# SmartAX MT882 not allowing IP address access



## Bubble (Jul 14, 2007)

Hi all. 

We are struggling with TalkTalk / SmartAX MT882 modem/router / 
sharing files between machines on the Internet. 

Various members of our family around the country have Apple Macs 
connected to the Internet. We run Mac OS X 10.4, 10.3 & 10.2. 

To help them configure their machines properly, we sometimes connect 
via the Internet from our (OS X 10.4) machine to theirs by a simple 
'connect to server' command from the Finder. (Typing Command-K 
(Connect to Server), entering the family member's IP address and then 
using a user name and password to log on. At that point, we can access 
their home folder and do any basic maintenance work (such as moving 
files around, renaming folders, etc.) 

We realise something like Apple's Remote Desktop program would be 
really useful here but that won't work if we can't even get as far as 
connecting to the IP address from Finder as we used to. 

Our problem now is this: family members are now upgrading to TalkTalk 
broadband using a SmartAX MT882 modem/router via Ethernet and we 
can no longer connect to their IP address. Mac OS X reports 
"Connection Failed: The server may not exist or it is not operational at 
this time. Check the server name or IP address and try again." 

We suspect a firewall is hiding the machines and are not sure how to 
switch it off (OS X has a built-in firewall anyway so we'd prefer to use 
that instead of the hardware one). We've been reading up on possible 
solutions (including Network Address Translation (NAT), port forwarding, 
etc.) but are getting confused. As most family members have a dynamic 
IP address, we are using the services of http://www.dyndns.com/ to link 
their ever-changing IP address to a fixed address (eg. 
iamhere.getmyip.com) but this doesn't equate to a fixed numeric IP 
address (so we can't just forward ports to a fixed numeric IP address.) 

OS X on their machines reports via the sharing system preference that 
"Other Macintosh users can access your computer at 
afp://192.168.1.3"... which won't work as this is a local address. Going 
to a page like http://www.ip-adress.com/ reports their ACTUAL address 
(e.g. 82.45.23.456) but this still can't be accessed over the Internet, 
probably, again, due to the SmartAX MT882's firewall. 

Can anyway guide me? All I want is to figure out how to configure 
family members' system to allow connections over the Internet 
(obviously via a username & password to avoid hackers!) 

Thanks!


----------

