Forwarding Windows Shares through a Router?

[steveox]

I'm currently on a network that recently disabled switching. Since I have more than one computer I opted to get a router to keep all computers on simultaneously, however, now network shares will no longer work with the outside computers. Is there any way to forward the windows shares to the outside network? I've thought of port forwarding but that doesn't really seem to solve the problem and I haven't been able to figure out any ways. Any help on the subject is greatly appreciated!

-steveo

 

[Nothinman]

"Outside" computers? Are you trying to expose Windows shares over the Internet?

 

[steveox]

no .. it's a college lan. the dorms are all connected through the lan but since they disabled the switching - i have to use a router rather than the switch.

it's like .. Internet > Dorm Lan (My ROUTER, my roommates computer, my neighbors computer, etc) > My Lan (My gaming rig, my media computer)

I'm wondering if i can do a \\roommate from my \\media ... understand?

 

[RebateMonger]

NetBIOS computer names can't be transmitted across a router. So the only way that a computer name (i.e. \\computer2) can be shared across a router is if there's a DNS server or WINS server available to provide the computer names.

Furthermore, if you are using home-type routers, they are usually configured in NAT mode. Unless you use port forwarding, there's no way for a computer on the WAN side of the router to directly access a computer on the NAT side of the router.

There are ways to make shares accessible, for sure, but they require some sort of willing server on the Dorm LAN, or an Internet P2P server. If those routers were set for routing mode rather than NAT mode, you could also access PC shares using IP addresses, rather than NetBIOS names.