Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Can't access a share via internet

Apr 18, 2019 5:25AM PDT

I have a share defined on a Windows virtual server and I can access it from my work computer but not from my home computer. From home I can ping the virtual server and I can connect to it using remote desktop, but I can't define a mapped drive or access it through windows explorer.

What tests can I perform to identify the blockage?

Thank you.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
This has been true since the beginning.
Apr 18, 2019 8:48AM PDT

When you are home you are on your LAN which could be 192.168.x.x based. Those addresses are non-routable and as such, not on the Internet.

Exposing a Windows server or share to the Internet is a very bad idea for the first time networker.

Also, many ISPs block these ports on a lot of plans so folk that want to try it anyway have to check that out. My suggestion is to put the files up in a cloud like DropBox or similar. Or for big files we still use the old FTP servers.

- Collapse -
Mapping a drive over the internet
Apr 18, 2019 1:01PM PDT

R. Proffitt, thank you for taking the time to respond. I haven't pursued the possibility of Cox having blocked the ports involved in file sharing. I'll ask them.

Other than that, I have one instance where my computer on a LAN can map a drive to the share, while in the other instance my computer, on a different LAN, cannot.

Do you know what ports and protocols are involved in the mapping of a drive to a share over the internet?

Thanks again.

- Collapse -
That makes sense.
Apr 18, 2019 1:55PM PDT

192.168.x.x ranges are non-routable so you can't route from one LAN to another. There is NAT but for this discussion we are talking about a very well done area.

As to Cox, there are discussions about blocked ports as well as Cox documenting this at https://www.cox.com/residential/support/internet-ports-blocked-or-restricted-by-cox.html

So no mystery at all here. If you want to share files on the Internet and use a Cox home account the answr is simply no. But you could set up a FTP server which is fine for our work as it's a faster way to transfer files.

- Collapse -
Answer
Some Possible Solutions
Apr 19, 2019 3:36PM PDT