connecting my 2 macs

[andrewski]

first time post to a forum so pls excuse and protocol errors!

i want to get my G5 Imac (at work) and my 15"PB (at home) to connect to each other and am bewildered by all the file sharing options and jargon. yikes!

i want to be able to:
read files off each mac remotely, and,
sync folders (using chronosync)

is there a tutorial or a link i can follow to get advice on this.

both machines are running on 10.3.8. and have a broadband connection. i'm in hong kong.

thanks!

 

[Fender2112]

From the Finder menu select Go > Network. The other computer should up in the Finder window. Click Connect and login. At least this how I do it via LAN. You would do it this way also if both computers are connecting to the internet through a router and modem.

I haven't done any file synching. But will be interested to learn.

 

[andrewski]

"From the Finder menu select Go > Network. The other computer should up in the Finder window"

nope... i don't get my other mac showing up here...

 

[mkrishnan]

"From the Finder menu select Go > Network. The other computer should up in the Finder window"

nope... i don't get my other mac showing up here...

So these two computers are in two different places, right? To do this, you are going to need an internet host name or IP address for whichever computer you want to connect *TO*. This should not be a problem for the work mac, but the home mac on broadband may periodically change IP addresses, so it might be tough.

Try this: on your work G5, open system preferences and click on network. You should have a green light next to the built in ethernet - click that. Then you should get a set of tabs, including TCP/IP. Click that, and copy down the "IP address" on the left in the middle.

If this address doesn't begin with 10.xxxx or 192.xxxx, you can probably do this fairly easily. It all depends on the network structure at work, and whether the network is designed to allow outside connects. What you would do is, in finder, choose Go, connect to server, and then type smb://... where ... is the IP address above.

An easier, and possibly more effective approach might be to get .mac and use iDisk.... http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Welcome if it's available in HK.

Good luck!

 

[yellow]

type smb://... where ... is the IP address above

To this I would add, Turn on Personal Filesharing in the Sharing prefpane (in System Preferences), and replace "smb://" with "afp://"

 

[mkrishnan]

To this I would add, Turn on Personal Filesharing in the Sharing prefpane (in System Preferences), and replace "smb://" with "afp://"

Yeah, I knew something wasn't right about that. SMB is with windows machines.... Thanks!

But I think I'm right, in that all this will only work if your office Mac is *not* behind a firewall...and I just somehow don't see that as likely.

 

[yellow]

But I think I'm right, in that all this will only work if your office Mac is *not* behind a firewall...and I just somehow don't see that as likely.

You are correct. I correctly assume the OP is not the admin for thier site, and therefore has no ability to punch holes/port forward in the firewall.

 

[jsw]

As mentioned above, odds are that you cannot connect directly to your work Mac from home, although your company's firewall policies might be more lenient than most.

I would go into System Preferences...->Sharing->Services and enable "Remote Login". I'd then get the IP address of your home router - assuming you aren't directly connected - and be sure that your router is set to forward SSH ports (22-23, I think) to your computer's IP address, which I assume is obtained from DHCP and isn't the IP address the outside world would get to you (i.e., your home Mac might have an address like 192.168.1.2 or whatever). If you go to http://www.whatismyip.com, you'll see what your outside address is.

From work, try to SSH to that address (which might change, but probably doesn't tend to change on a day-to-day basis). If you can connect, great, and you can get transfer files to/from work. If not, welcome to my world.

You can use the same thing to connect to your work Mac from home, but odds are your corporate firewall will prevent it.

 

[andrewski]

yes the machines are in diff locations and my g5 isn't on a co. network - just a simple broadband modem.

i will follow the suggestions and let you know. big thanks!

 

[Fender2112]

Another thing you should do is get a Dynamic DNS domain from www.DnyDNS.org. Get a domain for each router, one at home and one at work. This will allow you to connent using a domain name instead of an IP address that changes from time to time. And it's free

Next you need to set Port Forwarding on each router. The port you use depends on what app you use for access. You should find this info in the app documentation. You will tell the router to send requests for that port to your computer's LAN IP address. This is done through the Port Forwarding feature of your router. See your router documentation on how to do this.

It may seem complicated. But it's not once you have all the pieces and know where to put them.

 

[andrewski]

thx for the replies...

i decided to look at the idisk option. i bought a gig of space and feel this is the easiest solution

many thanks.