[SOLVED] Access Drobo over Internet (FiOS)

[Shadz]

Hi all, I manage my parent's Drobo 5N, but they're in NY and I'm in CA. I've setup things like MyDrobo and DroboAccess - these work but are quite cumbersome to access/manage the files in the share. I was hoping you could give me instructions on how to access that network as a normal computer, and thus access the Drobo5N as if I were a normal computer on the
home network.

Ideal solution: map the Drobo as a network drive on my computer

Pertinent info:
Parent's router - FiOS, Actiontec MI424WR router (required for FiOS installation)
Drobo5N, newest firmware
My computer - Windows 10 Pro
My Internet - Xfinity, using personal Netgear R8000 router (using netgear firmware)

Thanks for your help!

 

[bill001g]

I would go to the vendor site for your device and see if their solution will work.

The only really secure way to do this is to put in a vpn but neither the fios router or the nas box has this ability.

 

[SamirD]

Yeah, you're going to run across this as Drobo units were designed to be direct access and only recently are now trying to be network devices. They don't have the long standing capabilities that other NAS units have because they're just now 'getting started' making NAS units.

I manage storage across the US as well so I know what you're looking for and there's a couple of ways to get there.

The easiest way to manage it is to manage it locally. But you're in CA! How can you do this? Well, you can remote into a machine there that sees the unit locally. Then if you wanted to set up a server on your side like an ftp server, NAS unit, etc, you can map a drive letter from the NY side to the CA side. There is some inherent risk to this as the russians, et al are constantly trying every port and IP in existence for an easy way in (our own enterprise routers see the russians every 6 seconds or so as well as the chinese and other eastern block european countries) so you will need to lock it down pretty hard and keep an eye on it.

There is also another way, but it would require some enterprise level networking equipment and that may require replacing the netgear on your end, but I think the actiontec in NY should be fine as I've done this via the DMZ when I was NY and had Fios.

Basically the enterprise routers have a feature called IPsec VPN tunnels that allows you to literally join your parents network with yours. That's right, you can see every system, printer, iot device, door bell, security system, etc and vice-versa as little or as much as you want to. And since this would be a network level connection, nothing changes on the devices--nada. In fact, they don't even know they're connecting across the country except things are slower since it typically isn't much faster than 10Mbps across the pipe.

This is what I have used for years to connect to various different sites that I have to manage as well as to home. This way, I can see anything I need, any time, from any of the sites I'm at. In fact, we can even print on each others printers, scan directly to each other, and more--all through the tunnel.

This allows me to backup whatever I want to whatever storage unit (or even just copy to a computer hard drive) anywhere on the extended network. I can also use remote desktop to control systems from thousands of miles away if need be. The power of a vpn is really worth the investment imo.