Networking two machines - over internet connection

[tomlangford]

I would like to share files with my friend who lives about 1 mile away.

We both have broadband connections and are using xp home. please could you tell me how to do this.

cheers in advance
tom.

 

[JohnWill]

I'd consider installing an FTP server on one or both machines. It'll allow you to share files, yet not get into the difficulty of getting VPN working between them.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Actually if you have XP Home, I didn't think you can have a VPN server anyway. Only the Pro Version.

 

[JohnWill]

You can't use Microsoft's VPN client, but there are 3rd party solutions. However, for simple file sharing, it's way too complicated for such a simple task.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Even though he can't MS's VPN use it due to OS restrictions, it really isn't that difficult to configure either the server or workstation.

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn_server.htm
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_vpn.htm

Lots of folks have e-mailed thinking it was going to be a pain and then realizing how simple it was once they saw all the instructions with the screenshots along the way.

 

[JohnWill]

Good tutorial on XP's VPN, I confess to having never used it. When I used VPN, it was a more complicated affair, seems that wouldn't be all that difficult. Of course, I don't know how well it works after the setup...

 

[Bob Cerelli]

It's been pretty easy to set up a VPN since NT4 as far as the server. The clients have always been fairly simple as well.

It works great once it is set up. The advantage is that you see the VPN server just like another drive on the network. If it is configured correctly, yo you can even browse to other computers on the network. This way you can work on documents immediately. You don't need to keep manually connecting a FTP client, transferring the file, working in the file and then manually transferring it back again.

 

[Matrix28]

If you share the folder it will be accessible from \\$IP\ but would obviously cause security problems so remove the guest account and give him and account of your machine. It will prompt him to login.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

You should need to do any of that for a VPN connection. All remote access would only be allowed if there is the user account and password defined at both ends. In fact the user at the VPN server needs to be give explicit rights for the remote access. Not even all defined users can set this up.

The guest account should always be disabled and don't see where anything was mentioned about it.