This seminar covers different mechanisms to view and move files to remote locations.

There's a nice write-up already available on our site: FrequentlyAskedQuestionsFAQ#Remote_Access

Linux

• Graphical Interface (GUI) VS Command Line VS Web Apps

Finding Your Files

• Dolphin (file manager) has a search box (Nepomuk/Strigi)
• the "find" command

find /home/username -size +1M
find ~/ -cmin -200
find . -name "*couth*"

Accessing Your Files Remotely

• Dolphin: fish, sftp, smb (requires Vanderbilt IP address)

fish://username@ipaddress

• ssh, scp

ssh [-X] username@ipaddress
scp -r folder username@ipaddress:.
scp -r username@ipaddress:folder .

More Permanent Solutions

• Use bookmarks (Dolphin, Kate) or Network Folder Wizard (Dolphin)
• Mounting: sshfs, samba

sshfs username@ipaddress:/home/username mysharename
fusermount -u mysharename

Transferring Files to Others

• CD, DVD, USB, email, etc
• Shared workspace, on servers or web sites like our Wiki or Dropbox
• Data-Hippo: https://data.vanderbilt.edu/data-hippo/
• Accellion: https://accellion.mc.vanderbilt.edu/courier/

Sharing Your Desktop (with yourself)

• neatx-server: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeNX
• nx-client: http://www.nomachine.com/

Sharing Your Desktop (with others)

It's probably rare that you'd actually want to share your desktop with someone else, but it could be useful for collaboration.

• krfb - create an invitation
• krdc - remote desktop application, also works great to access a Windows desktop

Windows stuff

Let's say you are at home and you discover that you need some files that are on your Linux computer at work. What tools might you use to get those files? Let's also assume that the only computer you have available is that Windows laptop that you've been meaning to convert to Linux. What can you do? The answer has a lot to do with how much preparation you have done.

First, a prerequisite...many of the connectivity methods discussed below require that we run virtual private network software and make a VPN connection to the Vanderbilt network.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A virtual private network (VPN) encapsulates data transfers between two or more networked devices not on the same private network so as to keep the transferred data private from other devices on one or more intervening local or wide area networks (Wikipedia definition). In our case, the VPN makes it seem as if our home computer is physically located in the Vanderbilt network and inside the Vanderbilt firewalls. This allows us to make any kind of connectivity from our home computer to services and devices at Vanderbilt.

Note that computers using a wireless connection also need to make a VPN connection before they can connect to shared directories or use network printers. This is true even if you are on the Vanderbilt campus.

The VUMC VPN link is https://vpn.mc.vanderbilt.edu.

Next, a reminder...please be very careful about private and sensitive data. See the Encryption Tools For Workstations page for some information and links about policy and procedures concerning private information. The bottom line is that you are responsible for protecting private information. If you keep private information on a laptop, flash drive, or some other device that is easily lost or stolen then Vanderbilt requires that it be encrypted. If such a device is lost and contains unencrypted private information then that fact must be reported to federal authorities.

The best solution is to not store private information. There is almost never any reason to keep names, addresses, medical record numbers, etc. on our computers.

public transportation (or your car) and flash drive

Seriously - just get out of the house once in a while.

putty and WinSCP

For quick and easy command line access to your office computer, you can't beat putty. There is nothing to install; you just download the executable to the desktop (from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) and run it. All you need to know is your desktop's IP address. Since putty uses commonly open ports, VPN is not needed.

Similarly, WinSCP (see http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) is a very simple tool for moving files back and forth between two computers. Again, you need to know your office computer's IP address and VPN is not needed.

mount your workstation's home share and copy

In our typical workstation setup, the home directory is "shared" so that it can be accessed by other computers. The directory sharing is enabled by a product called Samba (the standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix). To connect to your share, you will need to make a VPN connection first and you'll need to know your office computer's hostname or IP address.

fire up your freenx client and do everything on your workstation

See the FAQ for remote access for details.

NX is a technology for remote display. The NX "server" runs on your office computer and the "client" on your laptop or desktop computer at home. NX allows us to interact with the server computer as if we are actually sitting at that computer and using its monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

A VPN connection is not needed.

-- ColeBeck - 21 Jun 2010