We are trying to access our "ELC" share on a ReadyNAS 312 firmware v6.1.4 from outside of the local network. How do we do this? We can access it from the local network via a mapped drive or from a web browser using the internal IP address. I have seen other posts referring to using the external IP address and port forwarding. According to the network admin, there is only 1 external IP address for this office and it is using port 80. When I look at the ReadyNAS config, eth0 is set to ip 10.1.2.xxx, a hostname is assigned in DNS, http is enabled for the share. Where do we assign the external IP & the port number?
One option is to ask your network admin if they can provide a VPN. That might require purchasing a new router. If you use a VPN, you would basically be joined to the local network, so you would have full access to all services (the NAS, printers, any other file servers). It also provides the best security (and allows your company to control security policies).
The other way is port forwarding. This uses the external IP address you already have. You need to (a) learn the name (url) for that IP address. This is assigned either by DNS (not your local DNS, but the internet DNS) or DDNS. If your company doesn't have an DNS name, then DDNS is probably the way to go.
(b) forward some other port in the router to the NAS (for instance 54321), and configure that as the secondary https port in the RN312, and enable http access for your shares.
Even if you have a fixed IP address, a service such as No-IP or DynDNS can be useful for getting a domain name and doing port 80 re-direction so that the users can just use a standard HTTP://domain.com type address. Basically, you have a request to port 80 changed to something else (8080 is popular) by DynDNS, then 8080 is re-directed to 80 on your NAS by your router.
Unfortunately, those services don't yet seem to be doing port forwarding for HTTPS.
Even if you have a fixed IP address, a service such as No-IP or DynDNS can be useful for getting a domain name...
No-IP and DynDNS are both DDNS providers (which I mentioned in my post). The basic service is just providing the name itself. Sandshark is correct in saying that this is useful/convenient even if you have a fixed IP address. No-IP offers a basic service for free (for one IP address). DynDNS used to have a free service, but they are discontinuing it next month.
If your company already has a domain name for your main internet connection, you won't need that service, you can just use your existing domain name.
