Internet access of a Harddrive?

[wangchunggti337]

I was looking at external harddrives and came accross the My Book World, which has an ethernet port which allows the drive to be accessed from any computer on the internet. I realize this is not really anything special as it can be done through servers and I'm sure other methods. I'm not too knowledgeable in this area, so I'm not sure.

I would love to be able to keep all my files and such on one drive so that I can access them from any computer if I need them, over the internet. Is there an easy way to do this with a Mac or perhaps the new Airport Extreme Base Station?

Thanks for your help

 

[bored911]

you might just want .mac it comes with an idisk that will let you access all your files over the internets. and the googles. (sorry, had to) but yeah, for 99 bucks, you get decent mail, ****** iweb, but great backup and idisk. well worth it. seriously

 

[wangchunggti337]

do you really get access over all your files or just 1GB? I'm looking to be able to access all files on my computer from a different location.

 

[mikes63737]

If you wanted to share files that are in your Home directory on your Mac, you can turn on Personal/Windows/FTP file sharing in Sharing preferences, and then set up your router to allow access to the ports used for that type of sharing. But, there's a downside: this method opens up your home directory to the Internet if you don't have a very secure password.

If you wanted to use the MyBook drive, you would have to allow access through your router to the drive. To do that, you would have to read the manuals for both devices.

 

[wangchunggti337]

Ah yes, I think I get what you're saying. So as long as my password was secure I wouldn't have any other problems? Or is there still a risk involved?

 

[topgunn]

Ah yes, I think I get what you're saying. So as long as my password was secure I wouldn't have any other problems? Or is there still a risk involved?

Anytime you make personal/private information accessible online there is risk involved. No matter how secure you think it is, if someone wants it badly enough, they can get it. Passwords serve to keep honest people honest.

 

[jsw]

Yes, of course, someone could always access files you make available on the Internet.

That said, if you open up SSH instead of FTP (System Preferences...->Sharing->Services->Remote Login) and use scp instead to copy files, you're going to be pretty secure. Make sure the proper ports (typically, just 22) are forwarded from your router to your Mac.

You can also enable https access via Apache and, especially if you alter the default ports, set up the ability to basically view your file structure via an external browser. Again, you'll want to make sure of your passwords and likely won't want to expose your entire filesystem.