Re: Synching deeply nested directories Debian Server - Win XP
On Wednesday 07 December 2005 18:00, Debian Users wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am using a Win XP feature called "Offline Files", which is basically
> like having a replica of files which are orginally on a network drive and
> letting XP decide whether to work on the local replica or the actual
> network files. The user doesn't notice the difference. After reconnecting
> to the server, the files are synchronized automatically using built-in XP
> software. Actually, this works fantastically stable (thumbs up for MS in
> this case). The network version of the files are living on a Debian
> server, accessed from several XP machines via SMB shares.
>
> Now for the interesting thing: our network does not allow SMB access from
> outside (its the universiy's policy, I cannot change that): SMB ports are
> blocked. I still would like to synchronize the data on e.g. my laptop and
> the files on the server once in a while, even if not inside the server's
> network. Since I cannot easily convince XP to use other ports for SMB
> sharing (thumbs down for MS), I have to find other ways. For that end I
> tried "unison" via ssh (available on Windows and Debian), but had to give
> up because of the "long path name bug" in unison (or probably in OCAML).
>
> Are there any other otions I could try? It seems that ssh is really the
> only access to the server, so which options remain? Would setting up a
> VPN help? Would I need admin power over the server's network for this to
> work (which I have not)? I could also boot the remote box (e.g. my
> laptop) into Debian, and synch from there if that would help.
>
> I have read about tunneling the SMB traffic through an ssh tunnel, but
> that would also mean turning off the usual network browsing of the remote
> Windows box, which is cumbersome at least.
>
No, it wouldn't. Using your laptop, use putty to port forward the windows
share port on your machine to the windows (samba) share port on your
server. Then, when you attempt to connect to a windows share from your
laptop, you'll actually connect to the windows share of the server,
tunneled through SSH. The port forwarding will not affect the other
windows machines inside the network, but will prevent your laptop from
viewing the shares on whatever network it's on until the forwarding is
ended.
> Any help greatly appreciated,
>
> Stefan
Hope that helps,
Justin Guerin
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