MR Fusion

Myself and a neighbour want to network our PCs over the Internet as we're constantly swapping data on CDRs and it's becoming a pain.

Both of us are using Windows XP Home, and have static IP addresses.

The aim is to have a folder on my machine that he can access, and vice versa.

One of the techie chaps at work mentioned something about using VPN. Can we do with with XP Home out-of-the-box, or is some extra software required for this?

sti555

best, cheapest & fastest connection is for you & your neighbour to buy wireless network cards & an access point..

Otherwise using vpn, you connection will be very slow even on broadband connections... & will tie up your internet connection

You will get 54mpb/s with a transfer rate about 25mb/s between pc's, plenty fast enough for what you want.

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

You could just share out the windows folder - but use something like ZoneAlarm to add your friends IP address as "trusted". Whereas eveyone else on the Internet is untrusted.

This way you can easily use the standard Windows folder sharing (ie, network shares) mechanism

ozzy

XP has a VPN client built-in. It's designed to connect to a VPN server, not another VPN cllient. If you had broadband routers with VPN functionality, then you could do it.

You could use free FTP client/server software to achieve the same thing and just use a personal firewall (like ZoneAlarm) to only allow your neighbour to connect to you. He/she could do the same thing on their PC.

If they're right next door, what about an extra long RJ45 cable

Stefan

jason4656

i dont think you will be able to share the folders to an external ip address. FTP would be very slow as well as vpn, I would suggest same as sti555 wireless access point, but then again its depending on your house structure and just how close you really are. I always prefer hard cabling myself

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

You can share windows folders over the net - why do you think so many articles tell you to turn off sharing or run a firewall to prevent access?

All you do in explorer is type \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\shared folder

sti555

remember sharing over the net by IP or using ftp is pointless on dynamic ip isp accounts..

Go for my original post.. perhaps share you internet connection too!, increase you bandwith & split the cost..

I share my connection with the neighbours, I just use access point with wep activated & mac filtering

BMWhere?

Does XP home have IIS (or whatever they re-named it to lately). I know XP-pro and Win 2K has it. You can use this to set up a web and FTP server on your PC and serve a single domain/IP address. You can password protect FTP so only your neighbour can access.

ozzy

Why would FTP be very slow? It's fast enough when I ftp over our office VPN. It's also fast enough over a LAN connection. At least you can see progress of a transfer and use resume if it gets disconnected.

As Mr Fusion originally said

So, it's not pointless.

Stefan

jason4656

i would think if they have different isps then the ftp would only be as fast as the fastest upload allowed, probably 256k so like 30kbps uploads ? not very fast for sharing files

BMWhere?

If you have broadband then most decent routers will automatically reconnect and re-register your IP address against a domain name if your ISP disconnects you! So variable IP address shouldn't be a problem if you have broadband!

MR Fusion

Thanks guys - you've given me a couple of things to be getting on with this weekend, then!

We tried the wireless route before as I'm already 'wirelessed-up' here, but our houses are too far apart for a connection due to the layout of the road; there are too many objects in the way.

I'll try the FTP route, but I quite fancied just mapping to one of his drives automatically or on demand.

sti555

ozzy,

over a 10/100 lan you will be getting a far higher transfer rate either through ftp or vpn than on a a broadband connection..

So pointless..in comparison, especially considering the size of files being shared..

IIS is not bundling with home, however there are plenty of free FTP servers on the net..

Why not consider expanding your wirless range,

take a look at the antenna's available here
d-link Tt
this is the only viable option for decent transfer rates

hope that helps

MR Fusion

I do have plans for an external aerial for my wireless setup - probably a directional jobbie that points straight at my neighbour's house - but my budget for everything has just been wiped out buying a new (well, second-hand) Impreza!

I'm trying to do the house-to-house link on the cheap; well...for free really!

Good link for the aerial, though - thanks Sti555.

sti555

ozzy

Which is why I suggested FTP. It's easy and cheap (completely free). The question is whether the bandwidth from broadband is good enough for what you want to do. If it is, then there's loads of options. If not, then an extension to your LAN is the way to go as Sti555 suggests.

I know the difference in transfer rates between LAN and Broadband - even my 12yr old sister can understand that concept

From reading your post sti555, it sounded like ftp was just slow regardless of underlying connection.

Just to point out Mr Fusion never actually mentioned just how much data they wanted to share. He only said they transfer data on CDR - not necessarily 700Mb's worth

Stefan

Tim-Grove

Been trying to do this for the past few days but just cant get it to work cant see what im doing wrong.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.c...id=1491&page=2
Used the guide from this web site and followed it to the letter. When I test it buy using my sisters computer I type in my IP address e.g. ftp://192.168.2.** it asks me fro the user name/password but as I haven’t set one up I click the log on anonymously it wont let me in. Cant see what im doing wrong

ozzy

Is anonymous access allowed on the FTP server? Try logging in as the default sysadmin account.

Stefan

Avi

What about Cat5 Cabling if there are no roads involved?

Scoobs_4ever

Pigeons are good, eco friendly and organic. I think you can even get a grant from your council.

[gets coat]

MR Fusion

Pigeons would be great, but I'm not sure of their data storage capabilities!

Our houses are on different sides of the road to each other, with my neighbour also being round a corner - new estates have weird house and road layouts. One drunken night we did try and work out if we could drag Cat 5 cabling from one house to the other...made me grin the next morning!

Edcase

http://www.vpnlabs.com/