[ckZA]

Hi everyone - first time poster here. Sorry if this doesn't belong in the Windows section.

Background:
I have a setup at home that works around having my NAS in my Room on a router (R1) and Kodi running on a Intel NUC in my living room on another router (R2). Both routers are connected to the ISP via what I would assume is another router. I don't get too much time to mess around with the setup, so initially I had difficulties connecting to SMB shares between the NUC and NAS, so I just put both my routers into bridged mode and everyone got IP's served from the ISP side. Worked really well and fast.

Problem:
However, I'd like to run the routers as intended (Auto - DHCP and not bridged) due to security and remote access to my routers. So here I am now and I don't know if it's possible and if it is, how can I go about doing it. I know enough on switching (Control Engineer) but routing is my Achilles heal right now.

I've added the current setup drawing to make it more easy to understand. Due to the different rooms I can not cascade the routers physically (LAN-WAN). So I am wondering if it'll be possible to route data between the routers - if so how do I need to configure it?

PC [Windows] is used to move data to and from NAS (faster).
NAS is Iomega IX2-DL
Network subsystem is CAT6
KODI - Openelec version
I don't have access to the ISP Router. Below that I have access through all the links.

Objective:
I used SMB folder shares to get movies and music from NAS into Kodi. I'm not too clued up on the latest and greatest tech for doing this - from what I know it's SMB or FTP from a simplistic way. If there's any other way to share the NAS folders I'd very much like to know about it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[BatterPudding]

If you are trying to get a mixed network of Windows and OpenElec to work then you will catch a few gotchas as I have seen occasions where their SMB can get slightly confused as I think they talk subtly different dialects.

The biggest tip at the start - Fix all your IP Addresses as Statics. Now use the IP Addresses as the SMB machine names.

Your unusual layout is going to be a right headache of routing as I see at least three different subnets in play so far. I don't understand why you want the extra complexities of the Linksys routers in there? Or are you protecting something else on this network?

Personally I'd start by getting rid of one of the Linksys boxes.

You'll have to supply all SMB credentials manually as I doubt KODI will be able to see the SMB networks on the subnets. The computers are going to have enough problems seeing each other as it is. SMB broadcasts don't normally walk across subnets.


Drop to the one Linksys. This will then still keep you separate to the ISP router but make networking between KODI and the NAS much simplet.

[ckZA]

Thanks for the reply. I am physically bound to this setup. If this was my own home I'd just cascade the two routers (or even get a router in before the distribution to my rooms and distribute it from my side not ISP) physically by running a cable but unfortunately I can't.

I posted this over on the linksys forums and basically this setup will not work due to the Router acting as a NAT "firewall". They also suggested connecting the two routers physically but alas I can't.

So it leaves me with three options
a.) Put both in bridged mode to make one network. I loose NAT and some firewalling via the router. I used this before and everything worked well - I just didn't like the disabled features on the routers.
b.) Move the NAS to the living room and SFTP from my PC into the NAS to update content.
c.) Configure cloud storage on the NAS and sync between my PC.

I think option B will be the "simplest".

[BatterPudding]

Yeah, 'B' is certainly sounding the simplest. That lets KODI get at the media in the most efficient way - down a single bit of copper cable.

It does also mean you'll need to start Port Mapping on the 1900ACS to let the PC get at the KODI and NAS boxes. Should be able to setup that Port Mapping to only allow access from the internal network and still keep it blocked from the external ISP network.

[Jogee]

How about using one of those Ethernet over power line adapters to bridge the two LAN segments of the routers?

[Derek]

Option B Is your easiest opton and as Jogee said that would be another option maybe. Another possible would be if In the graphic the ISP router is in your house? If so do you have admin access to it? If so theres possibly another option but I'm sure you would have used that before drawing that up.

Never though of just using fast wifi? I too use gb networking via cables for machines in the same room but not around the house.

Your deffo doing it the hard way but sometimes needs must I'm sure you have a reason for the complexity of it. I don't dare look at the cable mess I have hidden away

[ckZA]

Thanks for all the replies. I stay in Dubai so our internet is supplied to our flat complex via distribution room where the ISP's routers sit. If it was installed in my actual flat (like we do in South Africa) it would've been a no brainer to make everything work in a less complex way.

I thought about powerline ethernet but remembered that the living room router has OpenVPN server support and decided I'd try that.

So the NAS still has to move from my room to living room network in light of my peculiar setup and my only real desire is to update from my content fetching PC to the NAS. Previously I would've liked to keep the NAS on the same network as the PC but considering the new content increments very slowly and if I mange it regularly I don't need a lot of bandwidth to copy from my PC to the NAS on a different network.

So I've enabled the OpenVPN server on my WRT1900ACS and now tunnel in to it from the other router side - data transfer is 7mb/s (internet upload rate) which is slow but for file copy purposes it might work for me. Alternatively I can use the NAS software to get remote access to certain folders but previously I had issues with this - started noticing suspicious login attempts and sometimes unstable network links.

I might still get back to powerline ethernet if the speed becomes a real hassle. For now I got an encrypted link that I can tunnel into my network and I haven't touched FTP yet which I am really happy about. If anything I really like the challenge to make these things work! Still have to move the NAS but the link between the two networks works now and I can access the Kodi NUC and move files from shared folders.

Here's a new drawing with my current setup (the red lines are the logical links for the VPN - the PC still goes all the way up to the internet and comes back via the VPN tunnel into the network):

[nickr]

Does the isp router not route the packets properly? What does route -n show on R1 and R2?

[ckZA]

The ISP router routes the WAN side of R1 and R2 - so I can ping either direction to the WAN IP's of each (linksys ping function). However, when I ping from LAN to LAN it won't work due to the routers firewall (what linksys told me - they said NAT firewall).

If I ping from the PC to R2 I also get nothing. So the routers are definitely not allowing anything from one WAN into the other. I initially thought that I could do a static route between the two routers but that only works from a LAN (Main router) to WAN (secondary) connection - basically making sure you still under the main WAN which makes sense from a security point of view.

If I make both R1 and R2 bridged, then they'll just push the IP address of the ISP router down into their LAN's and make it one big network - I am trying to avoid bridge mode.