Unable to connect to remote drive

[Bazzards]

Hi Guys

I have an issue connecting to a remote network drive. I am attempting to connect to a remote drive by mapping the drive with the ip address and password, however it does not connect at my girlfriends in the Cotswolds. However the same connection works fine at my home, London.

The only variance between the two places is the service provider, Virgin Media in London, drive working and EE cotswolds, not connecting. We have had an engineer out and all appears to be fine and had the router replaced.

Are there any settings on the router I should be looking at to get the drive to connect?

 

[ChrisD.]

Where is this drive located? Is the IP you're using a public IP or private IP?

 

[the-evaluator]

The idea of having an SMB/CIFS share open to the internet is terrifying!

 

[Bazzards]

Hi I believe it is a drive located at a remote site and it is a private IP.

 

[the-evaluator]

What's the first 2 octets of the IP address? If it's a private IP address then you'll need to be using a VPN to access it as the IP address won't be routable over the internet.

 

[Bazzards]

This is the start of the path \\88.15. As mentioned, I have not had issues with this drive connecting when I am in London, just here in the Cotswolds. So surely something wrong with the router?

 

[the-evaluator]

That's a public IP address, not private. It's utterly crazy to have an SMB share open to the internet. Crazy. Hopefully the traffic is encrypted or everything you transfer to and from that share (including your credentials) is being sent in the clear.

Anyway, ignoring that, it's possible that whatever system the drive is running on is set to only allow access from certain IP addresses. When you said it doesn't connect, what happens? What error do you get? Do you get prompted for a username and password? Can you ping that IP address from either location?

Edit - I see a few people asking if EE are blocking port 445, whist the answer given is 'no' it does seem likely that they are if the same connection works from an ISP other than EE. Have a read of this forum post.

 

[Bazzards]

When I try to connect, I enter the ip address, on the next screen user name and password. The error message received is "Network Error windows cannot access the drive, check the spellingof the name otherwise there might be a problem with your network". Error code 0x80070035 the network path was not found.

 

[ChrisD.]

When I try to connect, I enter the ip address, on the next screen user name and password. The error message received is "Network Error windows cannot access the drive, check the spellingof the name otherwise there might be a problem with your network". Error code 0x80070035 the network path was not found.

Just stop, you need to secure the remote drive properly. Either using a VPN or something similar.

 

[On Holiday]

Please get that locked down to specific IP address access only or a VPN, it's probably already been exploited if it's publicly accessible, otherwise it's only a matter of time.

 

[Bazzards]

Ok, I shall mention this to our IT guy.

edi - Thanks evaluator i shall check that thread out.

 

[the-evaluator]

An IT professional set that up? Wow.