Hi,

When I'm on the road and I need some file I have on my office server, I just ssh into it and then scp it over to my laptop.

Now a client has asked me for a similar setup. He wants a local file server (quite big, 10 TB capacity), and he wants to be able to access the server's data from anywhere when he's not in his office. Preferably something point-and-click.

Now I have a few possibilities in mind, but I'd be curious: what would be your favourite solution for the job?

Cheers,

Niki

OwnCloud? Has Windows, Mac, Android and Linux (source too) sync clients- I have the mirall and ocsync packages already in my repository.

The sync functionality allows your client to have synced copies of server and laptop data, perfect for unattended backups on the road. But perhaps that is not what he needs per se. Owncloud also offers a browser based access to all your files on the server. See http://owncloud.org/six/ for feature overview.

Also cool is that you can edit your server-based Open Office documents in a web-based editor - collaboratively edit one and the same document along with your collegues, even!

Eric

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Dolphin and Konqueror can connect via ssh for point-and-click browsing: fish://remote.server.net.

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I have thought about Owncloud, but it should be installed on a public server. Which is a problem since the client has about 10 TB data. Plus, they must be able to access it from the outside even when nobody's in the office (only the PCs are running).

Or did you have a different setup in mind? Install Owncloud on the LAN server and access it from the outside (via port redirection)?

The client uses Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (RHEL and Slackware) on client machines. Though I guess I could maybe use Filezilla, which handles SSH connections and has clients for all platforms.

sFTP ?

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Maybe OpenVPN and then use the usual lan services like samba, nfs...

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The OwnCloud server can be inside your LAN. All it needs is that the http (better of course is https) port is reachable from the Internet - through port-forwarding.
All you need for web browser file access, just like the sync client, is an URL. No additional ports have to be opened in the firewall. The sync client can use any proxy your client computer is using.

Eric

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I strongly agree with the other member who recommended OpenVPN. Fast, stable, and secure. Once you have your connection you have the whole LAN at your disposal - printers, PCs, and everything else. You can VNC, RDP, SSH, SMB in to the local subnet as if you were there. You can also browse the Net through your LAN with peace of mind - from an airport or hotel, for example. And all that is required is to set up OpenVPN, open one UDP port on your firewall and route all traffic, not just SSH traffic, through the VPN. Dead easy.

I use SSH forwarding sometimes but OpenVPN is so much better if you want the whole LAN and its resources available. I also tend to stay away from solutions which require some kind of man-in-the-middle third party. With OpenVPN you create your own keys, 4096-bit if you want, and you can be sure there will never be any man-in-the-middle snooping.

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