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How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

Last post 07-07-2008, 10:00 PM by dbacs. 12 replies.
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  •  07-01-2008, 9:26 PM 271259

    How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    Hello,

    I would like to share some of my home videos with my family across the state.  I would like to setup a VPN and a network drive for this.

    All family members have the same ISP and dynamic connection.  We all use a wireless router also.  So if i get 2 computers hooked up on a vpn then the rest will be a snap to setup.

    Will VMC be able to use a network drive to share over a VPN?

    Can anyone point me to, or give me advice on how to tackle this job?  I have setup VPN's cross coutry using Cisco VPN.  Was pretty simple.  Hope its similar.

    Thanks.

  •  07-02-2008, 5:34 AM 271302 in reply to 271259

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    Since all you really want to do is secure file transfers, a VPN is an overkill.

    The easiest way would be to use a self signed certificate to setup a web server using SSL. This is very easy to do in Vista and your files would be password protected and use the same security sites like Paypal and Bank America use to secure Internet Banking.

    Ben
    How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
    Engadget HD
  •  07-04-2008, 8:25 PM 271956 in reply to 271302

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    bjdraw:
    Since all you really want to do is secure file transfers, a VPN is an overkill.

    The easiest way would be to use a self signed certificate to setup a web server using SSL. This is very easy to do in Vista and your files would be password protected and use the same security sites like Paypal and Bank America use to secure Internet Banking.

    Hi,

    Thanks, but that is not really suitable for what i had in mind.

    What i will be doing is to setup a network drive and have Media Center monitor that drive.  This way we can all share files on our HTPC's within VMC without otherwise first having to email and copy to correct locations.  Usage will be easy because we all can just drag and drop files into the network drive.

  •  07-04-2008, 8:47 PM 271961 in reply to 271956

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    You can drag and drop web folders too, but anyhoo.

    Just configure an IPSEC connection between the two machines for SMB sharing. The help included with windows should be enough for you to figure it out.

    No need for a full VPN tunnel if you only need file sharing. It's much easier to secure one connection with IPSEC then to create entire tunnel. If you do want to do more, than look into L2TP which uses IPSEC to create a tunnel.

    Ben
    How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
    Engadget HD
  •  07-04-2008, 8:58 PM 271962 in reply to 271961

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    bjdraw:
    You can drag and drop web folders too, but anyhoo.

    Just configure an IPSEC connection between the two machines for SMB sharing. The help included with windows should be enough for you to figure it out.

    No need for a full VPN tunnel if you only need file sharing. It's much easier to secure one connection with IPSEC then to create entire tunnel. If you do want to do more, than look into L2TP which uses IPSEC to create a tunnel.

    Before we even get into that, what sort of network connection are you working with?  Unless you have FIOS or another high speed provider, and plenty of upload speed, it's going to take forever  for the family members to actually be able to play back the videos, especially if more than one person at a time is connecting to your network.

    Now if you are dealing with say 2-20Mbps upload speeds then you can start looking at ipsec, or setting up a VPN.

    -D

  •  07-05-2008, 1:41 PM 272058 in reply to 271962

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    dravor:

    bjdraw:
    You can drag and drop web folders too, but anyhoo.

    Just configure an IPSEC connection between the two machines for SMB sharing. The help included with windows should be enough for you to figure it out.

    No need for a full VPN tunnel if you only need file sharing. It's much easier to secure one connection with IPSEC then to create entire tunnel. If you do want to do more, than look into L2TP which uses IPSEC to create a tunnel.

    Before we even get into that, what sort of network connection are you working with?  Unless you have FIOS or another high speed provider, and plenty of upload speed, it's going to take forever  for the family members to actually be able to play back the videos, especially if more than one person at a time is connecting to your network.

    Now if you are dealing with say 2-20Mbps upload speeds then you can start looking at ipsec, or setting up a VPN.

    -D

    You must be reading my mind...  I was just thinking about download speed.  I hadn't considered that before.

    I do not have a fast upload speed from my home connection.  I only get 1mb/sec at the most and only in bursts.  That could be a big problem especially because i wanted to stream the home movies from my computer.  Also some home movies are HD resolution, which would definately need more than 1mb a second, i would think, right?

    Yes i was thinking about having my own dedicated website with the files connected by a network drive.  This may work because i get about 2-10bm/sec from my website.  But i do not know how to set this up without using login details.  I would like this to be monitored by VMC and i don't think that's possible with login restrictions...?

  •  07-05-2008, 2:17 PM 272063 in reply to 272058

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    dbacs:
    my mind...  I was just thinking about upload speed.  I hadn't considered that before.

    I do not have a fast upload speed from my home connection.  I only get 1mb/sec at the most and only in bursts.  That could be a big problem especially because i wanted to stream the home movies from my computer.  Also some home movies are HD resolution, which would definately need more than 1mb a second, i would think, right?

    Yes i was thinking about having my own dedicated website with the files connected by a network drive.  This may work because i get about 2-10bm/sec from my website.  But i do not know how to set this up without using login details.  I would like this to be monitored by VMC and i don't think that's possible with login restrictions...?

    Well, unless you have anything less than 2-5Mbps, I wouldn't even bother, and that's still not at DVD quality.  The only way you'd get DVD streaming is with quite a bit more bandwidth.  If they are just going to download a movie it's one thing, but most of the HD BR/HD-DVD movies I watch are I think in the 30-45Mbps range.... far below your 1Mbps burst speed.

    But even the downloads would take long at that upload speed, along with most likely bringing most of your internet traffic in your home down since most of the  upload speed will be taken, meaning your network responses will be slower as well.

    Now if you get a web site, most of the time the bandwidth is not guaranteed, and once you git you bandwith cap, then your site is down for the rest of the money unless you pay for more bandwidth.

    You could also get a web site where bandwidth is paid for 95th percentile rating.  Meaning you get charged depending on the 95th percentile of usage.

    Even with those connections, most likely your going to need to encode the video into something that isn't as big and can stream easier.

    -D

  •  07-05-2008, 4:10 PM 272082 in reply to 272063

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    Do you use Netflix at all?  I use the watch now feature and there is a category for blu-ray.  Is this not really blu-ray, because i'm sure i don't get 30mbs download speeds from netflix.

    The website i have does charge by bandwidth usage.  But even if i use a website to share this still depends on the other persons download speeds right?  Well i guess that wouldn't be too bad as everyone but me has Fios.   Poor me. :(

  •  07-07-2008, 8:45 AM 272461 in reply to 272082

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    What about something like webguide?

    http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/

    Vista Ultimate x86, MSI K9AGM3-FIH(onboard HDMI with ATI X1250 GPU), Athlon X2 4000 Dual Core CPU, 2GB RAM, Hauppauge USB TD, Freecom DVB-T USB which still doesn't work properly
  •  07-07-2008, 11:57 AM 272539 in reply to 272461

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    peeky1323:
    What about something like webguide?

    http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/

    Hi,

    Thanks for the idea.  I never new webguide looked the way it does.  It has a very nice interface.

    But its not a matter of not being able to do it anymore, its just a matter of bandwidth from my internet connection.  I can setup a VPN and network drive no problem, but as mentioned above, i don't have the bandwidth to support it, unless i put it on my website.

  •  07-07-2008, 12:45 PM 272555 in reply to 272539

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    Orb will do this just fine.  It will also stream your content based on your available bandwidth.
  •  07-07-2008, 12:49 PM 272557 in reply to 272539

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    how about using a video sharing service like Flickr, or Vimeo where you can password protect them so that you can setup who and only who you want to view the videos.

    Fixes the bandwidth issue, and having to setup VPN and such and trying to teach them how to use a complicated setup like VPN.

    - Josh

    My Blog: MN Maven
  •  07-07-2008, 10:00 PM 272768 in reply to 272557

    Re: How to setup a VPN and network drive for sharing over internet?

    Ok thanks everyone, i'll look into and try the suggestions.
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