I'm pretty new to Ubuntu and I've installed and been playing with Ubuntu Server on a spare machine.
What I'm looking for is a way to access files outside of my network.
I've set up Samba and VSFTPD, but Samba only works in-network and FTP would have me download any programs or files that I'd like to modify (i.e. I can't open a picture, stream a video, or open modify and save a document).
I've heard about open-source cloud utilities, but I just want to be able to access my files through Explorer rather than going through a web interface.
Is there a way to essentially set up my own NAS on Ubuntu Server or have a program like Samba that points outward?
It's worth noting that if I connect to FTP via ES File Explorer on my phone I'm able to open files, edit them, and save them on the server itself, but Windows Explorer won't allow the same.
If you need to access Samba from the internet the best and safest way to do this is to setup a VPN server and connect to samba through it.
[QUOTE=Megalan;50168264]If you need to access Samba from the internet the best and safest way to do this is to setup a VPN server and connect to samba through it.[/QUOTE]
Sounds promising - any suggestions for good home-use VPN clients?
Use an SCP client like WinSCP and use SSH to modify/transfer files on your server. I don't see any need to have FTP or Samba configured if you've got SSH installed, if what you're after is purely managing files.
As a side note, Windows native support for FTP is very poor. It's support for Samba is okay, but not fantastic. I would seriously recommend using a third party tool to connect to your server.
[QUOTE=runtime;50168655]Use an SCP client like WinSCP and use SSH to modify/transfer files on your server. I don't see any need to have FTP or Samba configured if you've got SSH installed, if what you're after is purely managing files.
As a side note, Windows native support for FTP is very poor. It's support for Samba is okay, but not fantastic. I would seriously recommend using a third party tool to connect to your server.[/QUOTE]
+1 on SCP, and make sure you have a way to setup a static IP address.
[QUOTE=Falstad007;50168454]Sounds promising - any suggestions for good home-use VPN clients?[/QUOTE]
openvpn
[QUOTE=runtime;50168655]Use an SCP client like WinSCP and use SSH to modify/transfer files on your server. I don't see any need to have FTP or Samba configured if you've got SSH installed, if what you're after is purely managing files.
As a side note, Windows native support for FTP is very poor. It's support for Samba is okay, but not fantastic. I would seriously recommend using a third party tool to connect to your server.[/QUOTE]
And SMB as a protocol is really chatty and not very efficient for internet use, as it was designed around low latency LANs, so you will see a noticeable performance impact. I agree SSH and SCP is the best way to go.
Also you are downloading the picture over FTP first then editing it. Then when you exit the program, it uploads it back. Windows clients like Filezilla can support this and will do it over SCP, which is far more secure than FTP.
[QUOTE=Demache;50186811]And SMB as a protocol is really chatty and not very efficient for internet use, as it was designed around low latency LANs, so you will see a noticeable performance impact.[/QUOTE]
Wasn't this fixed in SMB2/3?
[QUOTE=Adam.GameDev;50186905]Wasn't this fixed in SMB2/3?[/QUOTE]
It much more improved, but from my experience, it still is pretty sluggish compared to the alternatives.
[QUOTE=Demache;50187648]It much more improved, but from my experience, it still is pretty sluggish compared to the alternatives.[/QUOTE]
Yeah SMB performance is poor all round. In network tests we saw NFS give huge boons over SMB3 on a very low latency local network. It's a shame Microsoft don't put in more native support for network filesystems - they seem to be pretty hard and fast in their SMB support. I daresay that SMB would have died a death if Microsoft had put in native NFS.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
