Can I share a folder over the net as if it were my LAN?

frogs · 02 May 2010

Hello all.

The title doesn't make sense, as I had to abbreviate it. I was just hoping that someone could tell me whether or not there's a fairly simple way to share folders from my computer with someone else over the internet, in the same way I can share folders with other people in my workgroup/LAN. I'm familiar with software like Dropbox, but that's not really the same, and I was hoping that Windows 7 offered an inbuilt feature.

My computer and the one accessing its folders both run Windows 7, though we are obviously on different workgroups.

not so gray matter · 02 May 2010

I wouldn't do it over the open web for many reasons, most of which are security related. That's just insane. You're much better off settings up an FTP server so that you can give any internet user credentials and they can connect to a secure server where they can read/write/modify files.

There are other more user friendly options as well:

https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive

From the look of it, SkyDrive should give you what you want. It will sync your shared folder to your online account and then you can share those files/folders with whomever you want.

acurasd · 02 May 2010

There are a few ways that you can do it:

If your familar with Virtural Private Networks.. then you can set it up that way...
or
You can use a program called: Gbridge
which will allow you to set up spciifc folders to share to spcific people.