The files are on your router at home and you are in another city. The tempting fix — forward port 21 and use FTP from anywhere — is also how home drives get hacked and wiped. There is a safe route, and it takes ten minutes.
Plain FTP sends your username and password across the internet without any encryption, and an open FTP port is scanned by automated bots within hours of appearing. Add weak router firmware to that and "remote file access" becomes "public file access". The professional pattern is different: you do not open the file share to the internet at all — you open an encrypted VPN tunnel into your home, and then the share behaves exactly as if you were sitting on your own sofa.
If your forwarding page looks like this, delete those rules now — both ports are constant attack targets.
Open the router's Port Forwarding / Virtual Servers page. If you forwarded port 21 (FTP), 445 (SMB) or 139 to the router or any PC, delete those rules immediately and change the share passwords afterwards — assume they have been probed. SMB should never face the internet under any circumstances; its history of remote exploits is exactly why Windows blocks SMB1 at home.
Many mid-range routers include a free VPN server — look for VPN Server in the admin page (OpenVPN and WireGuard are the common options; WireGuard is faster and simpler where available).
\\192.168.0.1 on Windows, or the saved SMB entry on your phoneEverything inside the tunnel is encrypted, and the file share itself never touches the public internet.
Your options, in order of safety: run a free VPN such as WireGuard or Tailscale on any always-on home device (an old laptop or a Raspberry Pi class board) and reach the share through it; or keep a synced copy of just the folders you travel with in a reputable cloud drive. What not to do: "router cloud" plug-ins from unknown brands, or port forwarding with a stronger password — a strong password does not fix an unencrypted, exploit-prone protocol facing the internet.
The video covers remote file access as part of the router setup — watch it, then use the VPN route from this page for anything outside home.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBrand cloud apps (from the router maker itself) relay through the company's servers with your account login — generally far safer than open ports. Use a strong unique password and two-factor login if offered, and keep the router firmware updated.
At home the traffic never leaves your own wires and Wi-Fi. On the internet it crosses many networks in plain text, and your open port is advertised to every scanner on earth. Same protocol, completely different exposure.
That hides you from the laziest scans for about a day. Scanners probe all ports and identify FTP by its reply. Obscurity is not encryption — use the VPN.