Accessing my home computer from work
 

I would like to access the hard drive of my iMac (osx 10.2.6) from my PC at work (Win2k). My Mac is protected by Norton Personal Firewall, which currently is set to deny all access attempts. It's on 600k bb and can be left on all day.

What do I need to do in order to get at my hard drive at home from my desk at work?

You could use software such as VNC or Rad admin to access the whole PC. Not sure of the security issues though, Or what'd need to be allowed as far as Ports, etc.

Can't you set up the home firewall to allow access to requests from your work ip address?

Yes, but that's the easy part really. I'm curious what my Mac's reaction might be to being probed. Does OS X demand my admin name password?

Also, do I have to access it through internet explorer or does Win2K allow me to specify a connection to a remote computer that shows up as a network hard drive in My Computer?

Let me think,

I think you could set up a samba server (windows file sharing, in the sharing tab of system prefs.) But im not sure how that works over the internet.

Or you could turn on web sharing and put the files in the site folder, but that would be open for all.

It is do-able in a secure manner. One of my in-laws has done it, but I don't know the details. Don't know if he does either, as he probably got one of his techies to do it for him. (he's a owner/md of his own software co. :rolleyes: )
I'll ask him when I next speak to him.....

Run an ftp server? Most come with some kind of security feature that deny/allow access based on ip, plus you can have username and password. If you want really secure, you could try sftp (ssh), though I'm not sure if there is a mac version.

Indeed there is a Mac version of ssh - for Mac OS X is Unix. I dusted off OS X - the missing manual last night and, lo and behold, a whole chapter on remote access. Shoulda thought to look there first ...

There are three ways to hook up with a remote Mac via the internet. The first is Mac-to-Mac only so I've not taken much notice of it (use a PC at work :( ) the second is to enable FTP on my Mac (the OS will still ask for username and password before you get in) and the last is to use ssh. I would need to download a freeware ssh client for Win2k to use that method, but despite the potential comedy value of making my Mac shut down from my work desk while the missus is trying to use it at home, I just don't fancy mucking about with a Unix command line. Not until I've read Unix for Mac OS X anyway.

So, just as soon as I get the network manager to tell me what IP addy we're on at work so I can limit the opening of my firewall, I'm going to give it a go...

Unix for Mac OS X ?
A very good book, light weight and not too hard to digest.

Even tells you how to set up a Mail server!