Using Remote File Access to Save Disk Space on Your MBA

FYI, the steps at the beginning of this thread are now in a Guide! Here's the link for the Guide:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Using_Remote_File_Access_to_Save_Disk_Space_on_Your_MacBook_Air

Enjoy!

ThanatosId said:

I can't seem to get this to work with my Airport Extreme. Has anyone been successful with changing Port 548 on the Extreme? If so, I would love some help.

Thanks

Click to expand...

The AEBS is actually what I use... here's a screenshot of where you need to make the change. The "5678" is the port number you want to use (but use any number you like, I recommend between 1000 and 9999), and the "192.168.1.101" address should be your server's internal IP address.

tringo said:

What a great thread. Just curious as to how a Time Capsule would be integrated into this.

Would it show up as a hard drive on the server?

Click to expand...

I don't actually have a TC, but I am going to try setting up my AEBS with a shared USB hard drive and see what the remote access options are. It should show up as a separate server on your network, which means you'd have to set up another port forwarding to get to it from a remote location. (Which reminds me: You CAN set up multiple port forwardings, using different port numbers, to forward to port 548 of different Mac servers on your home network. You just need to make sure when you connect that you use the correct port number for the machine you want to connect to.)

My gut feeling is that the Time Machine functionality itself will not work across the Internet. The files might be accessible, but having your MBA maintain a Time Machine fileset remotely is probably not going to work.

Hi all,

Just a quick FYI to let you know that the Guide that was created from this thread now contains a new section, "If You Have a Time Capsule or an AirPort Extreme Base Station with Shared USB Hard Drive", which explains how to share out your Time Capsule or AEBS USB hard drive to the Internet, so that you can access it from your MBA anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Enjoy!

thehuhman said:

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I've run into permissions errors, now that the MBA has moved in. Let me get this straight. I work alone. No other users involved. I used a different name for my admin account when I setup the MBA. Should I have used the same name as I use on my MacPro tower? Would that have been the preferred method. Are these permissions errors being caused by having the two different names? Or is it more likely, something else? Does anyone know?

Click to expand...

No, you don't have to use the same user name and password on your MBA as you do on your other Mac(s)... but you do have to use the correct user name and password when you connect to those other machines, for obvious reasons.

If you're having trouble accessing specific files or folders on your Mac server, you might want to go to that server directly and check permissions on those files and folders. You may even want to run a permissions check using the Disk Utility.

Mikebuzzsaw said:

I don't understand my problem. I'm using a timecapsule, I have all the sharing enabling on both computers. I port forwarded the 548, 3000 to an internal one. 10.0.1.200 and my DHCP static is set to that.

Everytime I connect to ip, no password prompt!

Click to expand...

3000? Where does that come in?

Make sure you are forwarding/mapping external port #### to the internal IP address of your server, port 548. The external port can be any number you want, but the internal port MUST be 548. And when you connect using Go > Connect To Server, you must use either

afp://external.domain.com: portnumber

or

afp://externalipaddress: portnumber

If you just do a straight 548-to-548 mapping (which is less secure), you can omit the ": portnumber" (note there should be no space in there... I had to include that to prevent a "" from showing) and just use

afp://external.domain.com

or

afp://externalipaddress

Make sure you also have set the sharing for your Mac server to Everyone = No Access. This is a crucial point.

AEBS + USB Hard Drive = Time Capsule

Well, it seems that today's release of firmware 7.3.1 for the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) now allows you to use Leopard's Time Machine feature with a USB-connected external hard drive. In effect, an AEBS + a USB hard drive = a Time Capsule.

Now that this change has been made, I will see about testing Time Machine/Time Capsule functionality between my MBA and my AEBS/USBHD over the Internet and report my findings here. As I've already indicated, though, Time Machine functionality may require a "fatter" bandwidth connection than is normally available over the "thin" Internet, so be prepared for me to confirm that using Time Machine across the Internet is not a good idea.

Either way, though, I will update the Guide entry from this thread with whatever information I find.

freelander said:

Just to add to the above, when I click on OK of the above error message a get another error message which says "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "afp://12.12.123.123:5678" could not be read or written.(error code -36).

Click to expand...

Being on a hotel WiFi network could be a problem if they don't allow certain ports to be used on their network. The tests I performed when I was figuring out how to do all of this were done on my neighbor's WiFi network and at the Apple Store, both of which have pretty wide-open networks.

Am I correct in assuming that when you say "5678", you are actually using the port number you set up on your router? There's nothing special about "5678"; I just used that number as an example.

freelander said:

Thanks for the reply.
Tried later using my brothers network, so don't think that is the problem.
Think I have cocked up with the port number, how do I identify the port number? I did use 5678!!!!

Click to expand...

What kind of router do you have? If it's an AirPort Extreme Base Station, please scroll up farther in this thread to see a picture of what the port configuration screen looks like. If it's some other kind of router, the important things to remember are:

1. You MUST know what the internal IP address is of your Mac server. You can get this by going to that Mac and clicking System Preferences > Network... it should be right there under Status. This IP address is what you should specify in your router: External port "5678" (or whatever you choose) should be mapped to port "548" (this is ALWAYS 548) of IP address "ip.ip.ip.ip".

2. You MUST also have turned on File Sharing on your Mac server. This is under System Preferences > Sharing. You will see something like "Other users can access your computer at afp://ip.ip.ip.ip or browse for "MacServerName", where "ip.ip.ip.ip" is the same IP address from step 1.

Let me know if this helps. Remember also that if you can connect your MBA to a neighbor's WiFi network, this will allow you to more easily test the changes that you make to see if they work.

freelander said:

Does it matter what the port number is then providing it meets the criteria you describe above? I have used 5678, but shouldn't that work?
I think I have been using the wrong ip address, I have used the external one in that panel not the AEBS internal one. Will try again.
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

5678 should be fine. And yes, it's important to make sure you use the right IP addresses in the right place: You use the external address when you're trying to connect to your home network from somewhere else, and the internal IP address for your Mac server when configuring the router.

And you're very welcome!