I've searched but haven't found anything matching the information I need. It's more of a 'want' project than need, so here goes. I have WinXP at work, of which I am not an admin, so I cannot add programs or change restricted settings. I am running Slack 12.0 at home. I would like to be able to either just gain access to my files (i.e. music, etc) at work, or remote login to my home machine somehow. Is this possible without adding anything to the XP machine, and if so, how to do it or a link to a HOWTO?

I'm sure I could do something with telnet, but I'd rather not because of the security problem inherent with it, and what would using ssh on the XP machine entail? I'd prefer not having to setup a server that needed to be hosted somewhere if I can avoid it. Thanks for your help.

I think that you are SOL.

If you want to use SSH then you have to install something on the XP machine. I have read that Cygwin or Putty will provide SSH.

But then you may have to configure your XP machine's firewall. It may be configured to prevent traffic on port 22.

Even if you can do that then your employer may have a firewall for the business controlling outbound protocols. They may block SSH.

If you get through all of that then chances are that your ISP does not provide you with a public IP address for your home computer. You would have to use Dynamic DNS. AFAIK that costs some money, but maybe not too much.

I think that the main problem for you is installing or configuring your XP machine since you don't have Administrator privileges.

If you could configure your XP machine at work it might be easier for you to use a modem on both ends of the connection: one in the office and another at home. However any good system administrator will see this as a security vulnerability at work since it creates a path to your employer's LAN.

I'd say forget about it.

What about running those programs from a thumb drive, would that be possible? I know you can do that with Firefox.

If you're allowed web access from work you could always set up a secure webserver at home.

But wouldn't I need to host it somewhere?

You may host it at home, you may also use dyndns for dynamic DNS resolution without any cost.

Hmm...OK, so any good HOWTO's you know of?

Apache comes as standard on most linux distros and the documentation is pretty good. You must read up on the security aspects before you start because you're opening a path to your machine from the internet. I'd start with the docs first and then Google for some HOWTOs that suit your needs.

You could set up an FTP server (search this site for PROFTPD)on your Linux box, use no-ip.com to register a free domain name, use their dynamic DNS software to update what your current ISP's dynamically-assigned IP is, and then use Internet Explorer (the newest version) to FTP into your Linux box for simple drag/drop/copy/paste of your files.

Deion "Mule" Christopher

Download putty on your windows machine and run it.. it's a self contained exe and should not need to be installed to run. pscp is the windows scp portion of putty used to copy files. work has to allow port 22 (ssh) out through the firewall in order for this to work, so depending on the outbound filtering rules of your corporate firewall...
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Alternately you could install something like SSL-Explorer on a machine at home, and then you could access your home machine and files through any web browser. http://3sp.com/showSslExplorerCommun...er=sslexplorer

winscp is useful for grabbing files from your home machine as well, but I believe it has to be installed on the Windows machine in order to run.


to get around the dynamic IP issue for your home machine you can use one of the following free services..
http://www.dyndns.com/
http://www.no-ip.com/
I've been using dyndns for about 8 years now, and have never paid a dime. works great !

Thanks for all the replies! They've all been very informative. I'm gonna give SSL-Explorer a shot before trying some of the other options. I'm trying to avoid FTP if I can, so that may be one of the last options to be tried.

I think you'll be amazed and impressed with all that ssl explorer can do.. I was, when I took a look at all the available access options..

Let us know how it works for you.

Wow, this thing works great. Am able to access shared folders on my machine now, and the only thing that needed to be installed on the clients was a web certificate. This is pretty darn slick. Thanks man, will definitely recommend SSLExplorer, solves a lot of hassle and headaches when all you want to do is access your files.

Glad it worked out for you

Well, I can access it from my friends home computer, but not from work, so either I don't have it set up correctly (highly possible) or they got the proxy setup so I cannot get through to it. Guess I have some more work ahead of me this weekend.

Edit: Well, there seems to be a problem with the DNS resolution. If I type in the domain name, I get the proxy error, but if I type in the IP, I can get in. It's incredibly slow though, probably have some performance tweaking to accomplish, plus I'm not certain what the DNS problem is as I am able to type the domain on my friends machine and it finds it.

All said though, it is a really cool program.