OS X sharing question

[tveric]

Hi everybody.

I have this question - I'd like to share a folder and the contents of it with someone else on the internet. For various reasons I don't want to move it or the contents to my Public folder, or anywhere else. I need a way to be able to share just that one folder with someone across the 'net - having them log in, be able to browse the folder and copy what they need to their computer. What's the best way to do this? Is it even possible? We're both running Panther.

Thanks!

 

[7on]

It'd need to be in the "Sites" folder and you'll need web sharing on. the URL should be http://youripaddress/filename.ext and it should work. I dunno how to make other folders apache ready.

Sharepoints is a good app for sharing across a network (not internet)

 

[tveric]

Thanks, but, the whole point of the question was how to do I share a folder that ISN'T in the Sites or Public or Dropbox or any other special folder anyone can think of. I know how to share stuff if I move it - that's easy. I'm stumped on how to share stuff that I can't, for other reasons, move or copy.

 

[rainman::|:|]

try putting an alias of the folder in your public (or sites, if you want web access) folder, i think that will work but am not 100% sure.

you may then have to change the permissions on that folder to allow access, since the rest of your drive isn't shared by default. you do that in the Get Info window.

paul

 

[7on]

How about AIM transfer? Drop the folder onto his name in iChat?

 

[7on]

try putting an alias of the folder in your public (or sites, if you want web access) folder, i think that will work but am not 100% sure.

you may then have to change the permissions on that folder to allow access, since the rest of your drive isn't shared by default. you do that in the Get Info window.

paul

That doesn't work with Personal File Sharing (AFS) so I doubt Web sharing can do it.

 

[tveric]

How about AIM transfer? Drop the folder onto his name in iChat?

you're kidding right? you're just trying to get me going here because you didn't like my last post?

 

[rainman::|:|]

http://www.lbl.gov/ITSD/Security/systems/macosxshare.html

this is the only workaround i can find, but it doesn't sound like what you want. I know you said you don't want to move the folder, but if it were me, i'd put it in Public, then put an alias of it where it used to be, really it would function the same way, the only disadvantage is if you want it on a second drive. You could also use symlinks, which look like aliases, but are put in place with a unix command, and the system will actually follow those on it's own.

paul

 

[tveric]

I appreciate the help - you made two good suggestions. The first one, I tried and it didn't work, but I still think it was a good idea.

The reason I can't move the files is because it's the iTunes folder. All kinds of complications there.

I'm off to check out that link, thanks again.

 

[7on]

you're kidding right? you're just trying to get me going here because you didn't like my last post?

No just offering a solution. Just thought I'd offer the iChat solution as there seems to be no way to change the Web Sharing folder. There is an Application to share many different folders within a local area network (it's called Sharepoints as my pervious statement states). However, I have not read nor have I heard of anyone sharing another folder other than ~/Sites in 10.2/3. Sorry if I offended you.

 

[7on]

I appreciate the help - you made two good suggestions. The first one, I tried and it didn't work, but I still think it was a good idea.

The reason I can't move the files is because it's the iTunes folder. All kinds of complications there.

I'm off to check out that link, thanks again.

Ahhhhhh, IC... iTunes music now that can be moved. Look at the attachments and do what they say (you'll want to use your Sites folder instead of the Public folder that I used). Then you can use Web sharing ok.

 

[tveric]

dude - you rock

I knew about the ability to change the iTunes folder but I had no idea about the existence of Consolidate Library. That is insanely cool. Thanks.

 

[7on]

OOOOOooo, new idea!

If you don't want to move your iTunes folder try this,

Create an account for your friend on your computer (so he won't have to know your Password and so he won't be able to edit stuff in your home directory). Then startup OSX's FTP sharing. This will share your entire home folder (or your entire computer hdd, so I'd check this out before giving him a pass) so you might want to play with certain permissions to get it right (by default all other users have read-only stats so you might want to change some to No Access if you don't want him "snooping"). That should work. Give him his short name and password and he should be able to use any FTP client with ftp://youripaddress

(Sorry for the multiple posts, but their all seperate ideas)

 

[7on]

dude - you rock

I knew about the ability to change the iTunes folder but I had no idea about the existence of Consolidate Library. That is insanely cool. Thanks.

you're welcome. Yes Consolidate Library is cool. Moves everything to the new location. And, if you don't want him to memorize the address of every file you have in there put a .htaccess file in the ~/Sites folder. I've attached an htaccess.zip to this message so you'll need to extract the zip and rename the new file .htaccess (will have to be done in terminal mv ~/Desktop/htaccess ~/Sites/.htaccess). That should do it.

(the .htaccess file I gave you gives people the permisssions to browse the contents of the folder, otherwise people would get the "Access Forbidden" page)