Connect to OSX via AFP over WAN with a Time Capsule on network

afpNetworktime-capsule

I have a Time Capsule set up on my LAN to handle backups between my mom's computer and my computer.

Before we had the Time Capsule, I could connect remotely to a MacBook Pro that I set up as a server through the AFP protocol easily. Instead of having to worry about using the right IP, I used No-IP Dynamic Updater to assign me a DNS name that I can remember.

Since the Time Capsule was installed, however, I can no longer AFP into my mac. Instead, running the following command (hostname hidden):

afp://****

Will allow me to use AFP with the Time Capsule, and allows me to log in from there and view the storage disk on the capsule.

Is there someway to connect to my mac from outside my LAN, but specify what device I want to connect to inside my LAN? Something like:

afp://****:10.0.1.100

Where 10.0.1.100 is the LAN address of my MBP server?

Best Answer

You could forward port 548 to your MBP server to get back the old behavior of allowing afp://**** to connect to your MBP server instead of your Time Capsule. This would definitely make your Time Capsule AFP server inaccessible from the Internet and might (but I would hope not) make it inaccessible from your LAN. Try it and see. Here is one of many web pages describing how to set up port forwarding.

You can pick any public port you want > 1024. I'll pick 9898 for this example. Following the instructions on the linked page, in step 4 set up port forwarding like this:

  • Description: AFP access to MBP
  • Public UDP Ports: 9898
  • Public TCP Ports 9898
  • Private IP Address: the LAN address of your server, e.g. 10.0.1.100
  • Private UDP Ports: 548
  • Private TCP Ports: 548

Then you can access your server from the internet using afp://hostname:9898

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