Fileserver with Fedora 10

[tubbsey88]

I have a desktop with Fedora 10 on it. This is the machine that I have all of my movies/music/games on. I have recently received a laptop with windows vista and a smaller hard drive than the one on the desktop. I am also traveling to Florida in the near future and I was wondering if there was any way to set up any kind of folder sharing that I can access while in florida (I live in Michigan).

[yawningdog]

Your best bet is probably to set up the fedora machine as an FTP server. You can simply open internet explorer and enter ftp://youripaddress into the address field and you can download whatever you have placed in your /home/ftp folder.

Do be careful. I'm pretty sure I read about a kid who got arrested for putting all his mp3 files on an ftp server for anyone to download. If you're planning to do this, make sure you set up the server to allow access to only authenticated users.

As an alternative, you can set up ssh services on your fedora box and use winscp to access all of the files on your linux box. It's a little slower, but easier to set up.

Setting up and using FTP
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch15_:_Linux_FTP_Server_Setup

Setting up and using SSH
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Configuring_Fedora_Linux_Remote_Access_using_SSH

[tubbsey88]

now that is my outgoing ip right. Do i have to navigate to a certain machine on my local network?

[yawningdog]

Not your gateway IP, your public IP. Go to www.whatismyip.com and it will tell you in big, dumb numbers what your public IP is.

You will need to configure your router to forward the correct ports to your server. (Port 21 for FTP, port 22 for SSH.)

[Paul Komski]

If you have a changing or dynamic IP address then consider using dyndns (http://www.dyndns.com/) or similar to find your connection from the internet.

[tubbsey88]

So i configure ssl, then i sign up for DDNS, then i can use firefox to browse my shared files on the desktop in michigan?

[Paul Komski]

As suggested you can setup either an FTP or an SSH server on the Linux box (I dont think there was any mention of SSL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security) which is a protocol rather than a server); a VNC server could be configured to have a remote desktop and would be another option. An SCP client (WinSCP as mentioned if accessing from a Windows box and there is a portable version that you can carry around on a pen drive) would be what I would suggest using to access for file transfers or an SSH-tunnelled VNC client if you want "to sit at the remote desktop". I don't know about remote desktop setup on Fedora but it comes pre-configured and only needs enabling under Ubuntu for those that want to know this.

FTP/SFTP/VSFTPD have limitations (which may be what you want or not) in what access to your system is possible.

[tubbsey88]

So if I install SSH I can view and use my files from a different network, because i dont want to have to download them to the local machine. Another question, can i set up a shared folder on a windows machine and then use vpn to access them as if im on the network with the desktop.

[Paul Komski]

I have no real experience of setting up VPNs. As far as I understand it, the main way these are used are to interconnect two LANs rather than use any WAN or LAN to access one specific computer.

If you want to use a remote desktop as a thin client or as if you were sitting at that remote desktop (be it via a LAN or the Internet) then you must use some sort of remote desktop software already running on the remote or downloaded and installed by a remote user. That software is either listening on a particular port (usually forwared by the public IP address of the router) such as the various VNC server packages or by broadcasting software such as LogMeIn or Netmeeting (but neither of which are supported on Linux boxes) which continuously broadcast to a central server that it is ready to receive input and users then find it by accessing the central server. DynDNS also broadcasts at intervals but just so that any changing Public IP address can be discovered by a remote machine.

If you want to control the Fedora machine rather than access it simply for file sharing (which is mostly how LANs (local or virtual) are configured to allow access to specific folder shares) then something like VNC for Fedora (http://www.g-loaded.eu/2005/11/10/configure-vnc-server-in-fedora/) should be what you should learn how to install. There is a bit of learning curve in setting it all up securely.

[yawningdog]

If you want to access files and open them without downloading them, then your options become much more limited. A VPN is your best bet. It can be used as a tunnel between two sites, or as a secure wan link between two computers.

Alternatively (if you're up for a challenge) you can tunnel SMB shares across an SSH connection and it's as if you were connected locally. I've done it and it's pretty cool, but it's not for the noob.

Paul's idea about using VNC is the third option, probably the easiest, and in my opinion it's the least desirable. And don't forget the good old sneaker net. (Carrying all the files you need with you on a CD, DVD, or portable hard drive.)

[Paul Komski]

it's the least desirableAny particular reason and hope its not because you had Ubuntu problems after attempting to install xrdp ;)

[yawningdog]

Any particular reason and hope its not because you had Ubuntu problems after attempting to install xrdp
Yeah, you'll notice that I did NOT advocate installing xrdp. It's great if you can get it to work, but getting it to work is a stone be-otch.

I've never really liked VNC just because it seems slow and cumbersome compared to RDP or ICA. And besides, the issue addressed here is the reason VPNs exist. VNC just seems an ineloquent (albeit workable) solution for this particular problem. But if that's what works for you, who am I to argue?

[Paul Komski]

You noticed my ;) I trust.

I'm actually unsure if the OP wants to execute a distant file locally or to go and execute distantly as a thin client.

[mjc]

Since the OP was discussing media files, wouldn't it be a bit easier to set up, VLC, to stream the files (if both network connections are fast enough)?

http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/streaming-howto-en.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-VLC-Media-Player-to-Stream-Multimedia-to-Another-Computer

If they aren't then I think it would be easier, over all, to just put them on an external drive, as mentioned before...