Accessing my iMac from OUTSIDE my LAN.

[AJ's Apple]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place: moderators, please feel free to move.

I am using Vine Server on my iMac at home and Chicken of the VNC on my MacBook for a remote desktop. For SFTP file transfering, I'm using RBrowser and Fetch. All work fine on my LAN while at home- that is, using my iMac's DHCP IP address.

My problem is I can't connect while I'm away from home, on any of the apps. Yes, I tuned off all my firewalls (iMac, MacBook and my router) to see if that was the problem. So, we can skip the port forwarding issues. I must be missing something- what do I use to access my home network while away? I've tried my WAN IP and it doesn't get me to where I'll be forwarded on the correct ports. Oh, and I've tried using a Static IP and/or NAT forwarding to the iMac.

Any suggestions?

 

[BigPrince]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet

My one co-worker has a system rigged up, but hes never explained it to me very clearly. He called it "Telneting in"

 

[AJ's Apple]

I'm not so sure TelNet is what I want, or want to achieve.

I'm somehow missing the concept of using the correct "address" to connect to my home network. Or, so it would seem.

 

[BigPrince]

Sorry. Thats all I could think of. I think its for security reasons that its hard too. You might not be missing anything, just that by default you are unable too.

 

[rogersmj]

I do this kind of thing all the time, with FTP, SSH, and VNC. You access your WAN IP address (your public Internet IP address) from the remote location, and have the appropriate port forwards setup in your router (like 22 for SSH, 23 for FTP, etc). And that's it, that's all there is to it. If you can't access your stuff from outside the network, then you may have the wrong public IP address or your ISP may be doing funky NAT or blocking certain ports.

One way to see the IP you should use from the outside is to check a web site (from inside your home) that will return your IP address to you...for example, http://whatismyip.com.

Oh, and PLEASE put your router's firewall back up. Don't expose your entire network to the Internet -- that's asking for it. Just forward through the ports you need.

 

[AJ's Apple]

Oh, I put it back up. I'll have to see what Verizon does with the ports.

Thanks, though. At least I know I'm using the correct IP.

 

[AJ's Apple]

Still no luck. Does anyone know if Verizon blocks certain ports?