I was looking for a file explorer app for my Android smartphone in order to enable me to access the 404TS web server and my NAS at home. The web server and the NAS from outside of my home network could be accessed through FTP while in the house on WiFi, I could access it using the SMB protocol.
I tried out a few options. The popular option seemed to be Solid Explorer, which has a two week free trial and then a $2 unlocker to get the full version. I gave the trial a shot but wasn’t completely sold on it. Another option was ASTRO File Manager but it resorted to multiple modules (some paid) for different connection types like Bluetooth or SMB with a key to go ad-free.
Finally, I contently landed on ES File Explorer File Manager. It allows connections to various cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and others. More importantly for my interest, it also serves as an FTP client and a Samba client.
I was easily able to create new connections to my web server and to my NAS over FTP (using port forwarding through my router) and to the Windows share when I was on the network. I was able to watch a video off of the NAS with no problems.
Now, I am able to upload or download files to either of these file servers from anywhere I can get a connection with my phone. The ES File Explorer app is nice and highly recommended but having the whole system is even better:
ReadyNAS Ultra 4, dd-wrt flashed Linksys router, Samsung Galaxy SIII, and using FreeDNS to keep my home IP address up to date using dynamic dns through my router after I got tired of No-IP‘s frequent nag emails.