Hello, I’m running a Rockstor server for a small organization and I have a VPN and DDNS Server setup for connecting remotely and accessing network drives. I’m trying to explore options that will allow me to map network drives for Windows users without having to go through a VPN to access them. Currently, I have an OpenVPN server but I would like to have a method for connecting without it so my less tech-savvy users can access their files without having to worry about a VPN service to set up. This would help me avoid any issues with remote users having issues with the VPN server or their clients. If anyone has any suggestions I’d be happy to hear them and if a VPN is the only solution then at least tell me so I don’t go crazy looking for a solution. Thank you!
Windows filefharing is performed via SMB/CIFS.
While SMB/CIFS are routable, it’s severely not recommended.
The protocol is inherently not suited to this application.
If you wish to have externally available file shares, your best solutions will be
- VPN via client (such as OpenVPN, which you already have implemented)
- An ‘always up’ site-to-site VPN, however this would usually be implemented between the routers at given sites
- A cloud service (as opposed to a mounted file share) such as ownCloud (I believe there are rockons for a couple)
I would love to suggest you ExpressVPN but, in this case, I don’t think that you’d be needing one. Haikoken have answered the query in a very precise manner and I think that’s pretty much it.
Alternates to VPN are proxy servers but they are open so there may a chance of data compromise, so I will suggest you to use a low cost VPN like FastestVPN. this VPN is best in speed and have 7 days money back policy so try it once.
I mean, VPN is not a solution that works in all cases, but it does improve your internet privacy level and security status dramatically and recommended to use Vpnow.org or other variants.
Hi, Do you want to connect remote users from different locations/devices and grant secure access to internal data? Is it right? Can you clarify full task, not only setup part