How to share a folder through internet

Question

Dear All,
I am trying to access my office files from home. I will appreciate if anyone can help me please?
My server in the office is Mac OS X Server ver 10.3.9 we have a shared folder call "Shared Files" we can access it locally but I want to access it through the internet.
1. which port I should open on our office router?
2. How should I configure the server to access the shared folder from outside?
Thanks
Tiger07

Answer 1

There are various tunneling schemes in use, and two of the most common are PPTP and L2TP.
Your particular corporate firewall probably has one or both.
Microsoft Windows has VPN capabilities, either as an integrated or as add-on capability. Different organizations can prefer different solutions here, too. Check with [Microsoft|http://www.microsoft.com] for details and options for that operating system platform (I just don't follow Microsoft Windows security tools anymore) and with your IT staff.
Mac OS X client contains VPN client capabilities. For both PPTP and L2TP.
As for which you need or want here, that's as much a question of the capabilities of the firewall here and with which of these works best with the Windows XP box; with what actually works in this case. It is common for a corporate network to have an external firewall, and an IT staff can have specific preferences here. And some firewalls can have odd setups or incompatibilities. Check with whomever is providing your IT support, as a start.
If you are providing IT support here, you're going to have to provide details of the corporate network set-up here including the model identification of the firewall device. And please also do some research on Microsoft Windows XP for this question and on VPNs in general and on your specific corporate firewall, as a start; you own some sensitive data, and poking holes through a firewall is a bad idea. And a server security breach (and I've cleaned up a few of these) is a hassle. You need to know how this stuff works here, or you need to get some escalation help available to you; [here is a summary of various network pieces|http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/275] that can be involved in your network.