How to create my own Cloud with my external drive ?? 22 July 2021 at 7:07PM in Techie Stuff 28 replies 583 views

alykhalil1

Hi All,

hope all you people are keeping well ?

I just need help with something do with my ~: these are the things i have to connect, all 3 and i am a computer dummy.

- my computer/PC
- My now TV BB WiFi router (which has only 2 RJ45 female ports) + 1 RJ11 ADSL cable port, the main internet port.
- my android smartphone

Does anyone have any idea or experience on how i can convert my 1TB external hard drive into MY OWN CLOD ?.....i mean how can i move or sync files between the 3 of my above gadgets with or without network ???..though at home my phone connects through my wifi router, my computer is wired connected to my wifi router and my 1TB exter drive is connected by a usb cable. I am using windows 10.

I have seen several youtube videos but its highly advanced working and complicated. is there a simpler way to do this or Am i pushing my luck too war ?. I wish anyone could explain step by step to me. but i am positive there is a way to do this.

I thank you all and await for a reply.

Kind regards and all be safe
AK

Neil_Jones

The cloud is just code for online storage.  Do you need online storage or you really mean you want to be able to access your 1Tb from outside your house?

tallmansix

It is all possible, but you probably need to be a bit more specific about what you want to do - eg what type of files are these - photos, music, videos, documents etc? In what direction are they typically moving / copying - eg sync photos from phone to the 1TB drive? What do you want to do - eg listen to music on the 1TB drive on your phone etc? As per above comment - is access required outside the house or just inside? 

For example I have 12TB of photos, music, home videos, movies, TV shows etc and I can view/play on any device in and out of the house using a Plex server - you can set this up on your PC and point it at the 1TB USB drive and do the same.

All my documents on my PC are synchronised with my Google Drive so likewise I can access them outside the house if needed on any device - probably easier and more secure than exposing my PC/storage to incoming connections from the internet.

I also use an app called Photosync which is available for iOS/Android which can sync photos to your PC/Mac if you want to auto transfer photos for sharing. I let them sync to a holding area where I sort the ones I want to share and copy them over the the Plex server share. There is also an app called Nextcloud that I'm going to have a play with that does the same.

What I don't like doing is exposing my storage devices directly to the internet - although easy enough to do, it is a bit of a security risk so although I could explain how to do that, I won't recommend it.

I think you are asking how to set up a "personal cloud" which is where you host the files on a device in your own property but can access them anywhere rather than just  "cloud" which tends to mean it is hosted anywhere offsite - eg Google / Amazon.

Sebo027

Network Attached Storage - "NAS" for short. There are a few models on the market. I think you are looking for something like this:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/external-hard-drives/wd-my-cloud-home-nas-drive-2-tb-white-10168821-pdt.html#

or this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS220-Bay-NAS-Enclosure/dp/B08G8D819V?th=1

alykhalil1

Neil_Jones said:

The cloud is just code for online storage.  Do you need online storage or you really mean you want to be able to access your 1Tb from outside your house?

Yes....thats true...i want to be able to access my 1TG drive even from outside, from anywhere,...i mean just like like dropbox or one drive etc,,,,,

alykhalil1

Neil_Jones said:

The cloud is just code for online storage.  Do you need online storage or you really mean you want to be able to access your 1Tb from outside your house?

yesss....just like dropbox or one drive, i wish to access my 1TG drive from anywhere possible.....

alykhalil1

tallmansix said:

It is all possible, but you probably need to be a bit more specific about what you want to do - eg what type of files are these - photos, music, videos, documents etc? In what direction are they typically moving / copying - eg sync photos from phone to the 1TB drive? What do you want to do - eg listen to music on the 1TB drive on your phone etc? As per above comment - is access required outside the house or just inside? 

For example I have 12TB of photos, music, home videos, movies, TV shows etc and I can view/play on any device in and out of the house using a Plex server - you can set this up on your PC and point it at the 1TB USB drive and do the same.

All my documents on my PC are synchronised with my Google Drive so likewise I can access them outside the house if needed on any device - probably easier and more secure than exposing my PC/storage to incoming connections from the internet.

I also use an app called Photosync which is available for iOS/Android which can sync photos to your PC/Mac if you want to auto transfer photos for sharing. I let them sync to a holding area where I sort the ones I want to share and copy them over the the Plex server share. There is also an app called Nextcloud that I'm going to have a play with that does the same.

What I don't like doing is exposing my storage devices directly to the internet - although easy enough to do, it is a bit of a security risk so although I could explain how to do that, I won't recommend it.

I think you are asking how to set up a "personal cloud" which is where you host the files on a device in your own property but can access them anywhere rather than just  "cloud" which tends to mean it is hosted anywhere offsite - eg Google / Amazon.

sorry i wasn't clear.....i am talking about all or any files, word, PDF, JPG, music etc...i mean all the files....

prowla

I have a Western Digital MyCloud NAS drive attached to my broadband router so it's available over Wi-Fi; it's got ripped DVDs on it for ease of use.

pbartlett

Just to be clear, you want to attach your 1TB drive to the internet, and use it in the same way as you would dropbox (for example) - ie providing cloud storage for your phone, laptop etc

tallmansix

alykhalil1 said:

sorry i wasn't clear.....i am talking about all or any files, word, PDF, JPG, music etc...i mean all the files....

alykhalil1 said:

yesss....just like dropbox or one drive, i wish to access my 1TG drive from anywhere possible.....

alykhalil1 said:

i am a computer dummy.
.....
I have seen several youtube videos but its highly advanced working and complicated. is there a simpler way to do this or Am i pushing my luck too war ?. I wish anyone could explain step by step to me. but i am positive there is a way to do this.

So there is a reason that services like Dropbox and OneDrive are so popular and with all due respect to you, it is because of what you have said in your original post. For a "computer dummy", online cloud services providers take away all the complicated setup and security work to do this safely and I would recommend using one of them given your circumstances. It will also provide an offsite backup for your data. (Do you backup your 1TB drive?) 

As you say there are many guides all over the internet - but if you find them "highly advanced and complicated" then go back to the above option and use a ready made cloud provider.

The big risk with exposing your hard drive to the internet is keeping all that data secure so only you can access it. Your router and PC by default makes accessing your hard drive from the internet difficult for security reasons, so to make it accessible requires you to open up some of those security layers which isn't recommended for a "computer dummy".

Sebo027 and prowla have provided a couple of great options in the above comments - dedicated devices that are designed to do this out of the box such as a WDMyCloud, Synology or QNAP NAS drive. They have all the internet file sharing features available in the bundled software so you don't have to do any of the security reconfiguration of your network.

You can also buy routers such as Asus branded ones which have the same capabilities where you can plug your USB drive into the router and share the files on the internet using their built in apps - "AiCloud / AiDisk".

But..... and this is a big but.... all those providers compromise the security of your data and there are real and recent examples of users having their devices hacked or attacked by malware / ransomware and all the data destroyed:

https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/malware/360058/western-digital-to-provide-data-recovery-services-following-hack

https://www.synology.com/en-global/security/advisory/SynoLocker

https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/featured/qlocker-ransomware-gang-shuts-shop-extorting-qnap-nas-drives/

https://thehackernews.com/2016/02/asus-router-security-hack.html#:~:text=Asus AiCloud & AiDisk Vulnerable to Remote Hacking&text=The cloud service offered by,resulting in complete system compromise.

Doing it yourself with your PC and your 1TB USB drive is not for a "computer dummy" when as you can see above, even reputable service providers get hacked so I wouldn't recommend it.

If setting up the following is beyond your skillset, then my advice is to use a ready made solution:

• Creating firewall rules on your router and PC
• Setting up a VPN server on your internal network
• Setting up VPN clients on your devices used to access the data on the internet
• Creating secure CIFS/NFS file shares on your PC that only allow access to the data you want to share

Where do you backup your 1TB drive?

It is always sensible to have an offsite backup - and hence just syncing it with an online cloud provider will give you both a basic backup and access from the internet without the headache and risk of re-configuring all your security.

CoastingHatbox

The only way you can do this with what you have, is using something called Seafile

You can use it to synchronise files between your devices. It is serverless so you don't need a NAS / file server. You would have to look at the community edition (free and open source) as the paid for/professional version that comes with support is Linux only. There are clients for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

I would, if I were you, probably look at buying a Raspberry Pi, plugging the hard disk drive into it and then installing the Linux Seafile client on the raspberry Pi. That way your data will be synchronised between your computer, your phone and the Raspberry Pi, effectively storing your data in three places.

It will take you some time to set it up and some trial/error/testing to get it working, but I hear it is a good and reliable product.


The next solution is perhaps to look at hosted NextCloud, where you pay a service provider to host it for you and then synchronise your devices to it. You could, in time, build yourself a mini-server that you host at home and migrate from the service provider to your own server, but that would probably take some time in gaining the ability to run and host your own server in a secure and resilient fashion.