You need to find your "public IP Address". I could tell you that you can log into your Linksys router, go to the Status tab, and see your public IP. However, it's easier to just open your browser and go to http://www.whatismyip.com. You can then just FTP to that address.
No problem--we were all noobs at one point.
First, you mentioned earlier that the IP Address you saw in your Linksys WRT54GL router's Status page did not match the IP you saw when you visited http://www.whatismyip.com. This concerns me. Let's make sure we are on the same page.
Log into your Linksys router. Click "Status", which is at the top right. About halfway down the status screen is "IP Address:". If that IP Address does not match what you see at whatismyip, then your ISP has you behind another private network. I don't expect you to post your "public IP" here in the forum, but does your router report an address in one of these ranges?
10.* (e.g. 10.0.0.145, 10.1.45.34, etc.)
192.168.* (e.g. 192.168.1.118, etc.)
I am a RoadRunner customer via TimeWarner cable. The IP Address they serve me is a real, public Internet IP. The IP Address in my router matches what I see when I go to whatismyip.com. This allows me to route to that IP and hit my router. It sounds like you may not be so lucky.
I'm having problems reaching my NAS remotely via FTP or Web access also. I've been able to do both locally. I called tech support and opened TCP ports 21 and 20 on my router. The technician wasn't able to try accessing because she was on a proxy server. I don't know why that would matter, but the issue remains.
How does the Buffalo NAS use the router's ip address? Do I need make the NAS ip address public outside of the router somehow? Is there more detailed discussion on this topic? This is the first FTP thread I've come accross, but I'm sure others have run into this issue.
Thanks!
EXP10,
I've seen your configuration before, I think. A customer had something like that with an old DSL provider. The "modem" itself had the public IP and used DHCP to supply an address to the internal router. Then your internal router uses DHCP to provide addresses to your local devices. So you end up behind 2 layers of private network to get to the public Internet. No problem really, but in order to direct web, ftp, etc traffic from the outside to one of your devices, you first need to ensure your modem is configured to allow the traffic to reach your Linksys router.
If you know how to log into your modem, perhaps you can figure out how to enable that. I doubt your ISP blocks it at their end, but of course that is possible. Many ISP's have policies against running "services", but most don't really seem to enforce it as more and more peer-to-peer apps are really servers AND clients at the same time.
Thanos2001,
I will try to keep this simple...I tend to write books. If your situation is typical, you have a "modem" (cable/DSL, etc.) and you have a router. Wired or wireless makes no difference.
Typically, you use a "private" network (also called a private address range) inside your home. For example, on a Linksys router, I think it defaults to using 192.168.1.* addresses. (It is that or 192.168.0.*).
Your ISP will provide you a single public IP address. Typically, this address becomes the external address of your router. It is the address that can be used from the Internet to route to your network.
If you want to host services, such as an FTP service on your NAS, you have to configure your router to point the traffic to the device. (The NAS does not need to know anything about the public IP.)
This is typically called "NAT" which stands for Network Address Translation or "Port Forwarding". In the Linksys router, the menu item is "Applications and Gaming". In it, you can tell your router that all TCP traffic on port 21 (FTP) should be directed to the IP Address of your NAS.
Once you enable this port forwarding, all normal FTP traffic from the internet to your public IP will be directed to your NAS.
Thanks for the well crafted response. It triggered the right brain cells and pointed me to my problem. I've got AT&T U-Verse and they are using a 2Wire Modem/Router combo that looks like a large landmine. AT&T's support is useless. The real trouble is router companies don't have a universal UI for firewall settings. I missed the dropdown that allowed me to select the NAS as the thing using the open ports. I was opening them for my PC instead.
Thanks again! I'm a very happy customer now.
OK I think I got it what I needed. My modem was not letting my public IP pass to my router. I still haven't figured out why. I tried all the port forwards and dzm.....no luck. I read up and decided bridged my modem to my router. If it didn’t work it’s ok I just hit the reset switch. The bridge went fine. I set my router up with my user name and pass word and connected. No issues things seem to work. I had to reboot since my internet stop working. I guess I needed to get assigned a new ip address from windows. I connected and now I can see my NAS from outside my network I think. I haven't had my family try it yet since there @ work. I used a ftp program and entered my public IP and it went right to my NAS. So I think it's working because it never did that before. Thanks for all the help TroyWolf. You made me think and I wouldn’t have seen something’s if you haven’t told me about my IP address in my router.