questions about mounting a remote folder

[Gary Dusbabek]

On 1/15/07, Hill, Greg <grhill at corp.untd.com> wrote:
> I would like to set up a shared folder on my server that both my wife
> and her parents can access remotely to send files back and forth.
> Ideally, it would just be mounted as a folder on their hard drives that
> would prompt them for a login and be secure.  They both use OS:X.  Her
> parents have a .mac account, but it's been a huge pain for them to use
> the remote storage capabilities of that (it gets out of sync and one
> can't see the files from the other).  So far, these are the ways I know
> of:
>
> 1. Create a samba share on the server, and treat it like a windows
> share.  How good is that for security?  I would think not very good, but
> maybe Samba is more secure than I realize.  Anyway, I'd prefer something
> less Windows-esque, which lead me to research #2.
>
> 2. sshfs and FUSE.  Apparently they just released a FUSE implementation
> for OS:X, so I should be able to use sshfs to mount the folder.   For
> those who don't know, sshfs is a FUSE implementation that uses SCP
> underneath to transfer files securely.  Only the clients need sshfs, as
> the server will just think it's an SCP connection coming in. Technically
> ideal, but implementing this will be a huge pain, as her parents live
> far away (and I doubt I could explain this to them in an email).
>
>
>
> There's gotta be an easier way, right?
>

There is always FTP.  The OS X finder can mount an FTP connection and
show it in the finder the same as if it was SMB or AFP.

Do it by Cmd+K, then key in the URL (ftp://your.server.here).  You can
make this part of startup using NetInfo (it's been a long time, I
forget exactly how).

This is probably about as secure as your Samba option above though.