How do I access my files from abroad?

[Giuanniello]

I use the old TS212P mostly to store movies, books and other things I either access from the home network to watch movies and shows or off the internet, when abroad.

Now that QNAPcloud has been, for a good reason, disabled, how do I watch a movie when I am abroad?


Grazie

[dolbyman]

VPN ...with the server on your router or a dedicated appliance...no this costs nothing in monthly fees

[dosborne]

To expand slightly on @dolbyman's answer.....

VPN services such as NordVPN, that you see advertising for, is an OUTBOUND VPN services that helps protect your internet access when you access your bank and other sites. It also performs functions like masking your IP address, and other functions.

This type of services is not for INBOUND remote access to your LAN.

There are 2 things that you need to do.

First, you need a way to identify your home network when you are in a remote location. If you have a static IP address from your internet service provider, that is all you need. Most people have a dynamic IP address (that changes on a schedule determined by your ISP) so that can complicate things slightly as you need to know what your IP address is in order to connect. This is where DDNS services come into play. You sign up for free or a paid subscription to a DDNS service (like afraid.org) and configure a device on your home network to update the DDNS service with your IP address. Preferably, this is a function of your router, many routers have the ability built in and you want to see which DDNS service is supported directly, as it makes configuration easier (another common free DDNS service is NOIP,com). Once configured, your router will know when your WAN IP address changes and update the DDNS server. So, as a made up example, if your DDNS "name" is mynetwork.noip.com, this will be resolve to the WAN IP address assigned by your ISP.

Once you have the above, you need to have something to "answer" on your home LAN. Ideally again, your router supports running a VPN server (many support OpenVPN for example - or many other common ones). It is usually just a few bits of info to enter (you would put your DDNS name in there for example), then typically "export" and configuration file, and start the service. Then, on your remote device (phone, tablet, laptop, etc) install the matching client app (OpenVPN client for example) and import the configuration file that you saved.

Finally on your phone (as an example), to make it work, when you are remote......
Launch the VPN app, click to connect to your home network using the DDNS name. Your device will go through normal name lookup functions automatically to "find" your home network name, find the actual current IP address and the app will connect to your router (assuming that is where the server is running). Your device will then be able to access all the systems (NAS, printer, servers, etc) on your home network from the remote location. When done, just clock the disconnect option in the app.

So, check first if your router supports DDNS service and can run a VPN server. Based on that, pick a DDNS provider first. They often have "walkthrough"'s or documentation on how to set up the most common routers.Then setup your VPN server.

[dolbyman]

To expand slightly on @dolbyman's answer.....

VPN services such as NordVPN, that you see advertising for, is an OUTBOUND VPN services that helps protect your internet access when you access your bank and other sites. It also performs functions like masking your IP address, and other functions.

Not sure if I would trust these VPN with my online banking .. (in theory) they could play a MITM attack and snoop my banking traffic. Most websites are already pretty safe to use.. they all have SSL connections (encrypted and authenticated), so the only thing I use these VPNs for a geospoofing (pretend you are in a different country) and identity hiding (downloading them torrentz)

[dosborne]

Not sure if I would trust these VPN with my online banking .. (in theory) they could play a MITM attack and snoop my banking traffic.

Fair enough. Most banks add their own layer of security as well, but banking security is one of the generally advertised features and people my associate it with VPN security.

[dolbyman]

Tom Scott did a nice video ripping these VPN sponsorships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY