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I have a NAS that is connected to my home router. I used to be able to access that NAS via my laptop (running Windows 8.1) when I connect to my home router too.

Recently, I am not able to do so. I am not sure when exactly and I have not tinkered with my home router's configuration. There is also no change in my network's topology.

However, I am able to access my NAS if I connect to a VPN first, for example using Cyber Ghost. I've tried disabling my laptop's firewall and flushing the dns but nothing works. I also have the exact problem for some websites.

What could be causing this problem and how can I fix it?

EDIT Following from the comment by dsolimano, I noticed that in order to access my NAS when I am connected to by local network, I need to type its local IP address. All this while I've been trying to access it by its url which is tied to the IP address assigned by my ISP (I use port forwarding so that the router redirects to my NAS).

Does this mean I have a problem with my router configuration? I've not tinkered with the router configuration but I did update the NAS a few times so is it possible that one of the updates made my existing router configuration invalid?

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  • What are the IP addresses you get pre/post VPN, and what's the IP address of the NAS?
    – dsolimano
    Jul 19, 2015 at 2:54
  • IP address from pre and post VPN are different. IP address pre VPN is the one assigned by my ISP and can be traced to my country and post VPN is from another country. The IP address of the NAS is fixed on my local network and on the internet is the same as the one assigned to by my ISP. I've edited my question based on your comment.
    – mauna
    Jul 19, 2015 at 3:35

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The router problem in your followup edit is evidence that your router is doing NAT, and doesn't support NAT hairpinning (also known as NAT loopback). This is usually a bug (or missing feature), not a configuration error, because there'd be no good reason to ever disable this if the router supported it, so it's not something you can switch on or off with a checkbox.

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  • You are right, my router does not support NAT loopback. I've found that editing the hosts file fixes the problem with the NAS. But I still have problems accessing certain websites e.g. outlook.com. In this case, is the problem with my ISP?
    – mauna
    Jul 19, 2015 at 7:32
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    Accessing outlook.com would not be affected by the NAT hairpinning as the traffic wouldn't be destined for your own network. NAT hairpinning or loopback refers to when NAT'ed traffic leaves your network going outbound and then attempts to re-enter your network coming inbound.
    – ThatOneDude
    Jul 19, 2015 at 9:31
  • @mauna You seem to have two separate connectivity problems going on. We've resolved your problem with your router's lack of NAT hairpinning. Ask your "connectivity to outlook.com" question separately.
    – Spiff
    Jul 19, 2015 at 15:39

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