I have a lot of large files I want to share with a client. I have dropbox but I've got about 150gb of data and would like to save time not uploading and syncing all of it.
Can I set up a folder on my Mac to be shared directly with my client to access the files remotely?
thx
Comments
I would recommend buying an SSD such as the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MZ-7TD250BW-Series-Solid-2-5-Inch/dp/B009NHAEXE
http://www.amazon.com/External-Enclosure-SATA-III-Tool-free-Installation/dp/B005B5G4S6
Then mail it with an insured mail service. You can also use a cheap $50 HDD but it can get damaged when it's knocked around. Blu-Ray is another option but SSD/HDD is easier and they'll just mail it back to you.
Remote direct sharing would normally use your external IP address, which might change over time and transfers of large files can fail mid-transfer. P2P software would allow you to do it and resumes file transfers but like I say, it could take many days to transfer 150GB.
Is there an easy way to share a folder though?
I'm in London, client is in NYC and rather not mail a drive, guess I'll tell him to expect the files sometime Monday which is ok.
If you go into system prefs and sharing, then click file sharing, that will allow you to add a folder to share. You'd then add a new person allowed access and set a password - probably best to set the folder read-only. In options, you can enable AFP and SMB. SMB is for Windows clients. Once that is setup, the person in NYC should just have to connect to your IP. Generally you'll be on an internal network so you'd have to forward the right ports to your internal IP on your routers - some routers have a DMZ setting, which can easily forward traffic to your internal IP.
Setting up a VPN is another option:
http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/os-x/how-to-use-vpn-on-your-mac/
If the computer in NYC connected to a VPN server you hosted, it would see it as a local machine but you still have to get the external network to see your machine so some router config will be needed. Just using File Sharing is the easier route.
If you type ip into Google, it will tell you what your public IP address is. That's what to give to the client in NYC along with the details of the user you setup in Sharing. Once you've configured your network so that your computer is accessible from the internet, they'd just access it using the public IP. If they're on a Mac, they can use the Finder > Go > Connect to Server. Then they'd type in something like afp://ip where they'd enter your public IP. Then they'd enter the username and password of the new user you setup in the sharing panel. That should mount the folder on their machine and they can copy from it. If they are on Windows, they'd access it via SMB.