Anyone smarter than Apple?

[Penman]

I'm reasonably intelligent but find Apple's online support to be circular and brief to the point of uselessness. Can one of you guys help?

I need to transfer about 300 MB to a friend 6000 miles away. We're both using Panther and rather than burn a CD, I want to give them ftp access to my computer so they can log-on and download the file.

They're less technical than I am. How can this be done?

1) I've turned FTP access in sharing on.
2) I've set up a user account for them (with no priviliges at all - do they need access to any, or any software to make this work?)

Can someone tell me the other steps I need to take? Do I give them my IP address? How do I guide them to the file they need? How do I stop them from looking at other folders on my Mac?

Cheers,

Penman.

 

[Counterfit]

Unless you have a fast connection, I think sending a CD would be faster

 

[robbieduncan]

Are you behind a router or other NAT device. If so you need to forward the ftp ports (21 is a good place to start) from the router to your Mac (easier to do if you assign your Mac a static IP address on the internal network).

 

[broken_keyboard]

Start the FTP Access in sharing and put the files you want to share in the home directory of the account you created.

They should go to the Finder and select "connect to server" from the "Go" menu. In the box type: ftp:// and then your public IP address, e.g. ftp://200.23.43.22 They should also make sure that in the System Preferences under Network/Proxies tab that the "Use passive FTP mode" is checked.

That's it. When they type the FTP line in it will ask for the user name as password and then it will open a Finder window and they can drag the files to their desktop.

The only potentially tricky thing is finding out your public IP address. If you are behind a router or DSL modem you may have a local address such as 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1. This link will show you your public ip http://www.whatismyip.com/

Also if you have a router you need to make sure it maps connection attempts on port 21 and all ports > 1024 to your Mac. How you do that depends on your router brand but it is usually through a web page.

 

[Penman]

Start the FTP Access in sharing and put the files you want to share in the home directory of the account you created.

They should go to the Finder and select "connect to server" from the "Go" menu. In the box type: ftp:// and then your public IP address, e.g. ftp://200.23.43.22 They should also make sure that in the System Preferences under Network/Proxies tab that the "Use passive FTP mode" is checked.

That's it. When they type the FTP line in it will ask for the user name as password and then it will open a Finder window and they can drag the files to their desktop.

The only potentially tricky thing is finding out your public IP address. If you are behind a router or DSL modem you may have a local address such as 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1. This link will show you your public ip http://www.whatismyip.com/

Also if you have a router you need to make sure it maps connection attempts on port 21 and all ports > 1024 to your Mac. How you do that depends on your router brand but it is usually through a web page.

Thanks - that sounds good to me. I'll try that ASAP.

I have a 2 Mbps line here so speed shouldn't be too much of an issue (despite it being a long download).

Can I check the ftp myself (logging in as them?) to test it's set up correctly?

 

[robbieduncan]

I have a 2 Mbps line here so speed shouldn't be too much of an issue (despite it being a long download).

Are you on a symetric line? I have a 2Mbps line at home. It's 2Mbps download and less that 0.5Mbps upload.

 

[SilentPanda]

Can I check the ftp myself (logging in as them?) to test it's set up correctly?

You can try it but it'd be best to try it from an external source. Even if you could just telnet/ssh into a box outside your network and then ftp back into your box you would get a better fit to see if it works than just testing it internally.