File Sharing ?s

I was setting up a second mac, and a printer on my wireless network, which is also shared by a pc, when I discovered "Personal Web Sharing" through apache or whatever it's called. I had a few questions about that, and about security.

Ok, so it looks like right now, to access files over the internet, you would have the following:

http://IPADDRESS/~username/filename.extension

1. Is there any way to change the IPADDRESS part to something different?
2. Does it have to have the ~username part?
3. Can the files be anywhere on my computer, or do I have to put them in a certain directory? If they can be anywhere, what do I have to change in the address?
4. Will this give other people unprotected access to my computer?if it does, how do I protect myself?
5. Is there any way to password protect these files?
6. Would it be possible to set up some sort of "drop box" over the internet, where I could place files through this to the computer?
7. It says that one can view one's computers webpage at http://IPADDRESS/, what is the difference between this and the beforementioned address? Is it possible to modify what is shown on this page? How do I access files/put webpages up off of this, if it is possible?
8. What other things should I be wary of, or should I know about with this? Are there any other benefits beyond file sharing/web hosting?

Thanks!

1. You can get purchase a DNS server to point to your IP address
2. Yes
3. They have to be in the Sites directory
4. If you are not behind a router then anybody can access the files in the directory. To remain safe don't put any files you want people to see in the Public directory, don't post your IP address on message boards etc and don't change any read/write access abilities within OS X
5. I think there is a third party program but not positive (It might even be in Tiger but I don't remember)
6. You can access your computer through FTP by enabling that
7. I forget what the difference is between the Computer's site and your usernames site.
9. I only use when I am in school to host a small site for on campus stuff since it can only be viewed on campus and I don't have to worry about anybody else accessing it. If you are behind a router it is a pain to set it up for outside access

trpnmonkey41 said:

If you are behind a router it is a pain to set it up for outside access

Click to expand...

Just to further Trp's comments. Most ISP's block incomming port 80 from coming into your machine. To get it to broadcast out is really a pain. If you do get motivated you have to do the following....

1) Modify your apache file httpd.conf to have the webserver run on a different none blocked port. (When I turn mine on its 21000). This now causes a chain reaction, because locally you can no longer access via http://localipaddress/~username... you must now access it via http://localipaddress:portnumber/~username.

2) You must have your router set to dynamically forward the port (ie 21000) to your mac's local ip address.

3) People accessing your site from the outside will have to type in your actual ISP IP address so it would be http://ispipaddress:21000/~username

*** Note even if you do successfully do this, if your ISP - especially Cable - scans your modem and detects heavy uploading, there is a chance you can get capped. So be mindful. If setting up an web server really interests you, I would recomend spening a couple bucks a month for a hosting plan. ***