Accessing my home computer through the internet

[Richard Spandit]

I spend most of my time away from home, but my laptop doesn't have a very big harddrive. Is there a solution (free if possible) to access my home computer's drive over the internet, using a VPN or similar, so I can backup/upload files at will? I suppose setting up a secure FTP server might be an option, but would it then be possible to mount the remote drive as a network drive under XP?

[bladewashout]

You can do this with a VPN, your home computer would need to be running Windows XP Pro. I think you can connect with an XP home client. All the software is supplied on XP pro, I use it all the time to connect from Work to home and Vice-Versa.

Home firewalls etc. can make this a pain to get working.

BW

[Richard Spandit]

Haven't got XP Pro... but glad to know it can be done - there must be an open source alternative

[Stoney X]

Richard, you say you are looking at doing this because you don't have enough hard disk space on your laptop. I am inclined to think that if large amounts of data is the issue then a USB/external hard drive would be a better solution. Having a VPN, ftp server, etc would be most convient, but the speed of your home connection might make it unpractible.

Regards
Stoney

[Hamrah]

I use www.gotomypc.com . Have done for a couple of years it works very well.

H

[IO540]

From your message it sounds like you want to either do explicit (manually select which files get transferred) file transfer, or end up with the remote hard drive mapped over the network.

You can do the first one, using many programs e.g. PC/Anywhere. PCA is also one of a number of progs that will give you remote control over the remote machine - very handy.

If you want to map the remote drive locally (the 2nd option) Windows can do that natively. Just set up the appropriate shares. The trouble is that everybody will be able to get in there also, so you need to look into good security, and there are lots of ways to do that, from not too complicated to horrendously complicated.

Either way, it will be pretty slow, and not much good for effectively increasing the size of your hard drive. Even transferring 1 gig will take hours.

[Keef]

Unless there's a reason for wanting to access the home machine, I'd just buy an external (USB) hard drive and plug it in. I got one off Ebay that did the job perfectly. Some time later, the "home" HD in the laptop died and I transplanted the one out of the USB caddy and installed that.

That's easy to do, and also gives you a handy little device for backups, moving files about, and all sorts.

[Richard Spandit]

Yeah, you might be right... was thinking of getting a USB drive to supplement my laptop's storage...

[Memetic]

...or one of its variants for remote control.

http://www.realvnc.com/

it even works form some java or symbian phones :)

For easy access to files on the move ftp or a gmail account might serve you better.

[slim_slag]

I'd second memetic's gmail suggestion, very good for putting stuff somewhere in case your laptop/flash drive goes missing. Gmail drive shell extension (http://www.viksoe.dk/gmail/) makes it easier. I've played with connecting directly to a machine on my home network when out on the road, and it can be done. You have to configure your home firewall to allow incoming traffic on a specific port to go to one machine, secure that machine, need to have some sort of dynamic DNS (www.dyndns.org) so you can always find your pc, and some sort of security tunnel mechanism. I am sure others have better ideas. gmail is a lot easier if you just want to put files somewhere.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

slim - got it in one.... get a removable hard disk, or a gmail account

although windows remote desktop is a killer app if you have broadband at home but not on the road and you want the next episode of 24 ready for you when you get home....

[Lord Lucan]

I agree, go with the USB HDD. The price here in Spain is now well under EUR 1 per Gb. (for some special offers down to 50c per Gb)

It is much easier and faster storage to use than optical media, though being cautious with data, I use DVDs too, as a second (and portable) backup. They have also become very cheap. About EUR1 each here.

[Richard Spandit]

All good replies, thanks everyone. A USB drive, although very useful, isn't really what I'm looking for, seeing as if my bags get stolen, I've lost everything. The Gmail idea is OK, but as far as I know, there is a 10mb attachment limit (the shell extension just e-mails your files) and accessing the files again from, say, an internet cafe might be tricky, assuming they don't have the shell extension installed.

I'm also thinking it must be possible to access files using my PalmPilot, with WiFile Pro or similar... I have done this across a LAN, but over a WAN might be more tricky. Again, keeping the data remote incase someone nicks the PDA. That said, I could always just e-mail important documents to myself, although last time I looked, I had no encryption software on the Palm.

[rotorcraig]

Tight VNC (http://www.tightvnc.com/) works well, and is free!

RC

[slim_slag]

The Gmail idea is OK, but as far as I know, there is a 10mb attachment limit (the shell extension just e-mails your files) and accessing the files again from, say, an internet cafe might be tricky, assuming they don't have the shell extension installedYou can use pkzip to compress then split a large file into 10meg chunks. The shell extension just makes it easier, you can still log into gmail and see/download the attachments. Internet cafes don't really give any serious functionality and is hardly a reason to reject one solution over another. You should always assume an internet cafe has a keyboard logger and will keep a copy of anything you do.

[Saab Dastard]

Richard Spandit,

One option that might work for you is an online storage / backup facility, where your files are stored for you by a 3rd party, accessible via the web.

I have no particular knowledge of any, but there are several offering secure backup and online storage and sharing. Try putting "web backup storage" into google.

SD

[Richard Spandit]

One application that none of these solutions help with is running bittorrent. It would be nice to leave a server at home 24/7 downloading stuff for me so I can ftp it over to my laptop from the hotel... will have a look at TightVNC - might be the one

[rotorcraig]

TightVNC (and I would assume RealVNC also) allows you to take full remote control of your PC over the internet.

You should be able to do anything that you could do sat in front of your own keyboard (eg open an FTP session to your laptop and push files over the internet).

In choosing between them and similar products, look at security as much as (if not more than) functionality.

RC