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Ask HN: How do I share a hard drive with my friend?

by Fifer82 on 4/18/20, 8:32 PM with 16 comments

Hi HN.

I have over the years ended up with a bunch of old windows systems and ended up with a network which is great.

I want to also enjoy these benefits outside of my home with a friend. Over the years I have collected dozens of physics toy tech demos and i'd like to share my drive. It's a mess of zips, dlls, and all sorts.

I don't want to use a service. I want him to go to like "Fifer82" and just see a windows explorer disk without all of the garbage of say torrents, file sharing services, individually sharing file-by-file via some attachment system.

As I ask this question, I don't know if I am stupid, since Dropbox, IRC or just whatever.... begs to suggest that there is no way to do what I want, but then the question is, why??

If I know someones network somewhere else outside my home, can't I just "let them at it" through standard windows mechanisms?

Thank you.

  • by simonblack on 4/19/20, 3:13 AM

    'sshfs' would do the trick, if I am understanding what you seem to be saying. (WinSCP, IIRC, if you're using Windows.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSHFS

    Executable script that I use - (actual names replaced)

        #!/bin/bash
    # mount remote directory on local machine
    #
    
    RDIR=$1
    MOUNTPOINT=my_local_mountpoint_folder
    USER=username_on_remote_server
    REMOTE_HOST=remote_servers_name
    
    if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
            echo -e "\nMounting remote home directory. If other remote directory"
            echo -e "desired, usage is $0 <absolute or relative directory-name>\n"
    fi
    
    #
    sshfs ${USER}@${REMOTE_HOST}:$RDIR $MOUNTPOINT

  • by Nextgrid on 4/19/20, 3:51 AM

    Get two routers capable of acting like an IKEv2 VPN server & client. Set yours up to act as a server and his as a client, make sure the internal IP addresses don’t overlap (if yours is at 192.168.0.x, his should be at 192.168.1.x). Once the two networks are reachable from either side you can access a shared folder by typing the computer’s IP in Windows Explorer like “\\192.168.0.1” (name discovery might not work as I believe that works via layer 2 and IKEv2 is layer 3).

  • by SStanley on 4/18/20, 8:37 PM

    I do not know if I did understand clearly but, I was thinking about that for a startup idea, I think is definitively possible.

    There is way to have a hard disk on your wifi and get it from an app but only for video/photo. And there is a way to connect to a distant linux/window server.

    I think it my be possible, but need some technical skill more than juste website development

  • by hedora on 4/19/20, 3:51 AM

    I think this will solve your problem:

    https://www.zerotier.com/

    It should be able to up a VPN bridge between your LAN and your friend’s LAN. (Or, at least a “LAN” between two machines.)

  • by new_guy on 4/18/20, 8:58 PM

    You could use something like TeamViewer, set up a separate box (important!) with the files you want to share, then let him have at it! Just be aware that opening up your network (even to friends) is a security risk.

  • by throwaway888abc on 4/18/20, 9:17 PM

  • by rolph on 4/18/20, 9:23 PM

    my scheme is this:

    subnet a router; place a webdav capable server on one of the subnets; port forward request at the wan side of the router to the server. you will need a static public IP or else, update the public IP to a domain name [DNS]

    the effect is someone can go to your server using a browser that can "speak" webdav

    the subnetting is for security if you share the router with the rest of your network, or you can just use a dedicated router for your server to live in.

  • by SStanley on 4/18/20, 9:06 PM

    The real question is: do you want just to let someone get into your computer or create a service to make that happen easily?

  • by flatfilefan on 4/18/20, 10:05 PM

    What about an Explorer-like GUI SFTP client?

  • by mikst on 4/18/20, 10:23 PM

    mm.. RDP?