After several attempts over the last eight years, I finally sorted out and set up remote login to our home server here at IdiotCentral. To begin, I set up rules for AFP (Apple File Protocol) port forwarding on our FIOS router and created an account at DYNDNS.org. Back in the day their setup was ridiculously obtuse and there was no real good way to confirm things were correctly configured, but things have gotten a little easier. Now, they provide a couple of handy tools to test connectivity and open ports from outside one’s local network, which is a huge help. Once I’d set up the account and tested the open ports, I used a VNC account on a client’s machine to test the connection, and presto! I mounted my drive from their machine.

The next step was to shut down all open ports except for SSH (secure shell) to tunnel AFP and VNC using a method I found here. On first test from work this morning, It didn’t work, but that was because I’d set up one of the port forwarding rules up incorrectly. It’s now working correctly, and I’m connected remotely via SSH, which makes me very happy. Welcome to the new century!

In the future, what I’d really like is a copy of Leopard Server so I could set up proper share points and define users and groups, all of which would add layers of security to the existing setup. For now, what I may do is use the router’s built-in scheduling to close everything down after business hours so the port is only open for a short while.