Unable to connect to USB storage FTP server from outside the local network.
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Hello,
Disclaimer: I have very limited knowledge when it comes to networking in general so I am most likely missing something obvious here.
I have been trying to connect to a small file server which is a USB stick attached to the router for the past day and no matter what I try I can't access it from outside the local network. I am mainly trying with an android phone app (file manager +) which works fine via SMB, FTP and SFTP when its on the same wifi. But the whole point of me doing this is to have access to some files from far away.
Whenever I use the FTP (via Internet) IP given in the USB storage device section of the router it simply fails to connect unless I am on a device which is on the same network.
My network setup is this:
1) One DSL modem router (ISP provided) in one room which acts as modem and also has a few wifi devices on it.
2) My TP-Link archer which is in wireless router mode in the other side of the house and receives internet from the first one via the WAN port carried over a powerline set. This is the one the USB stick/FTP server I am trying to access is on.
I have also registered a DDNS hostname with tplinkdns which also doesn't work at all neither from inside or outside the network even though everything seems correctly set up. I tried using it for remote management after checking the remote management box and to access the USB to no avail. Then tried another DDNS with noip and it didn't work too.
The most baffling thing is that I did this setup almost 2 years ago in a different house but with the same ISP and same routers and it was working just fine with tplinkdns. I could access the USB and remote management just fine. I even factory reset the router and switched from Dynamic IP connection type to PPPoE and still nothing.
I don't know what I am missing here. Any help is appreciated.
Edit: I have since tried to access it with Filezilla from a laptop and it gets stuck on "connection established, waiting for welcome message". Then after 20 seconds it times out.
@woozle It is a different unit but the same model. I also suspected the ISP router might be blocking the traffic. But I never had to do any port forwarding on the old one. Also recently discovered my ISP was blocking many ports with a "enhanced security feature" which I disabled. Never disabled that in the past when it was working and also made no difference now.
Also can someone explain this to me:
This is what the ISP router and Archer USB sharing shows with PPPoE connection type. I don't see it assigning an IP to port forward to. But the USB access addresses on the Archer seem to correctly point to pubically routable IPs (even tho they still don't work).
This is what happens with Dynamic IP connection: The Archer and my PC are assigned IPs normally but the internet USB sharing addresses all become internal IPs which are unusable for my purpose.
The WAN IPs you see in the 1st case don't match with my actual public IP as reported by sites like whatismyip which is why I post them openly. I googled and I read it may have something to do with sth called carrier-grade NAT which honestly is way beyond me.
Right now I am on Dynamic IP mode and I did this to the ISP router: 
No change. No matter what I do I can never access anything from outside the network using the public IP on any port. Could I be typing sth wrong? Lets assume traffic was completely open with no issues. What exactly would I need to input (I mean what is the correct syntax) to access a specific device from outside the network. Lets say I am on windows file explorer or filezilla on a different network and I want to connect to the USB. The LAN IP of the device I want to access is 192.168.1.15. The public IP is hypothetically 101.98.28.9. What would I need to type exactly?