Accessing shared files using Internet... VPN?

Hi,

Wondering what the best way to get hold of my mp3s from home would be
(when I'm at work).

I've the webserver/script methods which worked great, but I wondered if
it would be possible with VPN.

I'm not entirely sure what VPN is used for, so I set it up anyway, and
it all seemed to work, though it obviously buggered up my connection
routing everything (from what I could tell.. most/all network traffic)
from home rather than the work servers.

Is VPN a viable solution to access shared folders on a home computer
whilst at work? Can I route only the specific 'file transfer' traffic
through VPN whilst maintaining a standard connection to the Internet
when at work?

Hope you understand the problem, and maybe someone can lend a few
pointers

Cheers,
Chris

Not Me wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Wondering what the best way to get hold of my mp3s from home would be
> (when I'm at work).
>
> I've the webserver/script methods which worked great, but I wondered if
> it would be possible with VPN.
>
> I'm not entirely sure what VPN is used for, so I set it up anyway, and
> it all seemed to work, though it obviously buggered up my connection
> routing everything (from what I could tell.. most/all network traffic)
> from home rather than the work servers.
>
> Is VPN a viable solution to access shared folders on a home computer
> whilst at work? Can I route only the specific 'file transfer' traffic
> through VPN whilst maintaining a standard connection to the Internet
> when at work?
>
> Hope you understand the problem, and maybe someone can lend a few
> pointers

I'd be happy to hear also, this is exactly the thing I was wondering
about! Presumably I'd be able to run things on my home PC as and when I
wanted too?

--
[ste]
My Rpoints referral:
http://www.rpoints.com/?ruid=44649

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, "[ste parker]"
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> Not Me wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Wondering what the best way to get hold of my mp3s from home would be
> > (when I'm at work).
> >
> > I've the webserver/script methods which worked great, but I wondered if
> > it would be possible with VPN.
> >
> > I'm not entirely sure what VPN is used for, so I set it up anyway, and
> > it all seemed to work, though it obviously buggered up my connection
> > routing everything (from what I could tell.. most/all network traffic)
> > from home rather than the work servers.
> >
> > Is VPN a viable solution to access shared folders on a home computer
> > whilst at work? Can I route only the specific 'file transfer' traffic
> > through VPN whilst maintaining a standard connection to the Internet
> > when at work?
> >
> > Hope you understand the problem, and maybe someone can lend a few
> > pointers

Why not just set up an FTP or SSH server?
>
> I'd be happy to hear also, this is exactly the thing I was wondering
> about! Presumably I'd be able to run things on my home PC as and when I
> wanted too?
>
No - a VPN is just a way of making a point-to-point network connection
secure while remaining transparent to the programs that use it. You set
up the two endpoints, and everything that passes between them is
encrypted, but as the two machines are looking "through" the endpoints
it appears to be a normal network connection. If you want to access
things on the remote PC you still have to make them accessible to the
network in the normal way.

Rob Morley wrote:

>>I'd be happy to hear also, this is exactly the thing I was wondering
>>about! Presumably I'd be able to run things on my home PC as and when I
>>wanted too?
>>
>
> No - a VPN is just a way of making a point-to-point network connection
> secure while remaining transparent to the programs that use it. You set
> up the two endpoints, and everything that passes between them is
> encrypted, but as the two machines are looking "through" the endpoints
> it appears to be a normal network connection. If you want to access
> things on the remote PC you still have to make them accessible to the
> network in the normal way.

I think I was confusing myself a little - I regularly use VPN for work,
enabling me to get on the Unix servers from just about anywhere, but a
Windows machine is obviously a different kettle of fish, and just
accessing the network wouldn't be enough for what I want. Any ideas on
what I'd need in order to actually launch & control stuff on the remote
PC? PC Anywhere will probably do the job, but are there other (ie
free!) alternatives?

--
[ste]
My Rpoints referral:
http://www.rpoints.com/?ruid=44649

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, "[ste parker]"
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> Rob Morley wrote:
>
> >>I'd be happy to hear also, this is exactly the thing I was wondering
> >>about! Presumably I'd be able to run things on my home PC as and when I
> >>wanted too?
> >>
> >
> > No - a VPN is just a way of making a point-to-point network connection
> > secure while remaining transparent to the programs that use it. You set
> > up the two endpoints, and everything that passes between them is
> > encrypted, but as the two machines are looking "through" the endpoints
> > it appears to be a normal network connection. If you want to access
> > things on the remote PC you still have to make them accessible to the
> > network in the normal way.
>
> I think I was confusing myself a little - I regularly use VPN for work,
> enabling me to get on the Unix servers from just about anywhere, but a
> Windows machine is obviously a different kettle of fish, and just
> accessing the network wouldn't be enough for what I want. Any ideas on
> what I'd need in order to actually launch & control stuff on the remote
> PC? PC Anywhere will probably do the job, but are there other (ie
> free!) alternatives?
>
>
One of the VNC variations - I've most recently used TightVNC, and it
works fine.

Rob Morley wrote:

> One of the VNC variations - I've most recently used TightVNC, and it
> works fine.

I use UltraVNC, a Windows-specific variant. It claims to offer most of
the advantages of TightVNC and others, and allows file transfer and chat
mode.

It works fine for me, and I haven't used any other versions for a long
time.

I run a VPN which allows a remote computer to join the local network as
if it were indeed local (but slower). If I want to, I use (Ultra)VNC
over the VPN to control a PC on the network. I can even restart the
machine, reconnect VNC, and login over the VPN+VNC -- it's possible to
install Windows service packs. If the network machine I want to use is
switched off, I run a Wakeup-On-Lan program on another machine to switch
it on.

By the, ensure that the local and the remote network use different
subnets (E.g., 192.168.11.x and 192.168.17.x). If both your router and
the remote network's file server think they are 192.168.1.1, you have
trouble.

Best wishes,
--
Michael Salem

[ste parker] wrote:
> Rob Morley wrote:
>
>>> I'd be happy to hear also, this is exactly the thing I was wondering
>>> about! Presumably I'd be able to run things on my home PC as and
>>> when I wanted too?
>>>
>>
>> No - a VPN is just a way of making a point-to-point network connection
>> secure while remaining transparent to the programs that use it. You
>> set up the two endpoints, and everything that passes between them is
>> encrypted, but as the two machines are looking "through" the endpoints
>> it appears to be a normal network connection. If you want to access
>> things on the remote PC you still have to make them accessible to the
>> network in the normal way.
>
>
> I think I was confusing myself a little - I regularly use VPN for work,
> enabling me to get on the Unix servers from just about anywhere, but a
> Windows machine is obviously a different kettle of fish, and just
> accessing the network wouldn't be enough for what I want. Any ideas on
> what I'd need in order to actually launch & control stuff on the remote
> PC? PC Anywhere will probably do the job, but are there other (ie
> free!) alternatives?

For this kind of thing, the remote desktop connection that is built into
XP pro and above is as easy as ticking a checkbox and ensuring one of
your accounts is password protected.. If you have XP home or below, (or
if you just want to try something new) then the VNC clients would suit.

Cheers,
Chris

Rob Morley wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, "[ste parker]"
> (E-Mail Removed) says...

>>Not Me wrote:
>>>Wondering what the best way to get hold of my mp3s from home would be
>>>(when I'm at work).
>>>
>>>I've the webserver/script methods which worked great, but I wondered if
>>>it would be possible with VPN.
>>>
>>>I'm not entirely sure what VPN is used for, so I set it up anyway, and
>>>it all seemed to work, though it obviously buggered up my connection
>>>routing everything (from what I could tell.. most/all network traffic)
>>>from home rather than the work servers.
>>>
>>>Is VPN a viable solution to access shared folders on a home computer
>>>whilst at work? Can I route only the specific 'file transfer' traffic
>>>through VPN whilst maintaining a standard connection to the Internet
>>>when at work?
>>>
>>>Hope you understand the problem, and maybe someone can lend a few
>>>pointers

> Why not just set up an FTP or SSH server?

I would like to have the situation where I could just map a folder at
home to a drive at work, allowing me to just add this drive to, for
example media player's 'search' folder and stream my mp3s over the
network. Can't really do that with FTP, but never used SSH as a server
before... would that be possible?

Cheers,
Chris

Not Me <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> I would like to have the situation where I could just map a folder at
> home to a drive at work, allowing me to just add this drive to, for
> example media player's 'search' folder and stream my mp3s over the
> network. Can't really do that with FTP, but never used SSH as a server
> before... would that be possible?
>
Windows 2000 and XP can map FTP server files so they appear as a drive
on the local machine. So if you have an FTP server on your home
machine that you can set up some sort of secure access to (using a VPN
or SSH) then you can get what you want that way.

--
Chris Green

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Windows 2000 and XP can map FTP server files so they appear as a drive
> on the local machine.

Sounds like it could be useful. How do you do it?

Alex