Time Machine over the internet

[MarkStokes]

Hey guys.

Is it possible to have Time Machine work over the internet?

I have a MacBook Pro for work and am often away on client sites, but have network connection. Can I set it up so that when I am connected outside my home the backup still works sending data back to my home network?

Obviously it would need to manage the process so that tons of data isn't flying backwards and forwards, but it could do a full backup when I am at home and then just stream changes over the net when I am away from home.

Is this possible?

Thanks

Mark

[drewling390]

Hey Mark,

I was just able to do this using SSH and Remote Login. My recent post goes into this discussion a bit at:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=112396.

I used MacFuse Core available on google and MacFusion to mount my disk remotely. I did a complete backup via firewire, hooked it up to my parents' computer and mounted it over the internet. Luckily, Time Machine recognizes it (given that the mounted drive has the same name as it did before) and backs it up over the internet. Cool isn't it?

I'm very new to this stuff as you may have seen from my post. Let me know what level you're on and I can give you more info to help you out.

[drewling390]

Scratch some of that. Time Machine is recognizing the drive, but Time Machine backups are failing over the internet. I'll keep working on it. Let me know if you make any progress.

[MarkStokes]

Scratch some of that. Time Machine is recognizing the drive, but Time Machine backups are failing over the internet. I'll keep working on it. Let me know if you make any progress.

Hey buddy.

Thanks for the reply.... it sounds like you have made a good start on this. I will wait with baited breath, and as soon as I get my Time Capsule I'll give it a go. It wold be REALLY nice to have my machine backing up all the time I am connected to the net. I guess the incremental backups wouldn't use too much bandwidth once the full backup is made at home.

Keep me posted on your progress.

Mark

[MarkStokes]

Hey,

Did you ever make any progress on getting this working?

Mark

[CrazyCleave]

Hey guys,

I realize this is a pretty stale link, but since it came up first in the Google returns, I thought I would post my setup here.

I have a MacBook Pro 13" Unibody. I first setup TimeMachine to backup to a 4TB Drobo which is connected to my iMac over my home network (WiFi). When I next used the Macbook from a clients office, I noticed the TimeMachine icon moving in the menu bar. I didn't even realize this would work until I saw the icon spinning. I thought maybe it was trying to backup, and just not generating an error, but no; it was actually backing up to the iMac at my home over the Internet. Even cooler, I was able to launch Time Machine and Restore over the Internet. Although, this procedure was pretty sluggish.

Since this kind of fell into my lap, I don't really have any "setup" details but I do want to list some other things that seem to impact this feature:

I have an Airport Extreme Router at my home
I have a MobileMe account
I also have entered my MobileMe account information into the Airport Extreme router.
I have "Back to my Mac" activated and working on the iMac at home (where the TimeMachine backups live)
I have noticed, if the iMac isn't visible in the sidebar (when I'm behind some routers, Back to my Mac doesn't work); TimeMachine doesn't work either.

Hope this helps.

CC

[McBie]

...... Hope this helps.

CC

In terms of concept .... definitely .... you got me thinking.

Would be good to understand the actual configuration settings ( or components ) that are required to make it work end to end.

Cheers ... McBie

[MarkStokes]

Hi,

This is a very old thread that I never really got working.

Your post has inspired me to give it another go.

Mark

[mattbee]

I finally wrote a guide to backing up OS X to a cloud server, i.e. so the backup destination isn't your own device, but a rented server. That has some advantages of (probably) being more reliable than a server behind your home broadband, but might cost a bit more. But it does work for my wife's Mac, even over our crummy 1Mbps upstream bandwidth.

If you're looking to set up access to a device at home, you *need* to set up a VPN for it to work securely. So over on the Apple forums someone asks about how to do it with a Synology DiskStation which does support it. But OS X supports quite a few VPN options, and my guide recommends and illustrates the "Cisco IPSec" one, which you can set up on a cloud server or Synology.

So it does work, securely, and even over a reasonably low-bandwidth link if you're patient.

[IWT]

@mattbee,

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

Thank you for your post.

As this is a very old thread, it would probably attract more attention if you posted to a completely new Thread; perhaps mentioning what prompted you to research this and then your findings?

Ian