Port Forwarding in Airport Extreme

[bt22]

Setup: I use the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Dual Band as my main router. I use a new Apple Airport Express to extend the range of my AEBS and allow connectivity via Ethernet only.

Problem: We want to be able to setup a NAS that will be accessable outside of our home network via the internet. We are looking at using a free software such as Free NAS. We are not able to figure out how to forward a port on the Airport Extreme to allow an FTP. Is this being complicated by the additional airport express? do we also have to change settings inside that router to allow this. We have scoured the internet for specific instructions on how to do this, but cannot get it resolved.

Does anyone here do this. If yes can you please provide specific instructions?

Oh, we are using windows computers.

Also we need to keep the AEBS since we are using the Express since that's the only way to extend the AEBS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is driving us mad.

Thanks,
Bobby

 

[calderone]

Since you said you can't figure out how to do it, I am going to post instructions.

1. Run Airport Utility
2. Double click the the Airport you are trying to configure (or click the Manual Setup button)
3. Select the Advanced tab
4. Click Port Mapping
5. Click the + to add a new mapping
6. Specify the Public ports and Private ports and the Private IP of the NAS.
7. Click continue and give it a name: like FTP_NAS or something.
8. Update the Airport

You should now be able to access the NAS via the public IP of your Airport. Note, if you specified a public port that does not match the typical port for the protocol being use, you will need to make sure you include that when connecting. For example:

If you specified port 49152 as the Public port forwarding to port 22 of the NAS, externally you would need to enter "ftp://IP:49152" if you were using Finder -> Connect to Server.

 

[bt22]

Some places have said we would have to use a service such as DYNDNS. thanks for the reply.

 

[calderone]

Some places have said we would have to use a service such as DYNDNS. thanks for the reply.

There is a good reason for this recommendation. Most people have dynamic IP addresses from their ISP. So your IP may change randomly. So the next time you are out and need to connect, you might be out of luck if the IP has changed.

DYNDNS will give you a domain name that you can associate with your IP. They also have a widget that will update your external IP when it changes. This is a good solution.

There are routers that let you do this within the router, the Airport Extreme (for whatever reason) is not one of them.

So you will need this: http://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/mac.html as I mentioned above.

This is not the only option or the only reason.

1. If you have a static IP, you can simply use it. Or you can setup a dyndns anyway, this way you have a (somewhat) easily rememberable domain name.

2. If you have a domain name and the registrar/hosting company allows you to modify and add DNS records. You can add a record there. This will give you a much more easily rememberable name. This is really only an option if you have a static IP or if you can update your DNS via a script.

Since I don't know what your situation is I can't really give you a recommendation.

But the port forwarding itself does not rely on having dyndns setup. You can forward right now, you simply have to know the IP when you want to connect internally.