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O and A

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
240
21
New York City
I've been trying to find a step by step to this with google but no luck. Maybe someone can point me to one or help me out here.

Basically we have a Static IP from our ISP and we want to be to access the files on a single mac here from anywhere. We have a router so I'm not sure how that inteferes with anything. I know if I hooked up straight to the Cable Modem this is a sinch. But what do I need to do when I'm behind a router?

In addition for future refrence can i have multiple machines do this from the same IP address?

The file serving machine is a Dual 2 ghz G5 with 4 Gigs of ram 1.5 Terabytes of Hard Drive space. Running 10.4.9.

This would all be mac to mac sharing.

Thanks. If i left out any info that could help you answer my question let me know!
 

rogersmj

macrumors 68020
Sep 10, 2006
2,161
1
Indianapolis, IN
The key would be forwarding the right ports through your router to your local machine. I'm not sure what protocol you're using though, you didn't say. And I only work with Linux when it comes to filesharing, so I don't know if "mac to mac" implies a specific protocol or not. I have a Linux file server with both Samba (for the local network, Macs and PCs) and SSH/FTP (for remote access) setup. I have the FTP port forwarded through my router so that I can access my files from anywhere with an FTP client.
 

mklos

macrumors 68000
Dec 4, 2002
1,896
0
My house!
For Mac to Mac sharing it would be Apple File Protocol (AFP). AFP is port 548. This the same port that Apple's .mac iDisk works on.

I would think that you should be able to access it by just knowing the IP address of the computer you're connecting to but I could be wrong. Then if you have the right ports forwarded in the router it will automatically know to forward the request to the Mac you're trying to connect to. One thing I would do is put a static IP address on the PowerMac that you're connecting to. That way if it restarts or powers off for what ever reason, the local IP address of the PowerMac doesn't change. I've never tried this myself as I'm on dialup unfortunately, but it is possible and can be done. Obviously you'll need to know the username and password of the PowerMac you're connecting to and you better have a password on it since you're sharing files.
 

live4ever

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2003
728
5
Check out iGet it's a specialized Mac2Mac file transfer tool that works great over the 'net. You need to open up port 22 (ssh) on the router for it to work. Or you could use something like Lighthouse.
 

O and A

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
240
21
New York City
For Mac to Mac sharing it would be Apple File Protocol (AFP). AFP is port 548. This the same port that Apple's .mac iDisk works on.

I would think that you should be able to access it by just knowing the IP address of the computer you're connecting to but I could be wrong. Then if you have the right ports forwarded in the router it will automatically know to forward the request to the Mac you're trying to connect to. One thing I would do is put a static IP address on the PowerMac that you're connecting to. That way if it restarts or powers off for what ever reason, the local IP address of the PowerMac doesn't change. I've never tried this myself as I'm on dialup unfortunately, but it is possible and can be done. Obviously you'll need to know the username and password of the PowerMac you're connecting to and you better have a password on it since you're sharing files.

How could u do this if you wanted to access multiple machines?
 

rogersmj

macrumors 68020
Sep 10, 2006
2,161
1
Indianapolis, IN
How could u do this if you wanted to access multiple machines?

You don't, at least not without some more significant changes. You could potentially setup different external ports that map to the correct internal port on different machines (e.g., yourpublicip:2000 -> internalip1:548, yourpublicip:2001 -> internalip2:548, etc), but not all routers support this type of configuration. Also, you'll have to remember the external port numbers and be able to specify them on the client that you're connecting with from the outside.
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
How could u do this if you wanted to access multiple machines?

You have to be more specific.

Do you mean to say, you want to be able to access multiple Macs' filesharing, over the internet, from a specific Mac as if that Mac were plugged into the same office network? Investigate VPN in that case. You set up a Virtual Private Network between two points, (which can be secure) so that the Internet acts as a bridge between networks.

Do you mean to say, you want to open up filesharing access to multiple Macs to any arbitrary incoming Internet connection? I would say you are nuts and don't try it.
 

varmit

macrumors 68000
Aug 5, 2003
1,830
0
What I do

SSH. I would set a static IP for your internal computer. Probably something like 192.168.1.130. Then set the router to do port forwarding to the Mac at 130 on port 22. Then from the remote PC, use the free version of the software from here:http://ssh.com/. From remote Mac, use Fugu from here:http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/.

FTP can be used also but you can't move to other directories that you might want to go to when working remotely. You can only wonder around the user directory that you signed in as to the Mac. Plus, SSH is encrypted.
 

mklos

macrumors 68000
Dec 4, 2002
1,896
0
My house!
If you're really geeky you can also setup SSH through the OS X Terminal as well. But yeah, I would do SSH. Thats a great recommendation.
 
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