How can I connect to my NAS drive on another router?

[xiaokai]

Hi All

First of all, I am not very advance when it comes to router setup, but I try.
As I dont know all the jargon and long, I thought I would best describe my network setup with a diagram.

The reason behind the setup:
My NAS box is connected to the Virgin Media (VM) router because I wish for the NAS drive to get the best performance with upload speed, and because my VPN does not allow port forwarding on the location I wish to connect to. I am happy with it there.

The problem:
When my PCs are connected via RT68U, I am unable to map drives from the PCs that are connected to my RT68U. Windows does not find the NAS. However I am able to access the NAS via HTTPS. I can just go to 192.168.0.3 on my browser and it will work fine. It is only windows that does not find it.

However if I connect the PC to the VM router I can find and map drives.
Its as if Windows will not connect to any thing connected to the VM router because it is connected to the RT68U. And it is not smart enough (or I have not set it up right) pass on my request to VM router through RT68U.
NOTE: It does work if I try to access it through the browser.
The RT68U is in DMZ on the VM router.

Considerations:
I have thought about putting the RT68U in bridge mode, but I wish to use the RT68U firewall.

I am sure this is some setting solution i can use to resolve this/

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Xiao

 

[ColinTaylor]

The problem:
When my PCs are connected via RT68U, I am unable to map drives from the PCs that are connected to my RT68U. Windows does not find the NAS. However I am able to access the NAS via HTTPS. I can just go to 192.168.0.3 on my browser and it will work fine. It is only windows that does not find it.

Hi Xiao.

This is expected behaviour. When you browse the network from your PC you are using something called SMB. By default SMB can only identify PC's on the local subnet (192.168.1.x). It cannot see your devices on 192.168.0.x.

There are ways around this problem but they would require you running an SMB server of some kind on your 192.168.0.x network.

AFAIK the Virgin Media router does not run Samba (an SMB server) so that's no help. However, your NAS probably does. Do you have direct access to the Samba server's configuration on the NAS? If so, what options do you have?

 

[xiaokai]

Hi Xiao.

This is expected behaviour. When you browse the network from your PC you are using something called SMB. By default SMB can only identify PC's on the local subnet (192.168.1.x). It cannot see your devices on 192.168.0.x.

There are ways around this problem but they would require you running an SMB server of some kind on your 192.168.0.x network.

AFAIK the Virgin Media router does not run Samba (an SMB server) so that's no help. However, your NAS probably does. Do you have direct access to the Samba server's configuration on the NAS? If so, what options do you have?

Hey Colin

Thanks for the reply.
I looked into SMB on my NAS, and they say its enabled by default.
Just for Info I am using
OS: Windows 10 Home x64
NAS: Synology DS214play
NAS OS: DSM 5.2-5592 Update 3

Here are the settings I have for samba

The port for CIFS forwarded on the VM router: smbd: 139 (netbios-ssn) & Nmbd: 137, 138
But NOT 445 (microsoft-ds)

Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

BTW I guess you realise that running NetBIOS over the internet is a massive security issue? Not least because the world+dog can see all your unencrypted data!

OK. So your NAS looks pretty good. I forgot to ask, do you use the Samba file sharing function on your ASUS router?

There are a few ways you could do this but the recommended way is to setup a WINS server. Bear in mind that for this to work you must be prepared for all of your clients to be configured with the address of the new WINS server. This includes things like network printers. If your clients use DHCP then it's easy, otherwise you'll have to add the address manually.

Given that all your clients are connected to the ASUS it would seem to make sense to make that the WINS server. Log into the ASUS and go to USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk.

Change "Set as WINS server" to Yes. Leave "Force as Master Browser" as No for now (if you have problems later you might have to enable this).

Go to LAN > DHCP Server > DNS and WINS Server Setting > WINS Server and enter the IP address of the ASUS router (192.168.1.1).

After applying those 2 changes you should be able to reboot all of your client PC's and see that they have now picked up the address of your WINS server. Browsing the local subnet (192.168.1.x) should still work.

Log into your NAS and where it says WINS server enter 192.168.1.1. Also tick enable Local Master Browser.

After applying that change you need to wait for the browse lists to synchronise. That can take upto 15 minutes.

Hopefully that's all there is to do. Let us know how you get on.

 

[sfx2000]

BTW I guess you realise that running NetBIOS over the internet is a massive security issue? Not least because the world+dog can see all your unencrypted data!

OK. So your NAS looks pretty good. I forgot to ask, do you use the Samba file sharing function on your ASUS router?

Make it simple - put the NAS box behind the firewall

If the NAS is running VPN, just forward the ports...

 

[gatorback]

Ni Hao ma. I connect my NAS to the LAN. If I am outside the LAN and need file from the NAS , I remotely (SSH tunnel) open a port that is forwarded to NAS. You can also leave the port forwarded to the NAS full time, but I prefer to open / close the port as needed.

Would this work for you? Let us know what you end up doing.

What is the reason for connecting the NAS to VM and not to the RT68 router?