Connecting to PC through Internet

Hi people

I have a Windows 2000 machine which has some documents that I would like to share with friends of mine over the Internet.

Is there a way I can share documents so that my friends can access it in their web browser using my IP address.

If this is poss. what would I need to do.

 

Is this a 2000 server or 2000 pro?

2000 server yes
2000 pro I don't think so but someone may know of an app. to do it.

 

I can't really help with the specific thing you're trying to do, but if all else fails, you can always get a web site.

 

Yes you can. Do you really want to?

There are a number of ways you can let people access folders on your PC, but it can be difficult to secure. In other words the problem is not how do I share some files with my friends but rather how do you stop anyone else using the file space for their own uses or using this as the first step in hijacking your system.

So, if you just want to share some files and they aren't too big (less than a few meg) go with rpatty's excellent suggestion. You can FTP the files up to your webspace and let your friends FTP them down from there. They may need your username and password so sign up for a free or cheap web host and use that rather than compromising your own webspace.

If you really want to do this on your own system, the best way is probably to run a local FTP server. There are some good cheap ones out there (personaly I would not use the IIS one built into Win2k - it's not the easiest thing to set up and troubleshoot). I use a nice one at work, but I can't remember the name. If you're interested I'll post the name in the next couple of days. You need to ensure you enable any security provided with the FTP server and use strong passwords.

Then you need a good firewall. I wouldn't use a free firewall to secure an FTP server. FTP is a troublesome protocol as it uses one port for data transfer and a different one for control. That means it does not play the usual TCP/IP games that firewalls use to track transactions. Personally I'd use a small hardware firewall but the full versions of most personal firewalls should be able to cope.

What ever you do, don't just enable file and print sharing over your internet connection - that is asking for trouble in my opinion.

 

The FTP server I've had good results at work with is Titan FTP