Accessing Folders Remotely?

Hey all, I currently have a home network which has a PC acting as a file server with a RAID 1 configuration. I have it partitioned for a Music Folder, Software Folder, Video Folder, and Photo folder which are shared with 2 other computers.

I will be leaving my current home (my parents home) and moving about 2 miles away.


I realize I won't be able to make my new home part of my existing network without paying a large amount of money even if it is possible, but I would like to know if it's possible to access the above mentioned folders remotely from my new location? Are there any free/low cost services out there that can make this happen?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Personally, I'd always be very nervous about opening a connection to Remote Desktop directly to the internet. Having a system that is just a password away from full access to your PC from the internet makes me very nervous. RDP works a treat over VPN, so I would always recommend that you connect to Remote Desktop via a VPN connection.

Are you sure you need continued access to those files? If you want remote access just for convenience - to access a collection you've built up over some time, it may well be a lot easier to just copy the files to a cheap external hard drive.

However, if you need continual access (for example to share newly acquired files) then VPN with an FTP service is probably the most secure and reliable solution. However, speed will be a problem as you will only be able to move files at the slowest broadband connection - if you have ADSL, that the upload speed which is a lot slower than your normal download speed.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone. I am running Windows Vista on two PCs and have Windows XP on another. I have Cable Internet.

Reggie, your idea sounds like what I am looking for as I would like to still share files with everyone back at the other location. Could you tell me how I could obtain this setup? Thanks!

 

You can set up VPN via software - there is even a system built into Windows. However, my experience is that the easiest solutions to set up and maintain are hardware based. The thing you need is a router with built in VPN server. A router with VPN pass through will not do. The router must provide the VPN end point. If you search carefully, they are available for a reasonable price (for example the Netgear FVS114 or Linksys BEFSX41).

As for FTP, again you can set up Windows to act as an FTP server via IIS, but a dedicated application is often easier to set up and manage. For example, I use Titan FTP as a simple FTP server within our network. There are plenty of other similar products.

The scenario, would be that you install the VPN firewall at your Parents house. Initiate a connection from your PC. Then fire up an FTP client (Windows Explorer will do) and connect to the FTP service running on the old PC. That is, if the IP address of that PC is 192.168.0.1 you'd enter:

Code:

ftp://192.168.0.1

In the address input box in Explorer.