Thanks for your input. The server is on a static IP. Access type needed is via Internet. Local network users just map directly to the drive but cannot do so when not in the office. This used to be a VPN connected drive but when ISP's began blocking outgoing port 445 that put an end to mapping a drive letter due to Samba's protocol needs. I would be glad to hear a better explanation but I sonta lot of time testing the various options and this is the ONLY one that matters.
The same system on any business network (or some smaller home ISP's) has no problem just connecting the VPN and mapping the shared folder as a drive-letter as usual. But those on most Home Internet can only connect to the VPN and then settle for a "network place". Unless they pack up their laptop and drive to a location with business Internet. I did check all my facts. This is something done Only to HOME internet users. Business users have no such block. And some Home ISP's still don't either. My own doesn't to this day. Which was a big problem in the beginning since i could not replicate the problem experienced by others at my own home. The port 445 block (back then) was not posted as a "fact" on any of the ISP's sites and their techs probably really did not know anything about it.
I found that the ONLY difference was that their home internet had no outbound on port 445. Not only did i find this true by testing the port, but it is even (belatedly) posted on most ISP's main web pages now with the reason being to "Provide Better Internet Security). Note that only outbound port 445 is blocked. Look up the requirements for SMB drive mapping.
Knowing why it wont work does not help though. I have no way to circumvent the need for port 445 to provide a mapped drive letter and a "Network place" is not accepted by the program that needs access to the drive. I have tried every way i know to "fake it out" using a network place with no working solution.
While an FTP connection is slower than direct mapped, it is better than nothing and the software that needs the access will accept a mapped FTP drive letter.
Once you get the FTP drive contents showing in Windows Explorer it plainly instructs you to click ALT VIEW to change it to File Explorer where you are offered the option of making EASY ACCESS by mapping a drive letter to it by just clicking the option.
Only that doesn't work. The errors received are always one of the "catch-all" 0x800 etc that just says "something is wrong"
But it isn't as I just had the files up on my screen in Internet explorer And Windows File explorer which rules out name, password, incorrect network path, etc.
Out of all the 3rd party tools that CAN complete the task, Net drive 2 is the best. But WinDrive and several others work as well.
FTPUSE I am not so sure about though it is by far the simplest of the bunch being extremely small but talking about using a DOKAN file type and I am not familiar with that. While I have not been able to get it to work, I know of other who have.
Anyway, this should be enough to show you that it isn't a router issue. I even tried it with the Server connected directly to the ISP's provide fiber line with nothing in between. I will say that I have not made any changes to the settings on the NIC but those are settings i have never had to change before and don't need to be changed for NetDrive or the others.
I am inclined to think it is something to do with the the structure of the passed parameters for mapping drives. just as
ftp://name@server/shared folder is the correct way to get to many others such as Skydrive. But nothing I have found works.
As another oddity, I CAN add a 3.5" usb drive to the ready-share port on a router using the same ISP and get access with no problem. I did not register the device with Netgear to do this as we have a static IP. Just entered the
ftp://admin@IP address/readyshare/(+ whatever folder I want to map). This is after making the necessary entries into the router for what to access and adding a password of course.
The problem with that method is that it only allows ONE user. All access must be done using "admin"/"admin's readyshare PW".
I also found out that if you try to do any large amount of work with it, the router will freeze and require rebooting.
This is not a programming issue but it does rule out that method of access for sure (which I originally had high hopes for)
The WD My Cloud and similar offerings depend on the users getting access to the WD servers to get rererouted access to the drive and in my experience was far too slow to be of much use. a LOT slower than the internet connection would dictate.
I added all the rest of this just to show you that I have tried every possible alternative i could come up with and when they did not work, even tried to find a way to MAKE them work.
While Netdrive2 is the current winner, I am just curious. I would like to know WHY it does not work as it should. And if it doesn;t why don't they (MS) simply remove the option and directions on how to use it?
Thanks for reading.