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File Sharing on an attached Server\volume (NAS)

R

RipcordAFF

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2009
41
0
Hello all,

This is going to see like a fairly esoteric question, but I have to ask. I have a Mac Mini working as a local server\HTPC and a MBP that I do my daily computing on. I also have a D-Link NAS drive that is plugged into my wireless router. Currently, the Mac Mini has nothing really on it, all the media is stored on the NAS drive. The Mini just mounts the NAS volume and serves up the media that way.

However, I recently followed the steps here (http://guides.macrumors.com/Using_Remote_File_Access_to_Save_Disk_Space_on_Your_MacBook_Air) to set up remote access to the Mini. That works fantastically. However, I CANNOT figure out how to access the NAS drive through the Mini. The NAS drive does not have WAN access, so I cant get it directly when I am away from home. Rather, what I expected to do was to mount the Mini (which had the NAS already mounted to it) and then I would be able to access all of the Mini's files as well as the NAS's files through it.

Alas, that does not seem to be the case. Although when I remotely mount the Mini I can access its files, as well as any LOCALLY attached drives (think usb HDDs physically attached to the Mini), but I cannot get to the NAS (even though its already been mounted). Whenever I try to select the NAS drive on the "file sharing" options on the mini, it never lets me select it, its all greyed out.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? I understand if no one has ever tried this before, but any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

~R
 
NAS is designed to be accessible by many hosts independently, not through a central server.

The Mini is doing what it should, sharing out local volumes. It would be a major security hole if users could connect to another machine and mount network volumes, it is also redundant since the network volume could be mounted independently.

What you need to do is set it up so that your NAS does have WAN access. This can be done through port forwarding as you have already experienced in the linked guide.

You Mini does not have WAN access either, but you are giving it WAN access via the methods in the guide.

Perform the same methods, but do so for the NAS. Forward ports to its IP and its file sharing port (SMB 139, 445 for example).
 
calderone said:
NAS is designed to be accessible by many hosts independently, not through a central server.

The Mini is doing what it should, sharing out local volumes. It would be a major security hole if users could connect to another machine and mount network volumes, it is also redundant since the network volume could be mounted independently.

What you need to do is set it up so that your NAS does have WAN access. This can be done through port forwarding as you have already experienced in the linked guide.

You Mini does not have WAN access either, but you are giving it WAN access via the methods in the guide.

Perform the same methods, but do so for the NAS. Forward ports to its IP and its file sharing port (SMB 139, 445 for example).
Click to expand...


Wow, that worked perfectly. I forwarded 139 and 445 (both UDP and TCP) to the NAS' local IP. Thanks so much for your help! I do have one last question though--are those the only ports I need to forward for full SMB access to that share? I DO want SMB right? (i.e. when I hit Go--> Connect to server--> I use SMB, rather than AFB, correct?

Again, thanks so much!:)



*Wait...scratch that. When I am actually on my network, the "connect to server" command works to mount the SMB NAS volume (SMB://WAN ip). I just assumed that because it was using the WAN IP, it would work outside of my home network. However, when I just checked from another network it just hangs at "waiting for network". However, the AFP Mac Mini mount works from outside of the network...hmmm, what could cause that? The WAN IPs are the same, just changing the "connect to server" preface from AFP to SMB. I have 548 forwarded for AFP, and 139\445 forwarded for SMB....:confused:
 
Following along and learning.
(PS: why does the Mini need to serve up the DLink NAS HDD, why doesn't it become networked all along via the router and port forwarding to both the MBA & MM?)
 
Prom1 said:
Following along and learning.
(PS: why does the Mini need to serve up the DLink NAS HDD, why doesn't it become networked all along via the router and port forwarding to both the MBA & MM?)
Click to expand...

I am not quite sure I 100% understand your question. I originally wanted the Mini to serve up the NAS because I couldn't get the port forwarding through the router to give me file access to the NAS--I understand now that was because I was using the wrong ports. When you say "why doesn't it become networked along with the mini" I think you are insinuating that once you are "inside" the network through a valid port forward (to, for instance, the Mini) that I could access the NAS. Thats what I would have thought too. However, I mentioned originally that once I had the mini mounted on my MBP through a WAN port forward it wouldn't let me then mount the NAS (though it let me mount any drives PHYSICALLY attached to the mini).


Anyways though, I think I may have figured it out. I am still using port 445. But I am forwarding it from a port above 1024 (i.e. 15000-->445). This is because I read on some other site that some ISPs block those lower SMB ports specifically to protect against malicious attacks--a kind of poor man's firewall I guess. I was able to route in once I used a higher port.

Thanks for all the help! :D
 
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