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Forum Discussion
webmister
Oct 06, 2020Aspirant
Streaming from ReadyNAS without password
Hi all :) I work in a small staff (7 persons). We analyze sport videos with a dedicated software. This software basically opens a video file. As we have tons of videos to store and share, my...
StephenB
Oct 06, 2020Guru - Experienced User
webmister wrote:
We analyze sport videos with a dedicated software.
This software basically opens a video file.
Do you think it would be possible for me to access the videos without any login? I'm worried that once I set the url of the video in our software, then it wouldn't be possible to play it, because of the protected access on the ReadyNAS.
I'm not sure what you mean by "set the URL of the video in our software". Do you mean "enter the URL"? Also, do you mean a URL or a UNC?
If you are playing the file in a web browser (or using a URL), then you can set up the NAS to allow read (or even read-write) access over HTTP/HTTPs. Then the video can be played using https://nasname/sharename/filename (obviously substituting actual names). You will get a security exception from the browser (or the player software) when you first connect, and you will need to somehow click-through that warning. With VLC for example, you will need to click on "view certifcate" and then accept it. In the specific case of VLC, you can tell the player to accept it permanently.
If you are accessing the file with SMB (or directly from the PC drive), then you'd be using an UNC, or perhaps selecting the file from a mapped drive on the PC.
Either way, whether you need a password depends on how the NAS access controls are set up (and in the case of SMB access in Windows, what credentials you have stored in the Windows Credentials Manager on the PC).
If you planning to use SMB, you can pilot this by creating a share on one of the PCs, and seeing if your tools work when you access a video on that share from a different PC.
webmister wrote:- We can access them through the internet
This part is a bit more complicated, and you should be careful about managing access here. One option is to deploy a VPN. Many routers (including Netgear Nighthawks and Orbis) have built-in support for OpenVPN. When working remotely, you'd first use OpenVPN to access your work network, and then you'd be able to work from home as if you were in the office.
How well this would work also depends on your internet speed, since you'd all be sharing that connection. For playback, the upload internet speed is what matters (and often that is less than the download speed).
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