; 5900 is the VNC port number).

3. What is this Global Bonjour business. What does advertising my disk globally with bonjour accomplish? There used to be more settings for bonjour in your airport utility control panel, such as entering domain names that host it, and such, but they appear to be gone now.I have no idea. I don't mess with Bonjour.

[Le Big Mac]

the 7.3.1 firmware on your Time Capsule or AEBS+USBHD... specifically, it appears that Apple have tightened the security up a bit in the new firmware release, so you may have to set up port mapping to map a port number to the 548 port of the TC/AEBS+USBHD.

These are some great insights clayj

Question: What's your feeling on the security of all this? Seems like opening up your TC to "the world" could be a bit risky. Not planning to keep CIA docs on my Mac, but is this sort of thing easily hackable?

[clayj]

These are some great insights clayj

Question: What's your feeling on the security of all this? Seems like opening up your TC to "the world" could be a bit risky. Not planning to keep CIA docs on my Mac, but is this sort of thing easily hackable?Thanks!

For anyone to be able to take advantage of your having shared your TC/AEBS+USBHD/Mac server using the steps I have written, they would have to know four things:

1. Your home network's external IP address (e.g., 123.123.12.123) or domain name (e.g., www.myhomedomain.com).

2. The external port number you specified in the port mapping, which maps to internal port 548.

3. Your user name.

4. Your password.

So, while someone might be able to figure out my home network's external IP address or domain name (I make it a point never to tell people, but a clever person might be able to figure it out), the other items are all pretty obscure and not easily guessed. Obviously you would not want for your laptop to fall into the wrong hands; but that's what OS X logon passwords and FileVault are for.

I definitely would not put "classified" (as in, national security stuff) on a system like this, but for normal users, it should be pretty secure.

[vsteiger]

First of all, thanks to clayj for your guide how to access a TC from abroad.

I managed to access my TC at home from my Mac Pro at the office using a domain (myname).dyndns.org pointing to the dynamical IP address. But now I'm on the road with my MBP, which I originally used to set things up at home, only to find out that the Dynamic DNS client installed on the MBP now maps (mydomain).dyndns.org to the IP address of the MBP here under my hands, not to the one of the TC at home :_(. .....

What went wrong with my setup? Any ideas are greatly appreciated

ruedi

[samradford]

Hi, I have followed the instructions in the guide for accessing my time capsule remotely but when I did I got some errors that prevented it working.

Basicially, when I pressed update it said that by beginning and ending port range needed changing.

e.g. 192.168.1.2 (beginning) and 192.168.1.200 (end)

I played about with these a bit but didn't really know what I was doing and couldn't get it to work.

Any suggestions?

[samradford]

Hi, I have followed the instructions in the guide for accessing my time capsule remotely but when I did I got some errors that prevented it working.

Basicially, when I pressed update it said that by beginning and ending port range needed changing.

e.g. 192.168.1.2 (beginning) and 192.168.1.200 (end)

I played about with these a bit but didn't really know what I was doing and couldn't get it to work.

Any suggestions?

Just to clarify, the actual error message is: The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your apple wireless device.

Suggestions?

[Virgil-TB2]

clayj, another great thread you are providing us with here !! :) Thanks a lot for your efforts and the clarity of your explanations...

Not having yet received my TC, I will not be able to try before a few days, but just reading your 2 posts (and even though I am very new to Mac and not at all a tech specialist), this seems all to make sense.

As far as I am concerned, my motivation for accessing the TC over the internet is really to be able to read/write files on the drive; less so to be able to do back ups by using Time Machine.

Therefore, if I understood you correctly, that should work (to be confirmed with an actual TC)... :) Even without a second computer at home... re-:)
.This is a bad idea.

If you *can* access the TM drive and you are picking out and placing files to it, you are going to corrupt your Time Machine backup almost certainly.

If all you want to do is remotely access files and *not* access Time Machine backups, then .Mac, any online file service, or just using a networked drive not running TM would be a much better, faster, and more reliable solution.

IMO by trying to do this (fairly ridiculous at this time) thing, you are just setting yourself up for problems down the road for no real gain.

[Terwal]

Just to clarify, the actual error message is: The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your apple wireless device.

Suggestions?

I have had exactly the same problem as samradford... :confused::confused:

See my post in a different thread (below) which so far as remained unanswered :(

Can anbody help please ? :o

samradford: did you manage to fix your issue ? :confused:

Thanks for the help...

w.


- - - -
Problem with DHCP Range ?

I finally got myself to set up my MBA and Time Capsule to be able to connect to it remotely.

I have followed the exact steps of your Guide but get the following error when I try to update my Time Capsule:

"The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your Apple Wireless device".

Any idea what could be wrong ?

Thanks a lot,

Walter
- - - - - -

[EDevil]

Hello.

If we connect to our home Time Capsule (AEBS + HD) and use Time Machine remotely, will our data be sent through the network in clear?

In other words, does the protocol used (afp?) encrypt the data transmitted?

Thanks,
André

[clayj]

Hello.

If we connect to our home Time Capsule (AEBS + HD) and use Time Machine remotely, will our data be sent through the network in clear?

In other words, does the protocol used (afp?) encrypt the data transmitted?

Thanks,
AndréI really don't know whether Time Machine traffic is encrypted or not.

But I can tell you that trying to use Time Machine across the Internet is definitely not recommended. Although technically it will work, the amount of bandwidth required is simply too high.

[PcBgone]

Sorry to give this a bump, but Im a bit stuck.

Im trying to be able to access my time capsule via the internet while on the road. I setup an account with dyndns, downloaded the software, and followed the port mapping instructions in this thread.

However Im still not able to connect. It says that the server has timed out. I set my port mappings to 548 for private and then xxxx for public. Then for the private ip address, I used the TC ip address(which is also the private ip of 10.0.x.x) or something of that nature. Do I need to input the public ip or a private one? I have a dynamic ip address from my isp, and would rather use dyndns as Im too cheap to pay for a static ip...

[houser]

Found this thread just now, as I wanted to do this too..
Great tip,

FWIW, I am using a TC over the Internet, albeit with a hard, real IP adress.
Full TC functionality as far a s I can see so far...great stuff...

Thanx for the tip, very useful!

best
jtm

[TartufGoodGod]

I know this topic is prety hold but I have a TimeCapsule here and I would like to access my TC via internet from another Pc (vista or linux).

Firstable, I did a DynDNS with a personal name domaine www.myhomedomain.com. It points on my own dynamic IP adress.

Secondo, I configured my Internet Box with :
DNS server:
http://i60.servimg.com/u/f60/13/80/93/99/dns11.jpg

And my NAT:
http://i60.servimg.com/u/f60/13/80/93/99/nat210.jpg

But nothin hapend. Maybe is it because when I do Go>Connect to Server I'm still at home? I should try on an other place. Or maybe those settings don't work!

When I read this well done doc done by clayj : " http://guides.macrumors.com/Using_Remote_File_Access_to_Save_Disk_Space_on_Your_MacBook_Air ", In the steps 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the part named : "If You Have a Time Capsule or an AirPort Extreme Base Station with Shared USB Hard Drive", I can't find the PortMapping button, neither the plus "+" button, the UDP and TCP Port(s)...
It's what I see :
http://i60.servimg.com/u/f60/13/80/93/99/image_11.png (http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=6&u=13809399)
Is the French version less thick or somewhat?
So are those 4 steps (9, 10, 11, 12) already done in my case as my Internet Box is already a NAT server (cf picture n°2).

Thanks

Ho,
I was forgoting, will i access to my TC as a normal ftp server or does the machine who want to connect to my TC has to have a afp system?
Can I connect to my TC via internet with an other OS as OSX?

[TartufGoodGod]

Help

[clayj]

HelpThere's definitely something missing from your Airport Utility... the Advanced section should have FOUR subpages, not three. Your Port Mapping subpage is not showing, so you are not going to be able to set this up.

Perhaps in France Apple isn't allowed to implement port mapping in AirPort Extremes or Time Capsules?