Remote Sharing Problems with my MacBook Pro. Please help...:)

Question

Hi all. Could really use some advice from any network pros out there.
I'll be as detailed as possible.
I am about to travel overseas for a month and wanted to setup remote access to my old G5 Dual 2.5 tower in my studio.
I found that the new OS, phones etc. have the remote management and screen sharing options so I thought I would set it up.
The first day I did it, it all worked properly and I, and my friends could all log in no problem from our phones via VNC, or computers using the 'Connect To Server' option as well as Chicken of the VNC.
I also set up my friends computer across town to do the same.
So, the next day I was fiddling with my wireless that happens to drop out every once in a while, thinking its a phone or printer interfering, but anyways, when I restarted the network, the local IP of the server computer had changed, so no problem, I went back through all of my settings and changed the IP, but then it wouldn't connect anymore. AFter 4 hours of fiddling, restarting, changing the port-forwarding etc. in the routers, I finally got it working...
Then this morning, I couldn't get it to work, and none of the IP's have changed....
Now I'm confused as it seemed to be setup fine.
My setup is as follows.
DSL modem, I have the external IP 76.166......etc.
This DSL modem connects via ethernet to a Linksys BEFSR41 Router, which then connects via ethernet to an older Airport Extreme Base Station and also a newer Airport Express.
The G5 I am running as a server is connected via Ethernet to another Airport Express in my studio which is setup to be a wireless 'remote' on a WDS network where the older Extreme Base Station is the 'main'.
Current local IPs are standard.
Base Station is 10.0.1.1
'Remote' Airport Express is 10.0.1.5
G5 'server' computer is 10.0.1.2
Linksys router is 192.168.1.1
I have logged into the Linksys router, gone to the Applications & Gaming/Port Range Forwarding section and enabled a port on 5900, both TCP and UDP, to go to the IP 192.168.1.102.
I have gone into the Airport Utility of the base station, clicked Advanced, and added the port forwarding of 5900 to local IP 10.0.1.2.
The remote management section on the Server G5 is on, with vnc password etc. all users.
When I try and access this computer using the 10.0.1.2 IP on the local network, it works fine, but when I try the external IP, I get the 'connection failed' error.
Am I missing something....?
And sorry for the long email but if you are going to help, I know you'd want all the info.
Oh, and I have repaired permissions although not sure if that helps any.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Wiz

Answer 1

What sort of videos? What are you trying to do?
We can't advise anything that violates breaking copy protection schemes or violating copyrighted material on this forum.
If your sure your not violating, then there is SnapZProX that will record anything playing on the screen into Quicktime file with sound, and there is Firefox browser with various add-ons for downloading Flash/YouTube videos and there is Transmission to download p2p files. However with that last one you really have to be extra careful the content is not a stolen copy or malware as you can be sued and/or have your machine compromised.
For safe downloading of videos, you should take a look at Netflix, for $8 a month and installing Silverlight (they will provide it) you can stream tons of videos to your browser for viewing (not copying) and see the videos again if you wish so it isn't necessary to copy them and clog up your drives with large files.
Movie videos are usually watch once and never watch again, so it's really unnecessary to store them (especially illegal copies) and clog up your machine or be paranoid having the content and possibly being sued over it.
There is also iTunes that allows rentals, but it's not as inexpensive as Netflix $8 all you can eat monthly, but it has newer titles.