Sharing Files Over The Internet

[LEEDS]

Hi there
Just want to ask some advice on sharing some files/hard drive across the internet

Background:
My son will be going off to Uni in about a month, he will be taking his laptop with him and connecting to the University network for internet access, email etc.
What I would like to do is make my hard disk available - (at home)over the internet so that he can share my files and backup his files onto my hard drive for safekeeping.

I've had a look at some FTP server software, and understand I could set up my pc as an FTP server, but just wondered if anyone els has done this, or could advise me on a better way to achieve our goal?

Many Thanks in advance

[Ganty]

Just use a remote client - I've used LogMeIn - it's free and works well

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

[diablos]

Hi there
Just want to ask some advice on sharing some files/hard drive across the internet

Background:
My son will be going off to Uni in about a month, he will be taking his laptop with him and connecting to the University network for internet access, email etc.
What I would like to do is make my hard disk available - (at home)over the internet so that he can share my files and backup his files onto my hard drive for safekeeping.

I've had a look at some FTP server software, and understand I could set up my pc as an FTP server, but just wondered if anyone els has done this, or could advise me on a better way to achieve our goal?

Many Thanks in advance

Can you not just use a file sharing programme with chat built in like http://www.icq.com/

[inspectercoley]

FTP is probably the best way, or use a file sharing program like ares from ares galaxy and then if you both know each others usernames then you can connect each others shared folders using this.
Also DC++ does a similar thing to this.

The main problem with FTP from a home connection is that you probably do not have a static IP so every time this changes you will have to then resend this info to your son.

The problem with ares is that if it is just generally shared you have the limit of connection speed and that other people can see the files but if you share share folders via the chat feature then each time this occurs permission needs to be given so thats not ideal as it would require constant confirmation/contact.

Newer versions of MSN offer file sharing facilities but I have not had much experience of this as I get the impression its not very good...

Also university connections (ie in Halls) are known for blocking connections (ports, etc) so it may not be possible depending on the setup (unless he is on a residential setup).



I would buy him a usb hard drive and then copy all the stuff to that in advance then there is no need for the file sharing.