Airport extreme Internet access to photos, videos, music?

The new Airport Extreme router docs indicate that you can connect an external drive which can be accessed from the Internet, i.e., a personal cloud. However I cannot find any references to any apps which can access the cloud device. Is there a mobile app which allows access to photos, videos, music, etc.?

I know there is a iPhone app for Airport Extreme but I have not used it yet. I have a new Airport Extreme but have not attached a HD to it yet. Plan to add one soon to use for backups of Macbook Pro and one windows laptop and a linux desktop. Not sure this can be done.

I am quite happy to date with the AE. Seems to work very good.

V6Pony said:

I know there is a iPhone app for Airport Extreme but I have not used it yet. I have a new Airport Extreme but have not attached a HD to it yet. Plan to add one soon to use for backups of Macbook Pro and one windows laptop and a linux desktop. Not sure this can be done.

I am quite happy to date with the AE. Seems to work very good.

Click to expand...

Can you tell me the name of this app you have not used yet?

zBernie said:

The new Airport Extreme router docs indicate that you can connect an external drive which can be accessed from the Internet, i.e., a personal cloud. However I cannot find any references to any apps which can access the cloud device. Is there a mobile app which allows access to photos, videos, music, etc.?

Click to expand...

I can see reference to external disks being accessible on a your local network but can't find reference to internet access. Do you have a link?

To the best of my knowledge there's no pre-defined way to do this with an extreme like there is with many NAS drives.
The biggest hurdle to overcome is knowing your external IP. There are ways around it. Have a look here for one solution.

Personally I prefer a dedicated NAS with a secure login that's designed to do the job.

As member "mrplow" said, a HD connected to the Airport Extreme will be accessible on the local network but not from the Internet.

Accessing your network from outside requires you to setup a publicly available name and so on. Most people use services like DynDNS to create a name and then have their dynamic IP addresses handed out from their ISP assigned to that name. That should get you all the way to your router and then you set up port forwarding rules to provide access to specific devices (on specific IP addresses) on specific ports.

You definitely don't want to open up full access as that's gonna leave you vulnerable to attacks..

mrplow said:

I can see reference to external disks being accessible on a your local network but can't find reference to internet access. Do you have a link?

To the best of my knowledge there's no pre-defined way to do this with an extreme like there is with many NAS drives.
The biggest hurdle to overcome is knowing your external IP. There are ways around it. Have a look here for one solution.

Personally I prefer a dedicated NAS with a secure login that's designed to do the job.

Click to expand...

I'm not asking about external IP addresses -- They are easily handled by dynamic DNS. The question is, are there any apps which facilitate access to the videos, photos, and music, on the external drive attached to the Airport Extreme?

For example, the D-Link Wireless AC1750 comes with mydlink SharePort which allows you to stream your media from anywhere. So far I'm getting the impression this is not possible with the Airport Extreme, or at least there's no builtin solution. Although the AE has what's called the "AirPort Disk", I believe that simply exposes files on your disk to the Internet, but does not allow you to stream your media like mydlink. Although that should not be too hard with third party apps.

There is no native app and 'Airport disk' exposes your files to your local network not the Internet. At least not without the third party apps and workaround already linked.

I'd suggest that if this is something you need to do on a regular basis the extreme use not the right product to do so.

zBernie said:

I'm not asking about external IP addresses -- They are easily handled by dynamic DNS. The question is, are there any apps which facilitate access to the videos, photos, and music, on the external drive attached to the Airport Extreme?

Click to expand...

Well, yes. Any "app" or device which understands afp protocol.

I share my video library with my GF over the Internet. She simply mounts my media drive on her Mac (the device) using afp://myip:myport and uses whatever player (app) is needed to play the media type.

All I had to do on my end is map the ports properly in my Airport Extreme.

Airport Extreme? is it like dropbox? this is the 1st time i heard it. Sorry hehe

mrplow said:

There is no native app and 'Airport disk' exposes your files to your local network not the Internet. At least not without the third party apps and workaround already linked.

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Not exactly: The "Share disks over WAN" option will allow Internet sharing.

SailingCyclops said:

Not exactly: The "Share disks over WAN" option will allow Internet sharing.

Click to expand...

I stand corrected

Though the point I was trying to make to the OP is that the Airport Extreme and supporting software does not make the process of remote access to media very straightforward and that there are better 'built for purpose' solutions.

alicepattinson said:

Airport Extreme? is it like dropbox? this is the 1st time i heard it. Sorry hehe

Click to expand...

With an Airport Extreme you can share a volume connected to a Mac over the Internet, like dropbox, yes. The Mac has to have file sharing turned on and you have to map TCP port 548 to the Mac doing the sharing. You must then have account(s) set up for individual people to share the volume, and specifically allow them read, write, or read/write permission on the share.

The Airport Extreme does not have a disk drive, only a Time Capsule does. Time Capsule is an Airport Extreme with a disk, which can also accommodate another disk. Those disks can be shared over the Internet, like drop-box, yes.

I don't know if you can do this with an Airport Express. It too has a USB port, but I don't know if it can accommodate a disk drive. I use my Airport Express to drive a stereo system and have a printer attached to the USB port.

In the pic I uploaded above, see the option to share the disks of a Time Capsule in airport utility. Also be aware if you are going to do this, you will be exposing the disks to the Internet and you will need to password protect the disk(s). There is a good writeup on how to do this here: How-To: Access Your Time Capsule Over the Internet.