Time Capsule over the internet

[ziddii]

Hi,
I know there is lot of stuff over the internet about how to configure airport time capsule over the internet but couldn't get the solution of my problem. I ADSL router provided by my ISP which is preconfigured and my Airport Time Capsule is connected to my ISP router. Everything works fine in LAN. I can access Time capsule hard drive inside the LAN with no issues on MAC as well as on Windows PC. The issue is I am not been able to connect TC harddrive over the internet. Everywhere on internet it is saying to put the ISP router on bridge mode or turn off NAT on ISP router and enable it on ATC but there is no option of turning off NAT on my ISP router. I can disable DHCP on it but it doesn't solve the issue. ATC requires DHCP and NAT enabled in order to the option "Share over the WAN" on ATC under drive share which allows ATC to share hard drive over the internet. But if I enable these option on ATC it gives the error "Double NAT". I can access ATC harddrive over the LAN through Airport Utility. Appreantly I have Static Public IP. I travels alot therefore I need to connect to my ATC Hard drive over the internet. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.

 

[bristolgadget]

Hi,
I know there is lot of stuff over the internet about how to configure airport time capsule over the internet but couldn't get the solution of my problem. I ADSL router provided by my ISP which is preconfigured and my Airport Time Capsule is connected to my ISP router. Everything works fine in LAN. I can access Time capsule hard drive inside the LAN with no issues on MAC as well as on Windows PC. The issue is I am not been able to connect TC harddrive over the internet. Everywhere on internet it is saying to put the ISP router on bridge mode or turn off NAT on ISP router and enable it on ATC but there is no option of turning off NAT on my ISP router. I can disable DHCP on it but it doesn't solve the issue. ATC requires DHCP and NAT enabled in order to the option "Share over the WAN" on ATC under drive share which allows ATC to share hard drive over the internet. But if I enable these option on ATC it gives the error "Double NAT". I can access ATC harddrive over the LAN through Airport Utility. Appreantly I have Static Public IP. I travels alot therefore I need to connect to my ATC Hard drive over the internet. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.

Ok, just so i am clear, you want to me able to connect to your time capsule while away from home to do time machine backups ?

you ISP router probably has a firewall on it, that will be preventing access. This is for good reason, you don't want to expose your time capsule to the open internet. That would result in someone having access to your data.

you need to get a router that will allow you to VPN (Virtual Private Network) into your home LAN. your mac would then appear as on your home network and allow you to do a time machine backup.

Personally, i wouldn't do this. its expensive, likely to be slow depending on your setup at home (whats your download speed on you connection ?) and is prone to breaking, not working depending on the wifi restrictions while you are travelling.

I would use 2 time machine drives, one for home, one while travelling. (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_...ple-disks-with-time-machine-in-mountain-lion/)

I would also use a cloud backup service to store the files i really need backed up (icloud/dropbox) as this is really flexible and should work from any wifi as the main ports it uses are 80 and 443.

 

[priitv8]

You can freely leave Share over WAN disabled on ATC, because this would only matter, if you were able to do Wide-Area-Bonjour (or Back to my Mac which will set up WAB, DynDNS and VPN for you automatically via Apple servers, without any configuration).
Therefore, behind a NAT router, set ATC to bridge mode. And reserve a permanent private IP address in DHCP server for it.
You just need to config port forwarding for ports 445 (SMB) and 548 (AFP) on your NAT router to forward those ports to local IP address of your ATC. SMB is unnecessary if you only connect from Mac computers.
You won't be able to browse ATC-s shared drive from internet as you're accustomed to on local LAN (ie. it won't show up on Finder sidebar).
That will be possible, if your ISP let's you take advantage of Back to my Mac feature of the ATC. For that as a first thing - the ATC needs to be your borderline router.
At any rate, your ISP must allow open ports up to your borderline router.
To connect from internet without Bonjour service discovery you select option Connect to Server... from Finder's Go menu (or press Cmd+K) and enter

afp://your.ext.ernal.ip/

or

smb://your.ext.ernal.ip/

into the Server Address box.
To make this easier, setting up a Dynamic DNS account would help - so you can connect to a hostname, instead of your (possibly changing over time) external IP address.

TM backups over internet are not a good idea anyway and also unnecessary, provided you use a MacBook laptop, because it will carry out mobile backups while away from home network. They will be synced to ATC bakup on first opportunity.

 

[ziddii]

Ok, just so i am clear, you want to me able to connect to your time capsule while away from home to do time machine backups ?

you ISP router probably has a firewall on it, that will be preventing access. This is for good reason, you don't want to expose your time capsule to the open internet. That would result in someone having access to your data.

you need to get a router that will allow you to VPN (Virtual Private Network) into your home LAN. your mac would then appear as on your home network and allow you to do a time machine backup.

Personally, i wouldn't do this. its expensive, likely to be slow depending on your setup at home (whats your download speed on you connection ?) and is prone to breaking, not working depending on the wifi restrictions while you are travelling.

I would use 2 time machine drives, one for home, one while travelling. (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_...ple-disks-with-time-machine-in-mountain-lion/)

I would also use a cloud backup service to store the files i really need backed up (icloud/dropbox) as this is really flexible and should work from any wifi as the main ports it uses are 80 and 443.

Dear bristolgadget,
Thank you very much for your help. The issue is not that I need to access my ATC for time machine backup. As I have mentioned above that I need to access ATC for the files that stays their, I don't want to carry extra drives with me as I have very bad expriences with external portable hard drives. Unfortunately I am a very rough travel therefore it is highly likely that I will demage them. I bought ATC because it was supposed to be accessable over the internet as it was mentioned in the product discription. I am not blaming apple about misguidence because I am stuck into my own problem from my ISP. I am thinking about creating DMZ hosting as there is an option available on my ISP router. I created DMZ an was able to access ATC through External WAN IP address while staying within the LAN. But I am trying to connect from outside the network Airport utility is unable to find my ATC.

 

[priitv8]

But I am trying to connect from outside the network Airport utility is unable to find my ATC.

Why do you look for TC with Airport Utility from the Internet? (although, it will be possible in one of 2 ways - enabling Back to my Mac, or Configure Other... in AP Utility's File menu). In either case you need to allow Setup over WAN in Base Station settings.

If you open ports as I described before, you just connect to server from Finder. That's it!

 

[ziddii]

Why do you look for TC with Airport Utility from the Internet? (although, it will be possible in one of 2 ways - enabling Back to my Mac, or Configure Other... in AP Utility's File menu). In either case you need to allow Setup over WAN in Base Station settings.

If you open ports as I described before, you just connect to server from Finder. That's it!

I was trying to connect through AP utility with Configure Other after setting up DMZ but AP couldn't find it and I was trying to do it in order to check if DMZ is working. In you discription (if i have understand correct) ATC needs to be a borderline router, Which can not be possible as my ISP router/ISP doesn't not allow it. I will try to set my ATC in your way and will check. SMB will be required as I will test the connection through Windows 7 PC i.e my office PC. Thanks alot for your help

 

[ziddii]

if your ISP let's you take advantage of Back to my Mac feature of the ATC. For that as a first thing - the ATC needs to be your borderline router.

What do you mean by borderline router?

 

[priitv8]

What do you mean by borderline router?

The outermost against ISP-s connection. You may have a cable-modem or similar, non-routing device, but your AirPort needs to see the wide Internet on it's WAN port and will share this connection (NAT) to the clients on local network. Thus it is the router (also with some reservations the firewall) between your home network and the Internet. One may say that it defends your home network's outer border.

 

[ziddii]

The outermost against ISP-s connection. You may have a cable-modem or similar, non-routing device, but your AirPort needs to see the wide Internet on it's WAN port and will share this connection (NAT) to the clients on local network. Thus it is the router (also with some reservations the firewall) between your home network and the Internet. One may say that it defends your home network's outer border.

Thats the problem, the first device is router not a modem. It has its own NAT and it has an option to block the port rather then forward it to perticular IP address. it TC7200 from technicolor. The router it self has options but the option I need to allow my ATC access are not available

 

[priitv8]

Thats the problem, the first device is router not a modem. It has its own NAT and it has an option to block the port rather then forward it to perticular IP address. it TC7200 from technicolor. The router it self has options but the option I need to allow my ATC access are not available

Then your only option to (possibly) solve this problem is with the assistance of your ISP's tech support.