I'm preparing to work from home, and I'm setting up the server at work to be suitable for this myself as our IT department is useless.
3 days ago I had no idea about anything network-related, and I've learnt more than I could have ever imagined since then.
Basically, we have a Thecus branded NAS and a Windows 8 Server on our work network, and I want to access the NAS from home in a quick, reliable and simple way.
I've set up an FTP server on the NAS using its own self-contained server system, and it works fine, but the problem is that I need software like Cyberduck to access the FTP. The problem with Cyberduck is that it's impossible to quickly filter files based on file name. You see, I will have folders with hundreds of files, all named DSC_0001 to DSC_9999 or whatever (RAW photos) and I'll have to download about 20 of them to my computer. Which 20? I'll have a list of which ones to download, but selecting them one by one is very time consuming unless you have some powerful search features which FTP clients don't have.
So I figured the best thing would be to get the NAS mounted in Finder, to give applications like Adobe Bridge access to it. Bridge has great filtering functions that allow you to label and filter things very very fast.
Only problem is, mounting an FTP server in Finder requires extra software and so far they've all been buggy (tried ExpanDrive, and MacFuse and they both suck as they are slow as hell when browsing, Bridge crashes, etc...). It doesn't work.
You can mount an FTP server in Finder natively, but it's read-only and quite buggy too, it beach-balls a lot and disconnects randomly. Useless.
So then I thought I'd set up a VPN on the work server, as that's the "official" way of doing this. I did, and it worked, but once I mounted the drive at home, browsing was very, very, very very slow (beach ball for 5 minutes, folder list appears. Click on one, beach ball for another 5 minutes, subfolder appears). I can't see myself downloading and uploading dozens a files a day without being able to browse the complex folder structure with ease. To be clear, it's not the internet connection that's slow, it's the stupid buggy way that the finder treats SMB the same way as local drives, which it shouldn't.
Third option is forwarding the SMB protocol ports on the work router, but I wonder if browsing will be slow as hell again. This also requires password protecting the NAS which will be a pain in the ass for everyone using it at work.
TL;DR: Want to work from home, I need access to a big ass NAS at work. I tried VPN, it's slow and Macs don't like it, I tried FTP, it works very nicely but requires software that lacks file filtering features, thinking of opening up SMB ports to the internet which isn't secure, any other options?
My Question: anyone else working from home? What do you use, how do you do it? Any simple solution I'm missing? I really want to mount the drive in the Finder and make it available in Open/Save dialogs and other apps.
3 days ago I had no idea about anything network-related, and I've learnt more than I could have ever imagined since then.
Basically, we have a Thecus branded NAS and a Windows 8 Server on our work network, and I want to access the NAS from home in a quick, reliable and simple way.
I've set up an FTP server on the NAS using its own self-contained server system, and it works fine, but the problem is that I need software like Cyberduck to access the FTP. The problem with Cyberduck is that it's impossible to quickly filter files based on file name. You see, I will have folders with hundreds of files, all named DSC_0001 to DSC_9999 or whatever (RAW photos) and I'll have to download about 20 of them to my computer. Which 20? I'll have a list of which ones to download, but selecting them one by one is very time consuming unless you have some powerful search features which FTP clients don't have.
So I figured the best thing would be to get the NAS mounted in Finder, to give applications like Adobe Bridge access to it. Bridge has great filtering functions that allow you to label and filter things very very fast.
Only problem is, mounting an FTP server in Finder requires extra software and so far they've all been buggy (tried ExpanDrive, and MacFuse and they both suck as they are slow as hell when browsing, Bridge crashes, etc...). It doesn't work.
You can mount an FTP server in Finder natively, but it's read-only and quite buggy too, it beach-balls a lot and disconnects randomly. Useless.
So then I thought I'd set up a VPN on the work server, as that's the "official" way of doing this. I did, and it worked, but once I mounted the drive at home, browsing was very, very, very very slow (beach ball for 5 minutes, folder list appears. Click on one, beach ball for another 5 minutes, subfolder appears). I can't see myself downloading and uploading dozens a files a day without being able to browse the complex folder structure with ease. To be clear, it's not the internet connection that's slow, it's the stupid buggy way that the finder treats SMB the same way as local drives, which it shouldn't.
Third option is forwarding the SMB protocol ports on the work router, but I wonder if browsing will be slow as hell again. This also requires password protecting the NAS which will be a pain in the ass for everyone using it at work.
TL;DR: Want to work from home, I need access to a big ass NAS at work. I tried VPN, it's slow and Macs don't like it, I tried FTP, it works very nicely but requires software that lacks file filtering features, thinking of opening up SMB ports to the internet which isn't secure, any other options?
My Question: anyone else working from home? What do you use, how do you do it? Any simple solution I'm missing? I really want to mount the drive in the Finder and make it available in Open/Save dialogs and other apps.