I'm using Slackware 12 on my desktop. I like being able to ssh into the desktop from my iPhone when I'm away. Can I limit ssh access to my mac address for a little extra security?

SSH is no biggie, but what I'd really like to do is put some files on apache so I can access them from my phone. Can I also limit that to my mac address?

I've read up on apache authentication a little, but I didn't have much success so far and I wonder if iptables would be a better place to do it?

I know a mac address can be spoofed but no one knows my mac address or the fact that I have a server and the files aren't that important, I just don't want them in the open.

MAC addresses are implemented in the data link layer. Therefore, packets on the Internet don't make use of them. The MAC address your server will see when you connect from your iPhone via the Internet will be the MAC address of the node on your LAN which encapsulated the IP packet in a frame. Typically, this would be the MAC address of the LAN interface on your router. So the answer to your question is no (unless you weren't refering to access from outside the LAN).

Try this slide77. In your sshd_config file AllowUsers directive set that to only you and PermitRootLogin to no. Generate a ssh key on you Iphone and place it on the server. If you are trying to gain access to files remotely the better way to do this is with scp and other tools that I am unsure if your Iphone supports.

This is list o various ways I can push and pull content.

Pull
rsync -r -v --progress -e ssh root@remote-server:/original/path /destination/path/
scp foobar@hostB:~/myfile.txt /local/destination/path/
Copy a folder from one host to another by adding option -r
scp -r foobar@hostB:/remote/folder

Copy from one host to another with different ssh account.
scp foobar@hostB:~/myfile.txt root@hostF:~/

ssh target_address cat remotefile > localfile

Push
scp myfile.txt foobar@hostB:/remote/send/to/path
ssh target_address cat <localfile ">" remotefile

tar -czf - /some/file | ssh root@192.168.2.100 tar -zxvf - -C /destination

scp -c blowfish -C Windows_LAMP_and_ASP_install_files.folder.tar root@192.168.2.10:/home/
scp -c blowfish Windows_LAMP_and_ASP_install_files.folder.tar root@192.168.2.10:/home/
scp Windows_LAMP_and_ASP_install_files.folder.tar root@192.168.2.10:/home/ #FASTEST
tar -czf - Windows_LAMP_and_ASP_install_files.folder.tar | ssh root@192.168.2.10 tar -zxvf - -C /home/

Push a directory on port 8008
scp -P 8008 -r /home/share root@192.168.2.4:/home/

rsync -e 'ssh -ax -c blowfish -p8008' -avz --progress /media/music/ root@192.168.2.9:/home/share/music/

rysnc with resume
rsync -r --partial --progress --ignore-existing --append --rsh=ssh my-local-folder-name user@destination-server:

Push and delete empty directories and extra files on the receiver.
rsync -r --partial --progress --ignore-existing --append --prune-empty-dirs --delete

Use this to test --dry-run and this to exclude certain files or directories --exclude='lost+found'

Wow thanks for all that. I do have scp, that's what I've been using for simple one file copying but I'll play with these commands and probably put some to use.