Just purchased a WD My Book World Edition II to use as my NAS but have heard bad things about the MioNet software that allows you to access it from anywhere. Firstly, it requires that you load the MioNet software on the machines that will be accessing the drive, which seems annoying and unncessary.

Is there an easy way to configure this through my router to simply yet securely map the drive and then use a login to read/write to the drive even when I'm outside of my LAN?

What security concerns do I need to be aware of in doing something like this?

i have one i am thinking about doing this to as well. let me know what you find

I found a ton of links but I have absolutely no linux skills, so I'm starting from absolute ground zero.

This site looks like it might hold the most promise. Still, I'm searching for something that can dumb it down even more.
http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/hacks-and-howto

I think I might have reached the end of the internet and I've realized that the hack is way over my head. However, there is a owners manual that appears to provide some guidance to allowing FTP and other access to the drive.

http://www.wdc.com/WDProducts/Library/UM/ENG/4779-705013.pdf

It is still over my head and will take some reading up on my part. Basically, all I want to do is:
1. allow web access when I'm away from my home network
2. via a browser or mapped drive without using Mionet (don't want to use FTP as I would like to access the drive from any PC without downloading software)
3. with some sort of user authentication

If you happen to have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Looks like I have an answer - use FTP to access the drive without MioNet.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-World-Edition/Remote-access-options-without-MioNet-or-hacking/td-p/9845