Fetch Softworks

Is Fetch what I need? (6 posts)

• Started 16 years ago by l lancaster
• Latest reply 16 years ago from Scott McGuire

• l lancaster Member

  I have a SOHO network which uses an Airport Extreme Base Station as the router connected to the internet and providing IP addresses to the devices on the local network. I would like to take one of those computers (a Mac G4 running OSX 10.4) and dedicate it as file server. I would like to restrict access and I would like to make sure that internet access is routed (ported?) ONLY to that one, dedicated computer and not others on the local network.

  I was told by a Genius at Apple that enabling Remote Login in the Sharing Preferences pane and then utilizing Fetch on the remote computers would enable reading/writing files on the "host" in a very secure (SHH) way. This would reportedly obviate the need to engage in Terminal-type commands. Yes?

  Incidentially, I am unclear as to how the AEBS router knows to route inquires to the one, and only one, computer on my network assigned for file sharing over the internet yet still protect the others from intrusion.

  Posted 16 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  I'm not sure we can answer all your questions, but one question I have before I begin is (that's not clear from your post, sorry) - do you just want to access this server only from computers on the local network, or do you want to access it from outside the local network, too?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  [This message has been edited by ScottMcGuire (edited 06-11-2007).]

  Posted 16 years ago #

• l lancaster Member

  Good morning,

  Sorry, I am most interested in accessing this server (computer) from over the internet. Also, MY remote computers are Mac, which are my primary concern, but I would ultimately like to access from any internet-enabled comuter.

  L Lancaster

  Posted 16 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  If you want to be able to access the file server on your internal network from anywhere on the Internet, I'm afraid the Apple Genius left out a step.

  When you use an AirPort Base Station to share a single IP address with multiple computers, each computer on the internal network gets an "internal" IP address. That internal address is only valid when used on the internal network; it is meaningless outside the internal network.

  So in order to talk to a machine on the internal network from the wider internet, you must set up the AirPort Extreme Base Station to route requests to a specific computer on the internal network. By default, it is not set up to this. Doing this is called "port forwarding."

  Each kind of Internet traffic is assigned one or more standard "ports" that it uses. It's kind of like TV channels where each station gets it own channel. So for a server that is on an internal network, you must tell the AirPort Base Station to forward all the traffic on the ports the server needs to use to a specific machine on the internal network.

  For an SFTP server, which is what is enabled when you turn of "Remote Login" in the Sharing System Preferences pane, you need to forward port 22 to the server machine. (This is better than FTP, where you might need to forward a large number of ports. Plus, SFTP provides much more secure communications anyway.)

  I believe Apple has technotes on setting up port forwarding for AirPort Base Stations.

  This website may also be helpful, although the screenshots they use may not match your version of the AirPort software, and they are talking about forwarding one of the FTP ports. Use port 22 wherever they say port 21 in order to set up SFTP forwarding:

  http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Apple/AirPortExtreme/FTP.htm

  However, once you've got the server and port forwarding set up, then yes, you can use Fetch to upload and download files to your server from anywhere on the Internet, because Fetch supports SFTP. (There are SFTP clients for Windows as well.) You would connect with SFTP to the IP address of the AirPort Base Station, and then the Base Station would forward the request to the Mac acting as a server.

  And the other machines on your internal network are still safe, because the AirPort Base Station will only forward traffic destined for the server to the one computer you specify - since the Base Station hasn't been told how to send information to the other machines, it can't and won't, so no one outside the internal network can talk to them.

  I hope this helps clarify things. Please let us know if you have more questions, but here at Fetch we are not experts at setting up servers (since Fetch is only a client program), so we may not be able to help you with server setup problems.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  [This message has been edited by ScottMcGuire (edited 06-11-2007).]

  Posted 16 years ago #

• l lancaster Member

  Scott,

  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for such a clear response to my questions. I think you helped bring it together for me. I must say, I have to thank the Apple Genius for pointing me in your direction. The downside for you is that once I set this thing up and start using Fetch you'll never be rid of me!

  Incidentally, thanks for the link. I had difficulty finding port forwarding info at Apple.

  L Lancaster

  Posted 16 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  You're welcome. And it's never a bad thing to gain a customer. :)

  I knew that Apple had documents on port forwarding for Apple Remote Desktop; I had supposed that meant they had more general information about port forwarding. But I agree with you - when I tried this morning I couldn't find anything too useful on their site, either. Sorry about that.

  Good luck,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 16 years ago #