Connect two Mac's on oppsite sides of the country with "connect to server"

Question

I work in a recording studio and we have a small network setup which allows us to share hard drives (sound fx libraries, etc...) and transfer files back and forth. This is done with a simple "connect to server" using an IP address. I am moving out of state but will still be working for the same company and I need to setup a similar connection for sharing files. Ive tried to test this off-site several times but it always times out. How can I set this up? Can't find anything on google (probably searching the wrong things)...

Answer 1

First, I want to say you must make sure you know which computer is doing the connecting, and which computer is receiving that connection. The computer you choose "Connect To Server" on is the one sending a connection request. The computer on which you go into SystemPreferences, Sharing and turn on your AFP sharing or FTP will accept the connection and needs to be accessible from the internet-at-large.
Keep in mind it will also be able to accept connections from anyone, and that may pose security risks. Keep passwords secure, and you could also ensure that your firewall accepts connections only from you. That's a highly paranoid move and you should only do it if you know what you're doing, because it's easy to break things.
All of the above posts are assuming that your computers are behind a router on what's called a private network. A quick layman's way to find out if you're on such a network is to open the System Preferences and view Network. Look at the IP address and if it's any of these, you're on a private network.
10.any.any.any
172.{16-31}.any.any
192.168.any.any
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network
It's usually the last of these which routers hand out. Any other IP addresses on the machine you're trying to connect to Think of these private networks as not actually being on the internet. Your router handles the task of granting access to all of the computers on the network access to anything that lies outside the network, which is the internet. It fools the internet-at-large into believing there is only one computer at your address, and merging all requests for data into one, then correctly passing all the returned data to whichever computer in your home or office asked for it.
*Your router denies all requests for data at your home or office unless you set up "Port Forwarding* This includes attempting to connect to Personal Web Sharing, File Sharing, Printer Sharing, and, well... everything.
In order to allow anyone connecting into your network to fileshare with a given computer, you must configure the router. This is usually done with a web browser pointed at the router's address from a computer inside the network. You can find that router's address in System Preferences, Network. You will need the login and password, which may still be the default, and will depend entirely on which brand your router is.
Every router brand is different, and will have slightly different terms and instructions on how to configure your port forwarding. It might not even be called Port Forwarding. For example mine calls it "Virtual Server". Google search your router brand and model and you'll easily find some directions on how to do this.
The above posters have given you their opinions on which ports to forward. Keep in mind that you can only do this to one computer. If you want to do it to a second computer, here's how it will go:
The second computer will still listen on the same port. The router will accept connections on a different port, but will pass along the request at the port the second computer is listening on.
Example.
public port 6000 send to private server: 192.168.0.12 private port 427
Again these terms can be called something different depending on which brand your router is.
You will "Connect to Server" like this.
afp://YourofficenetworkIP:6000
If you want to tunnel through SSH that may require you to use different ports, but the procedure is the same.