Apple File Sharing over the Internet

4

4C4Blessed

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I have checked for this topic but I was only able to find sporratic, half-answers to this question. (That, or it was far too technical to make heads or tails of the whole thing). So apologies if it seems like a repost.

What I want to do is seemingly straightforward, but apparently not.

I want to switch on Apple File Sharing in the Sharing pane of System Preferences of my home mac. And then I want to log into the home mac from an iBook, across the internt, somewhere far away from my local area network.

My shared home mac is connected to the ineternet on your standard, average, everyday DSL home broadband connection which is running DHCP and feeding 4 other computers in the house.

What address should I type in on the remote iBook to access the home shared mac? Typing in the DSL's main IP address under the Finder's "Connect To server" is obviously not the trick, nothing happens. Any input in plain english for non-network-engineers would be helpful, thanks in advance!
 
Whew.. there isn't snap answer to this, but I will try:

On the mac you are going to share, you will need to assign it a static IP address and not use DHCP. This provides a consistant IP address which will not change on reboot/crash.

The static IP address is assigned in the Network under System Preferences.

Assuming that file sharing is turned on (enabled), you will need to open ports 548 and 427 on your firewall (your router) to allow filesharing access to your mac. Remember, if you open those ports - anyone will be able to sniff at your mac's public folder. ~/Users/yourname/public

if you need a bit more detailed answer, let me know.


But that is part of the risk of allowing the functionality.
 
Hello and thank you for the informaiton.
The next question would be, what do I enter on the remote iBook in order to connect to the shared Mac? The DSL's internet IP address? (86.80.xxx.xxx) Or the shared Mac's LAN IP address which is now a static 192.168.x.x number, as I understand, this number will not be valid across the internet. Thanks in advance.
 
The DSL would be the IP address to use. Then, the NAT table in your router would direct the appropriate packets to the internal IP address based on port association.
 
The address you enter should be your DSL router IP address plus one. Typically in a home broadband configuration the point of presence (POP) router is given an address to identify it on the internet. That router will serve one additional address to a network device connected to it (DSL router IP address plus 1=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx+1) to allow you to connect a computer or network switch to the internet.

So you want to hit the +1 address that used to identify your computer/network that is behind the POP.

Now actually hitting a service on your network depends on how your network shares the interent.

If you connect your Mac directly to the DSL router, it is given the +1 address from the router. As long as you've configured the File Sharing properly on the Mac you should be able to hit it with apf://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx+1.

If your DSL modem is connected to a switch (or acting as the switch) to share the internet it is the +1 address. But then you'll need to configure it to pass AFP traffic to the appropriate NAT address for the MAC you want to hit.

Mark
 
marzer - sorry, that doesn't help.

upQuark77 gave us most of what we need.

Opening the ports on the router firewall is (usually) called Port Forwarding.

4C4Blessed - after setting the manual local IP address on your Mac that will share files, you need to log into the router (or the DSL modem if it is a combined modem/router) and tell it which local IP address will handle incoming traffic for port 548.

Now on the remote computer, Connect to server & enter afp://[external IP address of DSL]

Because AFP automatically uses port 548, when the request gets to your router, it will forward that request to the computer with file sharing on.

Hope this helps.
 
"marzer - sorry, that doesn't help."

gsahil-

I see your pointed and arrogant comment to be unwarranted and unecessary. I was simply trying to offer and alternative perspective to the original poster's problem, as many many participants do throughout this board. Or did I misunderstand the nature of this board? Open and mutual participation for all. AS stated on the main page -

"we offer a great community, more than 65,000 members strong, every one with an opinion to share"

As a "volunteer tech", I assume (no doubt incorrectly) that you may be a sanctioned representative on the macosx.com forums under the Volunteer program, and might refrain from such potentially inflammatory remarks. Unless, of course, that was your intent...

In the future feel free to keep such uneccessary personally directed opinions to yourself where I am regarded. Thank you.

Mark
 
Mark,
I do apologize if I've offended you.

I am Not sanctioned in any way here. My record speaks for itself. I have no intent but to help those who ask for help. You are welcome to complain to the owner of the site.

I ask for your input - If your objective was to not confuse our original poster, how would you have stated what I said above?

Best wishes.
 
Thanks, Satcomer, that's pretty cool...

Don't know why I didn't mention that I use Cyberduck (free software) to do scp (secure copy) from my home Mac to my school Mac and back - pretty painless way to do remote file sharing.
 
"pointed and arrogant comment" would more accurately describe the totally
off the wall and out-of-line attack in your reply to gsahil.

The words unnecessary and unwarranted are also applicable.

Get over yourself.


marzer said:
"marzer - sorry, that doesn't help."

gsahil-

I see your pointed and arrogant comment to be unwarranted and unecessary. I was simply trying to offer and alternative perspective to the original poster's problem, as many many participants do throughout this board. Or did I misunderstand the nature of this board? Open and mutual participation for all. AS stated on the main page -

"we offer a great community, more than 65,000 members strong, every one with an opinion to share"

As a "volunteer tech", I assume (no doubt incorrectly) that you may be a sanctioned representative on the macosx.com forums under the Volunteer program, and might refrain from such potentially inflammatory remarks. Unless, of course, that was your intent...

In the future feel free to keep such uneccessary personally directed opinions to yourself where I am regarded. Thank you.

Mark
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